A delight for lovers of UFOs and unique fiction.
An eclectic science-fiction romp through pop culture and fringe theory.
Tiffy and Cheryl Bandera, twin sisters, begin their career advertising buy-one-get-one cheeseburgers. Their magnetic appeal is palpable, but before making their recording debut, they decide to go solo–in a manner of speaking. The sisters split time as Tiffy, one of the most famous entertainers in the history of pop-culture. In response to the Milli Vanilli scandal, and lest they be discovered, a clever recasting decision is made–Cheryl becomes a martial artist and appears with Tiffy under the pretense of being her security double. This new relationship between the sisters begins to affect their PR, and fans grow to see Tiffy as an aloof, ungrateful megastar. Thus, the novel picks up the action with the sisters’ creation of a win-a-date contest. They gently rig it to weed out the sociopaths, and the unassuming Brian Gullen wins the contest. Cheryl manages the vetting process and, incredibly, Brian’s abductee experiences, psychic abilities and split-personality don’t sound any serious warning bells. Cheryl is more than receptive, even intrigued. He’s a nice guy, and it’s telegraphed early that he will probably wind up with at least one of the sisters. Brian’s tales of the planet Quartzon and the adventure they have on its forest moon make for some authentically cool science-fiction, but the early narrative too easily shifts from the story proper to Brian’s correspondences, to a character’s dreams, to a slew of confusing conversations. The prose is clear and the tone witty, but the organization and particulars are often muddied by stock lamentations about scientists and skeptics’ dismissal of UFOs. However, Agar has an uncanny ability to create eccentric characters whose concerns are nonetheless down-to-earth. Even the Mongeese, a once proud warrior race from another galaxy, are sympathetic in human terms. There are more than a few howlers, blessedly intentional, like when Cheryl makes a less than romantic bargain with Brian (eventually known as Bryan) for DNA exchange. This genuine wit keeps the reader engaged throughout the novel’s complex intergalactic machinations.
A delight for lovers of UFOs and unique fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-5752-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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