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THE LOST TOWN OF GARRISON

A TIME-TRAVEL HISTORICAL NOVEL

A time-hopping tale of grassroots resistance that will have present-day resonance for readers willing to dam up their...

Reynolds’ latest novel melds elements of SF and historical fiction in a narrative of time travel and environmental justice in early 20th-century Kansas.

In the present day, Kansas University geography professor Katie Robbins’visit to Carnahan Creek-Garrison Cemetery atop the Tuttle Creek Reservoir—to find her third-cousin’s gravesite—is interrupted when, without warning, she finds herself transported to 1937. There, dressed in mid-calf vintage dresses and ferried about in Model A Fords, Katie becomes caught up in a local fight against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed immense dam on the Big Blue River—a project whose consequent reservoir would cover the entirety of the pre-existent Blue River Valley and the homes within it. Her boyfriend, Jason Cowley, also becomes embroiled in the conflict, having followed her via the abandoned house through which most time travel in the novel takes place. (Curiously, Katie’s initial temporal jump appears to occur spontaneously.) So, too, does Mark Kaplan, a conscientious surveyor who, alongside Katie, collaborates with a large, revolving cast of characters to develop a viable alternate “watershed solution” to bring before the U.S. Congress. In fierce opposition to Katie, Jason, and Mark are local activist Penny Swenson and Doug Blackwell, a Fowler Engineering employee from Kansas City determined to push the dam through. As the narrative flits between the perspectives of Katie, Jason, Katie’s cousin Marcia, and a whole host of other Blue Valley residents, it occasionally reads as overly peripatetic. Also, because many of the shifts in time are so subtle—a year or two, say, or a matter of months—it makes the overall structure of the narrative feel clunky; as a result, some readers may find it be difficult to trace the more convoluted inner workings of Reynolds’ plot. Even so, the novel retains an earnestness and strength of conviction which ultimately proves redemptive.

A time-hopping tale of grassroots resistance that will have present-day resonance for readers willing to dam up their disbelief.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2023

ISBN: 978-1735093888

Page Count: 322

Publisher: Hadley Rille Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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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

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PROJECT HAIL MARY

An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.

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Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.

Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.

An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021

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