A solid, well-paced sci-fi adventure.
Robinson Crusoe returns from a rigidly hierarchical far-future U.K. to a nightmarish North America in search of his love, Friday, in the second book of Robinson’s (Robinson Crusoe 2244, 2014) series updating the Daniel Defoe classic.
Crusoe must seek out Friday and try to rescue her from the Bone Flayers and their terrible leader, Arga’Zul, whose very reputation terrifies the people he meets and forces him to undertake shifting, uncertain alliances. Crusoe tracks her across a continent beset by weird cultures, old and new, and a full array of mutants, war chieftains, and natives both furtive and belligerent. Despite an ever increasing degree of intrigue and back-stabbing, Crusoe makes his way through a dangerous landscape and grows as a person—ever more confident and strong—throwing himself and his future into the search for his one true soul mate. But Arga’Zul is uber-formidable, and Crusoe must do more than merely survive to save the day. As with the previous installment, characters are entertaining but not complex, while their dialogue works for an adventure story (clichéd/classic lines like “Cru-soe is more man than you’ll ever be” appear throughout.) The light language and snappy pace make this a fun, undemanding read. Robinson works to make the setting both exotic and familiar—the surprises aren’t shocking, but they are engaging and occasionally thrilling. It’s admittedly a little odd to see Defoe’s characters transmogrified as they are, particularly the helpful but enigmatic man Friday turned into a somewhat standard young female love interest. And speaking of transformation, the world of the future often seems to play favorites in terms of what survives, from amusement parks to cultures. The story ends, as is the norm, with a cliffhanger, setting the stage for further installments.
A solid, well-paced sci-fi adventure.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5175-4757-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
With only a sliver less suspense, Koontz follows up 1996's Intensity with an afterlife novel about a plane crash. Los Angeles crime reporter Joe Carpenter (ah, those initials) needs resurrecting. One year ago his wife, Michelle, and two daughters, Chrissie and little Nina, actually did die in a devastating plane crash over Colorado: no survivors. In a dive, the plane had rocketed straight into millennial rock, leaving only two pieces larger than a car door. Joe, locked in unbearable grief, has quit work, sold his house, moved to a studio apartment over a garage, and is gnawing himself to death with weight loss. Meetings with a compassionate survivor group haven't helped. Rage and anger with an unjust God in whom Joe doesn't believe takes up all his energy. Then visiting his wife and children's graves, Joe finds Dr. Rose Tucker, a black Asian woman with great presence who's taking Polaroids of his family's burial sites. She tells him she survived the crash! But suddenly two men appear and start shooting at her as she races off. Joe soon finds himself involved in unraveling a suicide plague that has struck relatives of the plane's dead. Rose has taken Polaroids of the graves of other relatives as well—but whoever gets one of her pictures first sees a blissful image of the afterlife, then commits suicide, often horribly. As Joe tracks Rose down, he hears that a little girl survived with her, a girl named Nina. Has mankind reached a turning point, as Dr. Tucker avers, at which science has now proven the existence of the afterlife? Funded by a multibillionaire, a secret but massive scientific effort larger than the Manhattan Project has made fantastic strides in the paranormal and revealed a breakthrough into . . . but some baddies want to use this discovery for their own ends, and thus Joe and Rose—and Nina!—must be killed. Masterfully styled, serious entertainment. These are Koontz's great years. (First printing 600,000; Literary Guild main selection; author tour; radio satellite tour)
Pub Date: Feb. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-679-42526-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fable about the consolatory and strengthening powers of religion flounders about somewhere inside this unconventional coming-of-age tale, which was shortlisted for Canada’s Governor General’s Award. The story is told in retrospect by Piscine Molitor Patel (named for a swimming pool, thereafter fortuitously nicknamed “Pi”), years after he was shipwrecked when his parents, who owned a zoo in India, were attempting to emigrate, with their menagerie, to Canada. During 227 days at sea spent in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger (mostly with the latter, which had efficiently slaughtered its fellow beasts), Pi found serenity and courage in his faith: a frequently reiterated amalgam of Muslim, Hindu, and Christian beliefs. The story of his later life, education, and mission rounds out, but does not improve upon, the alternately suspenseful and whimsical account of Pi’s ordeal at sea—which offers the best reason for reading this otherwise preachy and somewhat redundant story of his Life.
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-100811-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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