A violent, emotional story that will resonate with readers who are sensitive to the growing tension among science, religion,...
This ambitious debut novel unites themes of political and religious zealotry with mysticism in a near-future setting.
Biologist Psyche Hershenbaum begins the story adamantly opposed to organized religion. When her mother dies alone in a superstorm that ravages New York City, Psyche re-examines her life as a scientist for a government-funded laboratory, which she suspects is using her work to create an environmental sanctuary for America’s wealthy and powerful. Her suspicions prove correct, so she resolves to use her scientific knowledge—and her boyfriend Ira’s computer hacking skills—to create a sanctuary of her own. On a hilltop in the Pacific Northwest, she and Ira build a community that quickly grows into a stable, science-based society with her as leader. Meanwhile, the country’s remaining political and religious leaders retreat into the belly of a giant, genetically engineered amoebalike creature that acts as a living bio-dome. They’ve also engineered human-lizard hybrids to perform slave labor. The dome’s authoritarian regime quickly devolves into a pseudo-Christian religious cult, rife with corruption and sexual assault, while the forest-dwelling scientists embrace a peaceful kind of spirituality that resembles shamanism. A violent clash decides Psyche’s fate and that of her community. At first read, Siegel’s story of a young biologist struggling to survive in a United States decimated by disease and climate change comes across as typical post-apocalyptic fare. Had it been written more recently, its strong stance on the perils of political and religious extremism could have been seen as a reaction to today’s headlines. But the author, an artist and “psychic astrologer,” says that she wrote the story in the 1990s and let it languish in a drawer for a decade. Its deep look at issues of morality and corruption will particularly appeal to disillusioned young people in the 21st century. In one truly remarkable turn, the once-agnostic Psyche and others witness actual miracles that seem to confirm the existence of an afterlife—a move that turns some conventional sci-fi and fantasy tropes upside-down.
A violent, emotional story that will resonate with readers who are sensitive to the growing tension among science, religion, and politics today.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-5005-0548-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 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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