A fast-paced portal adventure with some well-integrated social commentary.
In this debut sci-fi novel, a man investigates the interdimensional secrets of the evil corporation that employs him.
Other than his micromanaging boss, Quentin James enjoys working in the IT department of IBZ Energy, one of the world’s largest oil companies. But when he is asked to open an encrypted file for one of the company’s top executives, he sees that it contains photographs of IBZ security contractors murdering oil pipeline protesters. Hoping to blow the whistle on the company’s crimes, he and his friend Eissa go in search of the DimGate, which Quentin believes to be some sort of secret hard drive. But they end up being trapped in a mysterious locked room in the COO’s office: “In the center of the room was a door. It was flanked by a large gray box on each side, which sat perpendicular to the door. It looked like someone had taken two industrial breaker boxes and used them to hold up the door like giant bookends.” The DimGate turns out to be a portal to other dimensions, and after Quentin and Eissa are forced to use it to escape detection, they find themselves in an alternate version of 2015 where electricity hasn’t been discovered and the United States is at war with the Native American tribes that rule the territory west of the Mississippi. There, Quentin learns that IBZ is a subsidiary of the interdimensional DimCorp—and it’s been up to a lot worse than just “killing a few protesters.” In this series opener, Long describes the mechanics of the world with clarity and humor. His prose captures the wonder, fear, and excitement of his nerdy protagonist: “What a noble cause, and what an adventure it must have been,” thinks Quentin after learning about a small interdimensional resistance to DimCorp. “The last clear thought he had before drifting off to sleep, was that he, too, was on an adventure, and it was fantastic.” The portal-based world-hopping should appeal to the general sci-fi crowd, and the book’s themes—which take a critical view of the greed and power of international corporations—lend a deep relevance to Quentin’s quest.
A fast-paced portal adventure with some well-integrated social commentary.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948169-08-0
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Mad Goat Press
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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