A deft cautionary tale about living forever.
A debut novel examines whether immortality is a boon or a curse.
Castello’s protagonist is Steven Ronson, a young man who has seen far too much death as a medic during World War II. Steven’s life changes forever when he stumbles upon letters describing an immortality formula designed for Hitler and the pills themselves while liberating the Dachau concentration camp. As the only surviving member of his original unit, Steven feels safe trying the pills he has discovered: “It certainly looked as if it was imbued with magical properties. What did I have to lose? Perhaps I could cheat the Grim Reaper until I’d made it safely home to Florida.” Following the death of his father, Steven leaves Miami to chase his dream of becoming a professional saxophone player in New York City. The pills enable him to become an otherworldly musician, and a label soon wants to sign him and the combo with whom he’s been playing. But he’s more interested in learning about Chow Li and Chang Sou, the immortal figures representing good and evil who appear in the visions that accompany his music. He travels to China with the love of his life, Jennifer Harrison, and her Uncle Albert, a longtime missionary in that country. The bulk of the tale is set in revolutionary-era China as the trio and Chow Li seek to combat Chang Sou’s growing power. Castello skillfully uses Steven’s arc to show that immortality doesn’t necessarily translate into having it all: “I was still much more curious about life.…The only drawback was that those closest to me, those whom I loved, were all gone. I was completely alone.” The author successfully mixes quite a bit of history in his narrative, including such figures as Mao, the Dalai Lama, and Charlie Parker. He even includes an extraterrestrial element and a connection between Tibetan monks and Nazis that somehow remains believable. This is a well-structured, thought-provoking novel with the message “Be careful what you wish for.”
A deft cautionary tale about living forever.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-7862-0
Page Count: 314
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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
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