A fine sci-fi debut that offers a glimpse of humankind’s future and a sprawling view of our physical and spiritual universe.
In Gajjar’s (The Gita, 2007, etc.) sci-fi novel, set thousands of years in the future, political turmoil and religious extremism threaten the happiness, and existence, of everyone on Earth.
Liera (nicknamed “Ira”) is the Chief of the Bureau of Education, one of the government departments that upholds the “One Spirit! One World! One Word!” doctrine that unites Mother Earth’s inhabitants. The doctrine took hold thousands of years earlier, after the Descent of the Revealer Varish!, an otherworldly being who sought to bring an end to the “Divisiveness and Faithlessness” that caused trouble and anguish on the planet. Several millennia later, humans have reverted to their old ways and two impassioned groups (Nedlogs and New Agers) clash over the doctrine’s true meaning. Ira has a brief “dalliance” with one of his secretaries but refuses to breed with her; apparently, there’s little room for romance in this world. Bella, his spurned lover, files spurious but serious allegations against him in an attempt to sabotage his life. A pair of wizards help save Ira’s reputation and send him on an intergalactic mission to prove that life exists on other planets and find out how this information impacts the Revealer Varish!’s doctrine. However, despite the extraterrestrial kidnapping, sex and spiritual enlightenment that follows, there isn’t much drama in this sci-fi tale. It may be difficult for readers to believe that things might not work out OK in a story with so many well-meaning characters. Even the Democratic Oligarch Theocracy, a global government with its own futuristic Guantanamo Bay, apologizes when it makes a mistake. However, as in most great science fiction, there’s a strong and valuable message here warning of the perils of extremism, willful ignorance and the “inability to separate our beliefs from the way we govern ourselves.” That’s a message worth reading.
A fine sci-fi debut that offers a glimpse of humankind’s future and a sprawling view of our physical and spiritual universe.Pub Date: April 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-1460209318
Page Count: 328
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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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