A briskly plotted, exhilarating adventure that will test even the most carefree reader's suspension of disbelief.
Amidst an intergalactic war, alpine warrior Lt. Cynthia Scott battles aliens on the frigid planet of Ostark.
An unexpected alien invasion commences just as Scott, a stunner with West Point and Cambridge degrees, completes special ops training. The X-Chri, whose bloodlust drives them to butcher their human enemies, have overrun several of Ostark's cities, killing Cynthia's fiancé in the process. The humans retreat to a safe zone protected by powerful surface-to-air weapons that keep the alien ships at bay, and the battle for Ostark devolves into a scattered ground war of ambushes and ski chases. Cynthia is paired with Maj. Jim Harkins, 21 years her senior, and the two quickly distinguish themselves on the battlefield. One mission follows another, and in the course of hunting and fleeing the aliens, Cynthia and Jim become intimate. Harrigan's rendering of this futuristic world is a mixed bag. The author takes pains to describe the workings of nanosuits and plasma projectors, but never adequately explains why exactly the X-Chri are fighting the humans. The X-Chri are portrayed as tribal and totalitarian; battlefield honor is their race's sole virtue. In short, the struggle could not be more Manichaean. Still, the action keeps these quibbles at bay while the two soldiers remain on Ostark. But once they pursue the alien clan leader to another planet, Cynthia's increasing powers stretch reality, even the invented reality of the 23rd century. Eventually, she becomes the first human to win a computer's love, and together, they crack the futuristic equivalent of Fermat's Last Theorem–also, she forges a telepathic bond with the X-Chri leader, another first for humankind.
A briskly plotted, exhilarating adventure that will test even the most carefree reader's suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 24, 2004
ISBN: 1-4184-0380-6
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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