Pure grisly fun.
In this sci-fi debut, a mysterious entity made of trash helps a young man get revenge on a criminal cartel.
Phoenix residents David Turley and his girlfriend, Julie, are finally getting married. He proposed to her at an awards ceremony honoring graphic artists, and the happy couple can’t wait to tie the knot. Driving home, however, they spot a car wreck and a body lying in the road. When David inspects the victim, he isn’t quite dead, and he keeps repeating the word “trap.” Suddenly, members of the Banger crime syndicate appear down the road and begin chasing the panicked couple. Without cellphone service, the pair races further into Banger territory. Eventually, David and Julie exit the car at gunpoint; she’s kidnapped, and he’s shot in the head but survives. Soon, a vagrant alerts the authorities, and David is rushed to Muni Hospital. There, he’s treated with an experimental drug called Neurogen, which regenerates his neurons and imbues him with an accelerated healing factor. His would-be killers, however, return to the hospital to finish the job. An ambulance chase ensues, and David ends up hiding in an alley filled with trash. He and the Bangers are shocked when a hulking trash creature forms and battles on David’s behalf. In his debut, Dean tells an unconventional superhero tale that’s equal parts mystery and action romp. During the fight sequences, the tone straddles the line between brutality and campiness; in one scene, a Banger’s “neck snapped, and his glass eye popped out.” Throughout much of the narrative, the author teases readers with a possible connection between David and the no-nonsense Garbageman, a being who coalesces from street trash and discarded metals. The creature also spouts morbid one-liners; for example, after crushing Bangers in a van, he says, “Now that’s what I call a compact car.” Dean fleshes out his cast with a clever band of disenfranchised businessmen whom the Bangers have ruined and who help locate Julie and determine the Garbageman’s strange origin. The epilogue hints at more “trashing time” to come.
Pure grisly fun.Pub Date: June 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5114-9467-0
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
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
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
