Christian cyberpunk sci-fi—quite a start.
In a corporate-controlled future from which religion has been purged, inventor Troy Vincent is condemned to a virtual-reality punishment (and likely execution) over accusations that he murdered a business rival.
Farrar’s debut novel kicks off his Christian-oriented sci-fi series taking place in a 22nd-century world where, governments and political parties having failed, giant corporations control (i.e., “sponsor”) a society battered by global warming and unrest. As a result, religion has largely been suppressed—its existence is bad for business, evidently; this is not a sentiment one expects in the American evangelical realm—and criminal justice is downsized to a kind of twist on the medieval notion of trial by ordeal. The accused are placed into virtual-reality pods, where they are assailed by “demons” of their own making—bad conscience for the guilty, regret for the innocent. Demons create manifestations that effectively kill their humans, both in cyberspace and reality. Inventor Troy Vincent is condemned to a Virtual Reality Chamber on trumped-up charges he murdered Hoy SamWong, a ruthless tycoon who caused Troy’s father’s death and stole Troy’s company and his wife. Paradoxically, the beautiful Lovena Baptista, daughter of another of Hoy SamWong’s ex-partners, is also being tormented in a VRC for the identical crime. The duo’s potential savior (besides, of course, the Savior) is Vincent—a shape-shifting android devised by Troy’s father with Vincent family DNA—who is kept around by the heartless corporations as a sort of attending executioner (for some reason, the bad guys don’t anticipate this becoming a problem). Spock-like Vincent, with a crusader’s cross emblazoned on his breastplate, is a most intriguing blend of old and new. Less successful are the title entities, Grief Masters, helpful VR visitors who bear names such as Courage and Faith and appear to the embattled Troy and Lovena during their cliffhanger perils in fantasy digital environments. Are they angels? Saints? Their literalist intercessions take the narrative from cyberpunk to The Shack, although Farrar maintains a brisk and fairly exciting (holy) roller-coaster momentum throughout.
Christian cyberpunk sci-fi—quite a start.Pub Date: June 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1458214447
Page Count: 276
Publisher: AbbottPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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