Cellular-DNA science and aching hearts intertwine in a compelling SF sequel.
On a human-colonized planet, a rebel settler finds her loyalties tested by her ex, her new pilot/lover, and her small son who has unique DNA qualities.
Fedorak’s sequel to her SF debut, Children of Alpheios (2023), unfolds three years later. Hero Alina DeHerte is a rebel colonist on the distant planet Eamine, peopled by genetically modified humans, where the climate is harsh and native wildlife sometimes dangerous. But another threat is an authoritarian system under Chancellor Jade Graylin, leader of the settlement city Alpheios. Her regime’s economic partner, the genetic-engineering corporation Genodyne, is exploiting a generation of children (“Origins”) born on the planet, fated to develop astounding powers—and one of them is Alina’s epileptic son, Mandin. Defying the exploitation of their offspring, Alina and other dissidents fled to establish their own haven, Evesborough. The strife led to the end of Alina’s relationship with Alpheios’ law-and-order security chief Chance—who is Graylin’s son— even though he enabled her escape with Mandin. Now, Alina is engaged to an Evesborough man and Mandin’s seizures are controlled with medication. But Evesborough still struggles for supplies. In Alpheios, a civilian uprising brews after a reckless Genodyne rollout of an anti-aging drug unleashes a disease, and one of the victims is Alina’s mother. Alina’s DNA makeup points to a cure, and Chance wants a reunion with his son. Reluctantly, Alina agrees to a temporary visit to the city in a gene-science exchange deal. Amid the intrigue, Chance sees an opportunity to rekindle his ex’s ardor. Fedorak must keep a lot of balls in the air and plates (or petri dishes) spinning, and newcomers to the saga may be somewhat confused by the ensemble cast and the machinations. In the foliage are such compelling creations as “kronosapiens,” Genodyne’s mistreated, artificially evolved humanoids, both beastly and disturbingly advanced, and a hint of something even darker, “an ancient and foul entity lurking somewhere down tunnel four,” kept offstage this time. But, at least until a literally explosive final act, the double-helix intricacies of relationships and emotions have a priority over action and weaponry. Though the novel leaves many narrative threads unresolved, this is quality SF from an exciting, fresh voice in the genre.
Cellular-DNA science and aching hearts intertwine in a compelling SF sequel.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2025
ISBN: 9781509259021
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 4, 2024
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
