A commendable sci-fi series launch spearheaded by a remarkable heroine.
In this debut novel, a new world power targets a woman with rare abilities.
Denver emergency room nurse Valerie Russell is shocked by her appearance one morning: The 35-year-old now looks 20. With no time to ponder the phenomenon, she leaves for a 12-hour shift at a facility two hours away. Upon her arrival, her car suddenly dies and Valerie passes out. After regaining consciousness, she guides others, who have passed out as well, to the facility. According to reports, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims an electric surge has affected people globally and wants to see those who have lost consciousness for “observation.” But Valerie’s greatest concern is her 2-year-old son, Caleb, back at home with the nanny (Valerie’s husband, Scott, is at work). Meanwhile, her father, Mike Burton, has answers to what’s transpiring. Some people have a no-longer-dormant gene that allows them to absorb electricity. Valerie belongs to a more elite group with powers capable of much more. While she races to find Caleb and Scott, formidable individuals, having anticipated the gene’s awakening, want her for her abilities. Their purpose is sinister: mass genocide of those not carrying the gene. In this first installment of a sci-fi trilogy, the plot’s extraordinary event is worldwide, but Arnold wisely concentrates on Valerie in the U.S. There are hints of others who share her gifts, which open avenues for the series to explore later. Valerie is an exceptional protagonist: She has survivalist skills (courtesy of Mike) and shrewdly distrusts people, including reputed friends of her father. The story’s villain is likewise sharply defined. The CDC initially appears nefarious before one individual becomes the unmitigated baddie. Though the author’s near-breakneck pace is exhilarating, it doesn’t leave much room for standout supporting characters, like Valerie’s resilient female ally Hyka Major. But that’s something the forthcoming volumes could easily rectify—and something for readers to look forward to.
A commendable sci-fi series launch spearheaded by a remarkable heroine.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73246-740-8
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Immortal Works Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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