Grand-scale SF storytelling at its very best. In a word: mind-blowing.
The second installment in the pseudonymous Corey’s Captive’s War saga continues the tale of a group of humans who—after their world is destroyed—are enslaved by seemingly godlike aliens whose empire spans hundreds of worlds.
After the Carryx transport their human cargo to one of their glorious world-palaces, the survivors are overwhelmed by their new hellish reality. Living in towering ziggurats populated by hundreds of potentially deadly alien species, humans like Dafyd Alkhor—the overworked intermediary for his people and their “godlike masters”—and former researcher Jessyn Kaul must find a way to be useful to the Carryx or risk annihilation. As they and their cohort of a few thousand others struggle to find places in their new nightmarish existence, where subjugation and death are the only constants, Alkhor, Kaul, and others conspire to learn everything they can about the Carryx, their empire, and their endless war with the mysterious “great and deathless enemy.” Multiple storylines following various human characters on their adventures—one group researches a recently conquered planet, others explore a derelict enemy command ship, and more—which keeps the pace breakneck. And although the obvious hooks are the extraordinary worldbuilding, the unfathomably deep backstory, and the focus on the complex dynamism between human and alien characters, the entire novel has a rich, fully immersive feel to it. The author’s subtle use of sensory description places the reader in the story and creates an intense reading experience: “The breeze muttered in her ear. The leaves of the pear trees clapped like a thousand little hands, catching the light.” Readers who enjoyed the immense scope of the first installment will be more than impressed with the storyline here, which expands to include so many new subplots and potentially jaw-dropping revelations.
Grand-scale SF storytelling at its very best. In a word: mind-blowing.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780316525671
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
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 cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.
After purchasing a dilapidated, century-old starship called the Destitute, Torian Razner discovers that the moss covering it is, in fact, a deeply sarcastic sentient computer with abandonment issues.
Torian’s sister, Celise, is dying. Determined to save her life by getting her to a distant planet with air she can breathe, Torian ignores her former captain Amelia Perrosk’s warning that it’s an impossible task (along with any romantic feelings she might have for Amelia). Using the only ionite bars she has to her name, Torian purchases an ancient, moss-covered alien starship that appears to be on its last legs, so to speak. She hardly expected the moss to be a sentient computer or for it to hold a century-old grudge against its former alien captain. Moss quickly proves itself to be acerbic, intelligent, and rightly angry after being having been left behind for 100 years by its former captain. The two form a reluctant and surprising alliance, Torian proving to Moss that not all captains are “dog-turd fungus,” and they both gradually evolve into the best versions of themselves, human or otherwise. It’s obvious from the early pages that Thorne has crafted a story tailored to fans of Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series and Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. Falling somewhere between the two, this is a delightful mashup of romance, found family, and a touch of violence as Moss grapples with its feelings about its former captain and the unexpected kindness that Torian shows. Sweet without being overly saccharine, it’s a book for readers who want the adventure that comes with the vastness of outer space without its harsher realities.
A cleverly titled, cozy SF romance that marks Thorne as a writer to watch.Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414144
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bramble Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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