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FULL SPECTRUM 5

Name: FULL SPECTRUM 5
Author: Jennifer Hershey
ISBN: 0-553-37400-1

by Jennifer Hershey & edited by Tom Dupree & Janna Silverstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1995

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This hitherto splendid series (previous entry 1993) emphasizes diversity in theme and approach. Here, 28 original tales (up from 19 last time), including one translation from the French, are featured. Some of the more eye-catching entries: Jonathan Lethem, with ``The Insipid Profession of Jonathan Hornebom,'' offers a witty genuflection to Robert A. Heinlein's classic ``The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag''; Paul Park's fine ``The Breakthrough,'' about a new treatment for autistic children, while definitely science, barely qualifies as fiction; Tricia Sullivan's eerie alien-contact yarn, ``The Question Eaters,'' explores racial memory and the persistence of language; Emily Devenport weighs in with ``Goddoggit,'' a hysterically funny speculation on the nature of God; and a man in a snowbound cabin receives visitors from the future in Gene Wolfe's ``The Ziggurat.'' High standards maintainedremarkably enough, considering the all-new editorial lineup in this fifth of the series.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-553-37400-1

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995

Categories:

SCIENCE FICTION

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New York Times Bestseller

DEVOLUTION

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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New York Times Bestseller

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.