An intelligent SF tale with a high-stakes big pharma backdrop and skillful character development.
In this debut novel, the failed tests of a sleep-aid pill lead an ensemble of characters to the amazing discovery of humanity’s origins and possible extraterrestrial interference.
The Cooks, a husband-and-wife team, begin a trilogy with this hybrid of corporate-charged medical thriller and SF alien tale. For eight years, Cooper Delaney has been a bankable and industrious doctor for the struggling pharmaceutical giant Proteus. Now, he is frustrated that his surefire sleep-aid medication Noctural is not working on human test subjects. As Cooper risks his career to salvage the project, a parallel plotline brings into his life reporter Mandolin Grace, whose latest story may be crackpot science or may just alter humankind’s destiny. A few leading geneticists are proposing that the human race has literally evolved as far as it can go and has reached a stagnating plateau of physical/intellectual achievement. There’s a corollary: Homo sapiens were preceded on prehistoric Earth by a superrace that sensed approaching extinctions and fled into outer space, leaving DNA traces and atavisms behind in an attempt to perpetuate the species. Thus, aliens exist—and may still be around, on and off the planet. Key evidence is a rare “Z” chromosome, supplementing the typical XY genetic markers. The United States government takes the theory seriously, making it the subject of a legendary “File 710.” The dissolute and wealthy Saudi Khalid Al Gamdi will stop at nothing, including murder, to learn more about it—and he is the secret investor propping up Proteus. A sudden, global epidemic of insomnia, connected to all of this, raises the stakes. Disparate strands and players take time to come together in the authors’ double (maybe triple?) helix weave of international locales and capers. While the material is related in Dan Brown–esque minichapters, the emphasis is less on exciting chases (though there is a humdinger, set in Paris) and more on deep dives into character motivations and relationships, complete with a shoutout to The Great Gatsby. Results echo both Zenna Henderson’s The People collections and John Farris’ Fury series as well as numerous other upscale SF entries in which superman-hood does not necessarily mean capes and Kryptonite or flashy special effects. This segment wraps up with most of the narrative strands disconnected, and invested readers will be kept up at night waiting for more.
An intelligent SF tale with a high-stakes big pharma backdrop and skillful character development. (author bios)Pub Date: July 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5255-6544-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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