Lawrence does a masterful job of drawing readers into his fully realized, morally complex vision of the future.
Lawrence’s debut balances adventure, mystery, science, religion and morality.
Mark Lawson discovered time travel in order to save the human race, but he recognizes that his techniques could also be used to manipulate history. Nearly half a century later, that’s exactly what temporal terrorists are doing—and the Guardians exist to make sure they’re not successful. But it would help immensely if the Guardians knew exactly who they were fighting. Their story offers readers a complicated romp through time, with scenes spanning the centuries. For the most part, Lawrence handles the changing times with a deftness that is unexpected in a first-time novelist, though his short treatises on Greek history may make some readers feel like they’re sitting in an obscure history class. However, it’s the characters and the choices they make that matter the most, and that’s what will draw in readers. While the story is what most would call science fiction, it may not be what fans of the genre would expect. Science exists and, indeed, remains central to the story, but doesn’t drive every aspect of the plot. Much of that depends on history, characters, religious faith and more. The characters are not only trying to understand and deal with technological advances, but are asking what it means to be human and how the new technology fits into their lives and culture. Lawrence’s story manages to be exciting enough to make those who crave adventure happy, while also examining the metaphysical and moral implications that time travel could have on individuals, groups and cultures. This is a compelling, detailed read, and one that offers its audience something solid to chew on.
Lawrence does a masterful job of drawing readers into his fully realized, morally complex vision of the future.Pub Date: March 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983172123
Page Count: 489
Publisher: Pentelicus Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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