A fine spacefaring adventure story on a macroscopic scale.
In Jeffrey’s SF sequel, an earthling must thwart a shadowy conspiracy that could lead to the end of the universe.
It’s 2217, and humanity can travel from an environmentally devastated Earth to distant stars via “voidoids”—invisible space gates of an unknown nature. But even with thousands of planets to explore, only one Earth-like world, Silvanus, has been found. Navigator Aidan Macallan contacted and explored it in Through a Forest of Stars(2017), and it turned out to be off-limits to colonists, due to a sentient entity there called the Rete; it’s not hostile, but it’s wary of the destructive potential of Homo sapiens. Now, on Earth, radical environmentalists and a reactionary, anti-science political buffoon named Houda Thunkit are at the forefront of a movement against space exploration. At the same time, voidoids are becoming unstable and closing down, potentially stranding outposts, ships, and colonies across the cosmos forever. Aiden now commands his own state-of-the-art starship, the Sun Wolf, and he and his crew form an uneasy alliance with Earth’s military to determine who’s disrupting the voidoids. The stakes rise considerably when scientists reveal that the gates are key to keeping all matter in balance; without them, the universe will dissipate into nothingness. Jeffrey’s yarn is a dandy cosmic mystery conceived on the vast scale of an Arthur C. Clarke or Olaf Stapledon epic. Some moments have a New Age–y tone, and it’s a bit odd when jazz music, a real-life pursuit of the author, is revealed to be particularly important to the plot. But there’s a gallery of well-drawn, diverse characters that may pleasantly remind readers of Star Trek; a memorably sinister cabal of villains; and even a smattering of romance. There’s also no shortage of imaginative perils along the way.
A fine spacefaring adventure story on a macroscopic scale.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9986742-2-3
Page Count: 403
Publisher: JeffreyJazz Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Once again, a highly impressive must-read.
Second part of an alien-contact trilogy (The Three-Body Problem, 2014) from China’s most celebrated science-fiction author.
In the previous book, the inhabitants of Trisolaris, a planet with three suns, discovered that their planet was doomed and that Earth offered a suitable refuge. So, determined to capture Earth and exterminate humanity, the Trisolarans embarked on a 400-year-long interstellar voyage and also sent sophons (enormously sophisticated computers constructed inside the curled-up dimensions of fundamental particles) to spy on humanity and impose an unbreakable block on scientific advance. On Earth, the Earth-Trisolaris Organization formed to help the invaders, despite knowing the inevitable outcome. Humanity’s lone advantage is that Trisolarans are incapable of lying or dissimulation and so cannot understand deceit or subterfuge. This time, with the Trisolarans a few years into their voyage, physicist Ye Wenjie (whose reminiscences drove much of the action in the last book) visits astronomer-turned-sociologist Luo Ji, urging him to develop her ideas on cosmic sociology. The Planetary Defense Council, meanwhile, in order to combat the powerful escapist movement (they want to build starships and flee so that at least some humans will survive), announces the Wallfacer Project. Four selected individuals will be accorded the power to command any resource in order to develop plans to defend Earth, while the details will remain hidden in the thoughts of each Wallfacer, where even the sophons can't reach. To combat this, the ETO creates Wallbreakers, dedicated to deducing and thwarting the plans of the Wallfacers. The chosen Wallfacers are soldier Frederick Tyler, diplomat Manuel Rey Diaz, neuroscientist Bill Hines, and—Luo Ji. Luo has no idea why he was chosen, but, nonetheless, the Trisolarans seem determined to kill him. The plot’s development centers on Liu’s dark and rather gloomy but highly persuasive philosophy, with dazzling ideas and an unsettling, nonlinear, almost nonnarrative structure that demands patience but offers huge rewards.
Once again, a highly impressive must-read.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7708-1
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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