An enjoyable coming-of-age SF action tale that builds to a satisfying conclusion.
In response to a mysterious but welcoming message, a spaceship full of human colonists leaves a rapidly destabilizing Earth for a decadeslong trek in this SF novel.
As Earth reels under the combined effects of overpopulation and climate catastrophe, astrophysicist Jackson Hughes and his biologist wife, Adriana, finagle their way onto the exploratory spacecraft Vasco Da Gama with their 5-year-old son, Milo. The ship is part of Earth’s desperate response to a message from the far reaches of space, roughly translated as “Hello, humanity. We are the Foundry, come see us soon.” Along with 450 other passengers, Milo calls the Vasco Da Gama home for the next 20 years. He negotiates all the usual childhood, tween, and teen milestones as well as the complications of space travel. From Earth, messages of devastation increase, the most personal of which is the loss of Milo’s maternal grandmother when a flood destroys her town. Milo is barely out of his rebellious teens when the ship finally nears its destination, “a torus of gold and silver...its hull studded with geodesic domes of ivory and obsidian.” But as the Vasco Da Gama attempts to slow down for the approach, Jackson makes a startling discovery. The Foundry has taken control of the vessel and is pulling it in. The humans aboard soon realize that they are no longer in control of their fates and that, as one of the aliens they meet tells Milo, “Survival outside one’s home world takes cunning and cruelty. You will be forced to do things, to give things up in order to survive.” Mauldin’s SF bildungsroman is written with an intimacy and humor that will draw readers in to Milo’s familiar yet highly unusual rites of passage. The high-tech elements are nicely futuristic without being incomprehensible, and the story evolves fairly convincingly from teen memoir to alien adventure. There are a few derivative moments, such as a stereotypical “cat fight” between two girls who like the teenage Milo and an alien who speaks with Yoda-like syntax: “Argue this I will.” But overall, the many alien species are creatively imagined and the high-tech swashbuckling is suspenseful fun.
An enjoyable coming-of-age SF action tale that builds to a satisfying conclusion.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2022
ISBN: 979-8830336741
Page Count: 428
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.
Like a truck with no brakes speeding down a steep mountain road, Islington’s latest is an adrenaline-fueled SF thrill ride that follows a biomechanically enhanced assassin as he tries to understand his mysterious origins.
The chaotic opening scene gives readers a clear indication of what they’re in for: Contract killer Azure, attempting to complete a mission, is involved in a life-or-death battle with a multieyed biomachine called an Argos. “The thing’s bipedal but has six gorilla-like arms that end in half-metre-long claws,” he complains. After Azure barely dispatches the monster and kills his target, his AI assistant, Atti, informs him of his next job: protecting an elderly—and incredibly rich—woman living in a sprawling underground bunker in the middle of nowhere. “Old Woman,” as Azure calls her, isn’t forthcoming with personal details; all Azure can suss out is that she may be the target of a powerful organized crime syndicate—the same organization that employs him! Is Azure’s ultimate goal to save her or kill her? Although the worldbuilding could’ve been more comprehensive, Islington’s editing choices are brilliant—he strips away the insignificant narrative content to create a streamlined, action-packed adventure with seemingly one goal: to keep the reader furiously turning pages. The various mysteries—Azure’s murky beginnings, the tragic death of his best friend years earlier, Old Woman’s true identity, etc.—maintain the momentum and intensity. The takeaway here is the narrative potential of the characters as well as the plethora of subjects that could be explored more deeply, like immortality for the rich, cloning, and the potential to create bioengineered nightmares for “security.” Islington leaves the conclusion tantalizingly ambiguous. This novel could be the jumping-off point for a memorable series.
Buckle up—fans of page-turning SF may find themselves binge-reading this novel in one butt-numbing marathon session.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781668239247
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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