Exuberant and entertaining, slyly avoiding camp with plausible, albeit superpower-infused, characters.
A scientist assembles a second-generation group of superheroes to battle a global government bent on dominating humanity in Fiction Factory Incorporated’s debut sci-fi tale.
Dr. Andre Hudson’s ashamed of the work he’s done for President Ophelia Keating. After orchestrating the merging of world governments into one, known as Parliament, Keating instigated a way to regulate birthrate via the Human Reproductive Vector, which Hudson helped develop. HRV-EST (appropriately pronounced “harvest”) essentially peddles embryos, favoring the wealthy with perfect, genetically engineered children. Now a professor at Harland University, Hudson takes pride in his part of the Federation, superheroes who protected humans from alien ruler Goliaric of planet Xenoe, thwarting his plan to rule Earth. Hudson’s the only one left, and the only one without powers, but he sees hope in a TV report on teen Ellen Braxton, who allegedly killed someone using electricity she generated. Others crop up, like speedster Damian Gunner, with superpowers very similar to the original Federation members. Keating notices them too, and to be on the safe side, she sends twins Snitch and Scoundrel, Xenozians thought to have evacuated Earth long ago, to kill Ellen and the rest. The president fears new superheroes will put a damper on her devious plot, which is to avoid any uprising from citizens by, quite simply, eradicating the poor ones. Like all good superhero yarns, the author’s novel first lays the groundwork with a convincing plot and characters. Ellen, for one, is tormented by her mother’s sleazy boyfriend, Eddie, while the haunted Hudson is shrouded in mystery. The story has fun with genre fans’ expectations: David Porter’s power is initially unknown, and one character suggests fresh superhero names (rather than adopting old ones) and costume redesigns. Dialogue does tend to be interchangeable: nearly everyone says “dude” at some point, and even reptilian alien Snitch throws in an “awesome.” But the exhilarating adventure rarely falters: powers on display, beaucoup showdowns with formidable baddies, and an ending that promises further adventures for its superheroes—and maybe a few more villains.
Exuberant and entertaining, slyly avoiding camp with plausible, albeit superpower-infused, characters.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5351-7178-6
Page Count: 360
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2016
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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