An eerie vision of America’s future that deserves more complex characters and restrained prose.
This action-packed novel proves that dystopian thrillers aren’t just for tweens.
It’s the year 2020, two weeks after high-profile billionaire Sherman Gale’s suicide. Seven powerful men gather on Gale’s yacht, supervised by his beautiful, enigmatic daughter, Faith. Through a series of messages recorded by Gale before his demise, they learn that they have all been working with Gale on secret projects that will contribute to what Gale calls “The Plan.” After maneuvering Ralph Osborn, Gale’s preferred candidate for the presidency of the United States, into power, the seven financial, military, media and political leaders will commence Operation Fortress America. American military forces will be withdrawn from stations around the world only to surge through North and South America, lay claim to their land and citizens, and declare Christianity the official religion of the Americas. With the Internet nearly destroyed, a beloved presidential candidate assassinated, and Gale’s security forces—including millions of fanatical Christian Volunteer Corp. volunteers already rampaging across the country—stifling dissent, is there anyone who can stop Gale’s plan? Two renegade law enforcement agents hiding out might be the world’s only hope. Derrick Chu, a swaggering former FBI agent, and Audrey Kunitz, a CIA linguist, struggle to determine how to reboot the Internet, spread the word about Gale’s devious machinations, and prompt the American people to rise up against Gale’s cronies. Creative and current, Andison’s sequel to Death of the Republic (2011) is a quick, well-plotted read. Although the characters are thinly drawn types rather than authentic, quirky people, they do occasionally change allegiances in surprising ways, which keeps the reader interested. Sadly, the dialogue is not as engaging. Andison frequently includes long passages of unrealistic, unnecessary dialogue that slow the action without advancing the plot. And the action sequences are marred by derring-do that is more laughable than impressive. At one point, to get to a seemingly impenetrable building, a character is flung through the air “using only the force of large elastic bands pulled taught with a hand crank,” so that he can scale a wall wearing “a special jumpsuit made from a reflective gold, super friction-resistant fabric.”
An eerie vision of America’s future that deserves more complex characters and restrained prose.Pub Date: June 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475263190
Page Count: 332
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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