A bold, brazen thriller with a serious commentary on the future of information.
A hardboiled techno-thriller about the trials and tribulations of the dawning information age.
Though set in the not-too-distant future of 2020, Kiser’s thriller—equal parts Crichton, Clancy and King—is spectacularly culturally prescient. Opening in the middle of a dusty blood-and-guts shootout between AK-wielding Iranians and two drastically outnumbered, but not outmanned, Navy SEALs, Kiser sets the tone early—graphic, verbose (and occasionally typographically distracting when utilizing capital letters for emphasis), violent and spiritual. Protagonist, ex-SEAL and chosen one Mitch Double Downing has discovered a way of mentally wiring into the infinity of information throughout the Web or “the grid” as it will be known in the coming years. He calls the method inSyte and with it he can access not just the transactions and rote information that floats about in the informational ether, but he can see into the souls of men throughout that much wider, more complex network called humanity. In short, he’s the perfect operative. Much of the action takes place in Florida as Downing struggles with exposing the threatening corruption of Tampa Bay’s mayor, who also happens to be the father of his love interest. The mayor and his disastrous machinations will obliterate millions of lives and Downing must walk a fine line between romantic loyalty and safeguarding the destiny of mankind. Woven throughout a story with many finely crafted twists, turns and revelations is the charismatic, mysterious, murderous Cheslov Kirill. As a classic merciless political operator, Kirill is unforgettable and chillingly, complexly rendered, especially for a man who uses a school of sharks off the Florida coast for corpse disposal. Final showdowns are a specialty in this genre and Kiser does not disappoint with his narrative’s disturbingly ambiguous final passages. There are a few awkward moments in Kiser’s otherwise powerful prose that some final polishing could easily have resolved, but the exciting mix of speculative fiction, contemporary politics and eschatological obsession amid the parochial setting of Tampa Bay make for a novel with an atmosphere and message all its own.
A bold, brazen thriller with a serious commentary on the future of information.Pub Date: June 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615484877
Page Count: 390
Publisher: inSyte
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2011
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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