A beautifully written YA novel that will captivate environmentalists and sci-fi fans of all ages.
GET IT
In this debut sci-fi novel, great responsibility is thrust upon a young warrior descended from rabbits who’s fighting to restore peace among humans, animals and the Earth.
The Tsaeb, sapient descendants of animals, have evolved exceptional intelligence well beyond human capacity. They are guided by Immediacy, a “philosophy of consequences” that leads them to strive for peace, balance and environmental sustainability. Though the Tsaeb have evolved, humans—known as the Danog—remain mired in selfish ideals, causing an unsustainable, damaging effect on the environment. Still, for over 100 conflictless years, the Tsaeb and Danog have peacefully coexisted on opposite sides of a border, according to treaties. Corr Syl, a young Tsaeb descended from rabbits, just completed his warrior training and wishes to travel the world. But when the Danog violate the treaty by bringing weapons into Tsaeb territory, Corr is called upon to visit Danog territory to forge some sort of resolution. Reluctantly accepting his assignment, Corr sets off with beautiful Rhya Bright, a fiery young Tsaeb warrior also descended from rabbits. The stark contrast between Tsaeb and Danog cultures illuminates the consequences of human materialism and shortsightedness, highlighting man’s impact on the planet. Although the story gets off to a bit of a slow start, the rich landscape and intricate plot strikingly explore modern understandings of war and the relationships among colonizers, indigenous peoples and the land. It may be difficult to keep track of the numerous places and characters, but the story’s flow remains relatively uncompromised, and an appendix serves as a helpful reference. Rogers (Arizona Wildlife Notebook, 2012) draws from the classic sci-fi wheelhouse, à la Octavia Butler, melding those motifs with fantasy elements in a style sure to please fans of either genre.
A beautifully written YA novel that will captivate environmentalists and sci-fi fans of all ages.Pub Date: May 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484989890
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | SCIENCE FICTION | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
71
GET IT
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. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A woman who's been drifting through life wakes up the morning after her 40th birthday to discover that she's just turned 16 again.
Alice Stern wouldn't say she's unhappy. She lives in a studio apartment in Brooklyn; has a job in the admissions office of the Upper West Side private school she attended as a kid; still hangs out with Sam, her childhood best friend; and has a great relationship with her father, Leonard, the famous author of a time-travel novel, Time Brothers. Alice's mother left her and Leonard when Alice was a kid, and father and daughter formed a tight, loving unit along with their freakishly long-lived cat, Ursula. But now Leonard is in a coma, and as she visits him in the hospital every day, Alice is forced to reckon with her life. After a drunken birthday evening with Sam, Alice returns to her childhood house on Pomander Walk, a one-block-long gated street running between two avenues on the UWS—but when she wakes up the next morning, she hears Leonard in the kitchen and finds herself heading off to SAT tutoring and preparing for her 16th birthday party that night. Straub's novel has echoes of Thornton Wilder's play Our Town: Every prosaic detail of her earlier life is almost unbearably poignant to Alice, and the chance to spend time with her father is priceless. As she moves through her day, she tries to figure out how to get back to her life as a 40-year-old and whether there's anything she can do in the past to improve her future—and save her father's life. As always, Straub creates characters who feel fully alive, exploring the subtleties of their thoughts, feelings, and relationships. It's hard to say more without giving away the delightful surprises of the book's second half, but be assured that Straub's time-travel shenanigans are up there with Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and the TV show Russian Doll.
Combine Straub's usual warmth and insight with the fun of time travel and you have a winner.Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-525-53900-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Categories: SCIENCE FICTION | TIME TRAVEL | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION
Did you like this book?
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2022 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
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.
