A sharp, illuminating dystopian tale.
In this second installment of an SF series, a scientist tries to reunite with friends while a pandemic and an imminent war threaten the world.
The FossilFlu virus has devastated Earth, now split into the Sanctuary of Europe, the Sanctuary of Americas, and the Sanctuary of Asia. In Europe, virologist Dr. Mercy Perching has helped keep safe an avian-human hybrid with a genetic immunity to the virus. The Americas’ ruthless leader, the Prime, wants the hybrid for her country, even if it means going to war with Europe. Mercy plans a trip to Asia, where some of her friends—rebels against the Prime—are currently taking refuge. With her traveling companion, government agent Basil Goodman, she plans to bring her cohorts back to Europe. But following a sudden attack during their journey, the two awaken separately in Oasis One. In this apparent lab, Mercy learns from android Sindy that she and Basil are in quarantine. It seems they’ve reached Asia, which has battled FossilFlu with a genetic modification. In addition, Oasis One’s “Keepers,” to avoid humanity’s potential extinction, have Incubation Synths, like Sindy, for human propagation. But Mercy and Basil look to escape, as the gene therapy, if ineffective, could result in their deaths. Weisbeck’s wonderfully detailed sequel tackles SF staples readers know by heart, including Sindy’s questioning what it means to be human. But the characters and relationships are remarkable, especially Mercy and Basil; his feelings run deeper, as she’s in love with someone else. The Prime is another standout character: This formidable villain is frighteningly omnipotent. The prose is evocative, particularly when describing the environment: “Fiddleheads of lady fern unrolled, spongy toadstools mushroomed into blue gilled umbrellas, and odorous prickly pine needles and buttercup wildflowers filled the air with an otherworldly aura.” The author smartly concentrates on only a few characters in this short installment and leaves plenty of avenues to explore in the next volume.
A sharp, illuminating dystopian tale. (dedication)Pub Date: Dec. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5272-8122-6
Page Count: 186
Publisher: DJW Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
One small step, no giant leaps.
Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or “porter,” whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth’s moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she’ll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon’s surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum’s automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don’t go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian’s smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike “Gizmos”), although intriguing elements—such as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russia—do show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, “for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator”—as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as “I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”
One small step, no giant leaps.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-44812-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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