A planet of bumpkins declares war on the rest of the universe in this humorous sci-fi debut.
Krikkit is a bucolic world whose inhabitants are hardworking above all else. What they value most are the things they can touch and experience firsthand. When they look up in the sky, they see the sun—and not much else. A vast dust cloud obscures the rest of the cosmos, so the Krikkitans have no sense of their place in the larger scheme of things. It’s all the more shocking, then, when a spaceship crashes. Two Krikkitans named Brag and Tarm investigate the oddity, dragging it to a barn. Eventually, they get it flying and travel past the dust cloud. Upon seeing the majestic cosmos long hidden to them, they decide it shouldn’t exist, and they mobilize the rest of their people to destroy it. This endeavor involves building more spaceships and mastering weaponry. And because the Krikkitans only learn by doing, it’s a slow process. Still, they succeed in their epic quest by blowing up some planets and battling various races—including, by all appearances, humanity. But with Krikkit’s own natural resources limited, how much of the universe can their war machine destroy? Debut author Forjans offers a hilarious premise that wouldn’t be out of place in a Monty Python film. His narrative quickly proceeds with bone-dry wit and, in discussing the known universe, reveals that many civilizations “are so advanced that their primary function has evolved into having...a wonderful time whilst drinking perfectly chilled imported beer.” Adding to the tone is angular prose that alternates between charming and all-too goofy; for example, “Brag had, as no one else on Krikkit, not ever seen anything like the thing he now saw.” These highlights, unfortunately, are steadily brought low by Forjans’ pedantic plotting and argumentative, one-note characters. Frequently sloppy grammar doesn’t help, either: “Brag and Tarm was pleased with the result.” Tighter editing and defter storytelling may help a sequel.
An overdose of silliness for its own sake.
Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477246313
Page Count: 232
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Liu’s trilogy is the first major work of science fiction to come to the West out of China, and it’s a masterpiece.
What if alien civilizations do exist? In this final installment of a stunning and provocative trilogy (The Dark Forest, 2015, etc.), Liu teases out the grim, unsettling implications.
Previously, astronomer-turned-sociologist Luo Ji forestalled an invasion attempt by advanced aliens from planet Trisolaris. Luo’s “dark forest” deterrence works thus: if intelligent species exist, inevitably some will be hostile; therefore, safety lies in remaining hidden while threatening to reveal your enemy’s location to the predators. Earth knows where Trisolaris is, but the Trisolarans can’t threaten to reveal Earth’s location since they want to occupy it. Here, the story picks up at an earlier juncture. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer developing a probe to study the approaching Trisolaran fleet, learns that a friend has been tricked into volunteering to die in order to assist the project. Horrified, she retreats into hibernation. When she revives centuries later, dark forest deterrence holds the Trisolarans at bay. Luo, now old, hands Cheng the key to Earth’s defense. Unfortunately, the sophons—tiny, intelligent, light-speed computers sent by the Trisolarans as spies—know Cheng lacks Luo’s ruthlessness and immediately seize control of Earth; only by luck does Earth manage to trigger its deterrent. Hostile aliens immediately destroy planet Trisolaris, whose invasion fleet turns away because it’s only a matter of time before the same invisible antagonists deduce the existence of Earth and strike the solar system. Once again, Cheng must choose between logical ruthlessness and simple human compassion, with the fate of humanity at stake. This utterly absorbing book shows little interest in linear narrative or conventional character interactions. Instead, the author offers dilemmas moral, philosophical, and political; perspectives—a spectacular glimpse of three dimensions seen from a four-dimensional viewpoint; a dying universe shattered by billions of years of warfare; and persuasive ideas whose dismal repercussions extend beyond hope and despair into, inescapably, real-world significance.
Liu’s trilogy is the first major work of science fiction to come to the West out of China, and it’s a masterpiece.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7710-4
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The flashy, snappy delivery fails to compensate for the uninhabited blandness of the characters. And despite the many clever...
After terminally cute campus high-jinks (The Big U) and a smug but attention-grabbing eco-thriller (Zodiac), Stephenson leaps into near-future Gibsonian cyberpunk—with predictably mixed results.
The familiar-sounding backdrop: The US government has been sold off; businesses are divided up into autonomous franchises ("franchulates") visited by kids from the heavily protected independent "Burbclaves"; a computer-generated "metaverse" is populated by hackers and roving commercials. Hiro Protagonist, freelance computer hacker, world's greatest swordsman, and stringer for the privatized CIA, delivers pizzas for the Mafia—until his mentor Da5id is blasted by Snow Crash, a curious new drug capable of crashing both computers and hackers. Hiro joins forces with freelance skateboard courier Y.T. to investigate. It emerges that Snow Crash is both a drug and a virus: it destroyed ancient Sumeria by randomizing their language to create Babel; its modern victims speak in tongues, lose their critical faculties, and are easily brainwashed. Eventually the usual conspiracy to take over the world emerges; it's led by media mogul L. Bob Rife, the Rev. Wayne's Pearly Gates religious franchulate, and vengeful nuclear terrorist Raven. The cultural-linguistic material has intrinsic interest, but its connections with cyberpunk and computer-reality seem more than a little forced.
The flashy, snappy delivery fails to compensate for the uninhabited blandness of the characters. And despite the many clever embellishments, none of the above is as original as Stephenson seems to think. An entertaining entry that would have benefitted from a more rigorous attention to the basics.Pub Date: May 15, 1992
ISBN: 0553380958
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1992
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