A thought-provoking and satisfying story about modern man’s powers and limitations.
A single father encounters an eccentric billionaire who’s attempting to bring back an extinct species in Rich’s hard–SF novel.
Widower and botanist Muir O’Brien discovers a rare fern while hunting in the wilds of Oregon—so rare, in fact, that it was believed to have disappeared forever during the last ice age. He finds it on the property of a mysterious company called Arcadia, which occupies a lot of otherwise uninhabited countryside. The person behind Arcadia is Leo Bonelli, the richest man on Earth and the mind behind the world’s largest biotech company, SynBioData. He’s often accused of playing God, and his newest endeavors may just prove his critics right—as they “would allow not only the prevention of disease through the elimination of the genetic mutations that cause it, but the creation and reshaping of life itself.” Leo takes an interest in Muir, letting him in on some of his plans for his 10,000-square-mile “experiment in biodiversity” in the Oregon high desert. But Muir soon realizes that Leo plans to do something that no one sees coming: resurrect humankind’s extinct cousin, the Neanderthal. It’s a plan that will have far-reaching consequences in the lives of Muir and his daughter, Lilith. Rich’s prose is smooth and measured, laying out the particulars of scientific theory in minute detail, and he does the same for his characters’ surroundings: “Instead of a window, [Muir’s] desk faced a wall of shelves covered with scores of small pots, each of which nurtured the seedling of a de-extincted Paleolithic plant.” With its mix of cutting-edge science and moral quandaries, readers will find that the book reminds them at times of the work of the late bestselling author Michael Crichton. However, the thriller element of this novel is relatively muted to allow for a deeper examination of the characters and their relationships. Although the novel ends up in a place that some will find predictable, it’s still a highly readable and timely riff on the Frankenstein theme.
A thought-provoking and satisfying story about modern man’s powers and limitations.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Vector Books LLC
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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