An intriguing imagining of how a better, more sustainable world might function.
In Rirdan’s novel, a disillusioned veteran passes through an uncanny underground portal and finds himself in a more enlightened, parallel-universe version of the United States.
Chris Walden, a young military veteran unburdened by family or marriage, seeks a back-to-the-land existence in Boulder, Colorado. While renovating an old house, his friend Ronny accesses a secret cellar hiding a gateway to a very different Boulder: There are buffalo herds, flocks of passenger pigeons, and architecture and fashions that recall the early 1900s, but the vehicles and railcars in which citizens ride are self-driving. The friends hypothesize that the portal leads to another version of the United States located in a mirror universe; dreaming of winning fame via posting videos of the place, Ronny sends Chris through to spy. This is indeed another America, one that Chris dubs “Americana.” It has no pollution; the atmosphere (both ecological and social) is healthy and comforting, and nobody knows of the recent horrors in Iraq. The society, with a decentralized government (and no national debt), operates on natural cooperation and harmony. A high-tech database carries everybody’s DNA and handprint patterns, allowing people to access free rideshares and other services via ubiquitous touchscreens. Chris is befriended by Sandra, an attractive teacher. The visitor learns of Americana’s no-waste industry, apprenticeship job training, organic farming and aquaculture, affordable healthcare, and of the possibility of a romance with Sandra—plus her comely sister, Kate (polyamory is accepted). But Chris knows that on the other side of the portal awaits go-getter Ronny, scheming to commercially exploit the paradise and render this world just as bad as the one Chris is fleeing. The text is heavy with expository dialogue about alternative socio-economic systems and communal philosophies, and the plot’s direction leaves few opportunities for big surprises. But open-minded readers will certainly join Chris in wondering why at least some of these solutions haven’t been implemented—an introductory note asserts that the technologies and eco-practices outlined here are authentic and achievable (“no hand-waving is employed”), not just SF wishful thinking.
An intriguing imagining of how a better, more sustainable world might function.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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