Everything old seems new again in this twisty, genre-bending thriller.
A video-game designer discovers that reality can prove more frightening than anything he can imagine in Robinson’s SF/horror hybrid.
It’s been a difficult year for game developer Marcus Lockwood and his teen son, Elias: Marcus’ wife, Isabella, has been murdered by a serial killer with an artistic bent—emphasis on bent (“the way she died isn’t what stood out. It was what . . . what the killer did to her afterwards”). In an effort to heal, the Lockwoods have come to Moose Hollow, a rundown backwoods campground in Maine. While Elias enjoys himself, Marcus starts to wonder who sent the brochure about Moose Hollow that lured them there. There are rumors of UFOs; no one lends much credence to this talk until a starship beams up all the campers. The craft’s occupants, the alien Anunnaki, can control the minds of all the humans—except Marcus. Among those pulled up by the Anunnaki is the serial killer who slayed Isabella, who now sets about murdering humans and aliens alike onboard the ship. An alien named Kova recruits Marcus to hunt the killer. Marcus determines that the human killer is working with an alien accomplice; as the bodies pile up and suspects get eliminated, Marcus must face up to a horrific truth if he hopes to stop the slaughter. Robinson serves up an engaging blend of SF, horror, and mystery—his mashup of alien-invasion and serial-killer tropes makes for a familiar but still fresh read. The alternating perspectives of Marcus and the killer, who stays unidentified until late in the book, are also effective. The novel’s most compelling aspect is the evolution of Marcus, who goes from a man wallowing in grief to one willing to do whatever is necessary to save humanity. His allies are also well-developed, but not to the extent that they can easily be discounted as murder suspects. The author leaves the door open for more volumes featuring these characters; this story serves as an entrancing beginning for such a series.
Everything old seems new again in this twisty, genre-bending thriller.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798347012190
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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