by D. Ward Cornell ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 22, 2019
An intelligently envisioned manifesto for human progress despite a lack of tension.
Cornell’s debut novel, the first in a series, sees a benevolent alien ambassador take steps to unite the peoples of Earth.
Michael is an amateur astronomer living on the Big Island of Hawai’i. His accurate predictions of supernova events gain him public recognition, but he becomes much more famous when he commandeers every TV and radio set on the planet to reveal himself as an alien ambassador. It turns out that Michael represents the Ascendancy, the diplomatic branch of the Intergalactic Confederation of Planets, and has come to Earth to help humanity save itself—first, from the disastrous effects of climate change, and then from a far-distant, unnamed peril. To achieve this, he offers wondrous technology to all nations who will ally themselves with the Confederation, including machines that will provide free food and energy as well as personal security and medical treatment. The response to Michael’s announcement is telling; people who meet him personally are quickly won over, but governmental authorities are equally quick to label him a threat. What follows is a battle for the hearts and minds of various nations around the world. Can Michael break down the barriers of political and religious ideologies? Cornell constructs a simple third-person narrative that, due to its focus on diplomacy, is quite heavy with conversation. This dialogue is also repetitive in places, but there is, at least, a sense of realism in how Michael provides similar answers to similar questions. Less understandable is the characters’ sameness; Michael and his diplomatic staff, for example, are all unfailingly polite and reasonable and always quick to praise others; these attributes rub off on the humans they meet so that nearly the entire cast begins to resemble a happy, homogeneous family. To be fair, this togetherness is thematic as well as stylistic. Cornell envisages in detail how humanity could actually become unified and identifies, beneath the SF trappings of Michael’s mission, commonalities that could allow for this. There is, however, little sense of danger or even interpersonal conflict. The distant peril remains distant, and, to a degree, this is refreshing, but it won’t be to everybody’s taste.
An intelligently envisioned manifesto for human progress despite a lack of tension.Pub Date: June 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-484575-9
Page Count: 460
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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