A romp through the ages that’s full of surprises, aside from some ordinary futuristic touches.
Debut author Ware delivers a sci-fi novel about one man’s journeys through time.
In 2031, Dr. Jacob “Jake” Love is having a picnic on a Pensacola, Florida, beach with his fiancee, Sondra, when two small, mysterious rocks fall from the sky. Curious about what they might be, Jake takes them home. The next day is September 11, the 30th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City. Jake watches a news special on the event while holding one of the stones, and offhandedly mentions that he wishes that he’d been there to help on that tragic day. Soon enough, he finds himself in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. He knows that there isn’t much time before the first plane will hit, so he attempts to warn people of the imminent attack. Unfortunately, all his warnings do is attract the interest of security guards. Eventually, he’s transported back to 2031. There, he finds that he’s still a successful doctor, but he has new memories of the FBI watching him closely for the past three decades. Now alert to the rocks’ power, he embarks on a largely spiritual journey to figure out how best to make use of it. Meanwhile, the government remains suspicious of his motives—and even his loyal girlfriend has concerns about him. This story certainly offers a novel take on the time-travel concept, and it’s one that incorporates a great deal of religious material; specifically, Jake spends a lot of time researching different faiths. Unusually for a book in this genre, he doesn’t use his new abilities to amass wealth or rewrite history, although, like many fictional time travelers, he does fantasize about killing Adolf Hitler. Instead, he’s much more interested in unusual ways to use his power, such as testing Jesus Christ’s DNA. The details of his day-to-day life in the future can seem a bit run-of-the-mill, such as when he orders food from a holographic menu. The real fun comes from seeing what he’ll do with his time-hopping powers; after he researches the Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Bible Student movement founder Charles Taze Russell, and the prophet Muhammad, readers will definitely wonder what exactly it is that he’s planning.
A romp through the ages that’s full of surprises, aside from some ordinary futuristic touches.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9968607-2-7
Page Count: 314
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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