An entertaining, amusing, and relatable SF tale with diverse characters.
In this SF novel, a lonely interplanetary trash collector survives a crisis in outer space and finds unusual new friends.
Feckless 30-something Kenyan Enoch Owusu, an interstellar trash collector, has just received several sudden, heavy blows in his personal life—his parents died; his girlfriend deserted him; and his best friend and partner left for a different job in quick succession. The year is 2742, and after centuries of wars and disasters, humans have colonized Mars, the moon, and Europa, all of which are governed by a military-style regime called SysNav. The Church of All Faiths, a new religion, believes that Earth received an alien signal centuries ago and expects the extraterrestrials to return and benefit humankind. Feeling out of shape, sad, alone, and powerless, Enoch is picking up space debris with a basic artificial intelligence system as his only companion when he detects a distress signal of unknown origin. His good-hearted decision to go check it out begins a series of surprising adventures that fulfill the promise of the subtitle. Watt’s narrative tone is delightfully snarky, especially in the 68 footnotes that explain various details of future history and daily life in a spaceship. Pithy, humorous descriptions vividly bring the setting and characters to life. The narrative is original and full of apt observations, including “Enoch tried to walk as sarcastically as he could...just to show them he wasn’t scared,” and “Finding a bunch of black ships in a black background of space was like one of those puzzles where you had to find the stripy shirt guy in the environment full of stripy things.” Enoch’s personal journey from pathetic basket case to brave, open-minded, and confident man is satisfying and relatable. The other characters are also intriguing and well drawn. The scientific explanations of “slip drive,” a method of fast space travel, seem plausible enough not to get in the way of the story. The ending leaves many questions unanswered, making readers hope for a sequel. Overall, this novel is a fun read that successfully combines a humane sensibility, a classic adventure story, and humor.
An entertaining, amusing, and relatable SF tale with diverse characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.
Some people are born supervillains, and others have supervillainy thrust upon them.
Charlie Fitzer, a former business journalist–turned–substitute teacher, is broke and somewhat desperate. His circumstances take an unexpected and dangerous turn when his estranged uncle Jake dies, leaving his business—i.e., his trillion-dollar supervillain empire—to Charlie. Charlie doesn’t really have the skills or experience to manage the staff of the volcano lair, and matters don’t improve when he’s pressured to attend a high-level meeting with other supervillains, none of whom got along with his uncle. With the aid of his uncle’s No. 1, Mathilda Morrison, and his cat, Hera (who turns out to be an intelligent and typing-capable spy for his uncle’s organization), Charlie must sort out whom he can trust before he gets blackmailed, blown up, or both. This book serves as a follow-up of sorts to Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022) in that both are riffs on genre film tropes. The current work is fluffier and sillier than the previous novel and, indeed, many of Scalzi’s other books, although there is the occasional jab about governments being in bed with unscrupulous corporate enterprises or the ways in which people can profit from human suffering. This is one of many available stories about a good-hearted Everyman thrust into fantastical circumstances, struggling to survive as a fish out of water, and, while well executed for its type, the plot doesn’t go anywhere that will surprise you.
Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780765389220
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel.
Survivors and victims of a pandemic populate this quietly ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness.
In her fourth novel, Mandel (The Lola Quartet, 2012, etc.) moves away from the literary thriller form of her previous books but keeps much of the intrigue. The story concerns the before and after of a catastrophic virus called the Georgia Flu that wipes out most of the world’s population. On one side of the timeline are the survivors, mainly a traveling troupe of musicians and actors and a stationary group stuck for years in an airport. On the other is a professional actor, who dies in the opening pages while performing King Lear, his ex-wives and his oldest friend, glimpsed in flashbacks. There’s also the man—a paparazzo-turned-paramedic—who runs to the stage from the audience to try to revive him, a Samaritan role he will play again in later years. Mandel is effectively spare in her depiction of both the tough hand-to-mouth existence of a devastated world and the almost unchallenged life of the celebrity—think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion. The intrigue arises when the troupe is threatened by a cult and breaks into disparate offshoots struggling toward a common haven. Woven through these little odysseys, and cunningly linking the cushy past and the perilous present, is a figure called the Prophet. Indeed, Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet while providing numerous strong moments, as when one of the last planes lands at the airport and seals its doors in self-imposed quarantine, standing for days on the tarmac as those outside try not to ponder the nightmare within. Another strand of that web is a well-traveled copy of a sci-fi graphic novel drawn by the actor’s first wife, depicting a space station seeking a new home after aliens take over Earth—a different sort of artist also pondering man’s fate and future.
Mandel’s solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-35330-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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Station Eleven Miniseries to Star Mackenzie Davis
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SEEN & HEARD
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