Languorous, occasionally repetitive—but this is quintessential Vance: rich, eccentric, nourished from roots deep in the...
Belated sequel or, better, the missing last section of Ports of Call (1998), a picaresque travel-adventure from the master storyteller and stylist.
We rejoin the battered old tramp cargo ship Glicca and its colorful crew: ex-policeman Captain Maloof, Chief Engineer Schwatzendale, Chief Steward Wingo, and supercargo Myron Tany, as they continue their erratic course from planet to planet, acquiring and discharging peculiar cargoes, dealing with the equally bizarre inhabitants. Each of the four pursues an individual quest, philosophically and without great urgency. On a planet of spectacular natural beauty and prudish social climate, Maloof searches for his mother, who’s beguiled by an infernally handsome rogue who merely wants the old woman's money. Wingo ponders joining a band of pilgrims as they face appalling hardships while seeking enlightenment. Gambler Schwatzendale sets about relieving the passengers of their valuables, while Myron hopes for news of his great-aunt Hester (and her marvelous space-yacht), who has gone to look for the fountain of youth—again accompanied by a despicable rogue. On some worlds the four friends merely require a glass of good beer, being sometimes gratified, sometimes frustrated.
Languorous, occasionally repetitive—but this is quintessential Vance: rich, eccentric, nourished from roots deep in the human psyche.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-312-86727-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
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
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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