A satisfying sequel with likable characters, playful humor, and a prescient sense of the foolishness of modern life.
A circuitous sequel explaining all the weird things that happened in Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (2018).
To recap: Spunky April May and her best pal, Andy Skampt, discovered an alien robot she named Carl, the first of many to appear around the globe. They roped in April’s ex Maya, a scientist named Miranda, and a few other like-minded folks to investigate the phenomenon while a professional troll named Peter Petrawicki caused trouble for now-famous April, leading to her apparent death by explosion. Unlike its predecessor, this sequel is narrated by a variety of April’s crew members until our hero is miraculously and inevitably resurrected, albeit with some very strange upgrades. It’s still pretty entertaining, but Green practically bends over backward to reverse-engineer his oddball scenario so it finally makes sense. The Carls created a planet-spanning reverie, one which Peter is trying to re-create from a secret lab on a remote island, soon infiltrated by Miranda. Andy is delivered a MacGuffin in a magic volume called The Book of Good Times that can not only instruct him and his comrades on how to proceed, but also reads his thoughts and responds. His job is to infiltrate “The Thread,” a mysterious cabal seeking to manipulate a world forever changed by the Carls. To shorten a Blues Brothers–esque quote without spoiling things, Team April has millions of dollars, a huge online audience, virtually unlimited resources and access to the things they need, a lead with brand new superpowers and...a monkey? A really powerful sentient monkey who turns out to be not an alien but of a Byzantine earthly origin and who also happens to be at war with a doppelgänger that might just be the end of us all. Green’s debut was a better novel with a wildly intriguing setup, so it’s not surprising that getting things wrapped up is a bit of a twisty affair.
A satisfying sequel with likable characters, playful humor, and a prescient sense of the foolishness of modern life.Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4347-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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