DOWNDRIFT

Name: DOWNDRIFT
Author: Johanna Drucker
ISBN: 978-1-941110-61-4

by Johanna Drucker ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2018

Animal lovers will enjoy the antics of the beagles, bears, salamanders, cows, spiders, and other creatures, but the author's...

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Kangaroos, foxes, dolphins, and many other animals take on human characteristics, behaviors, and foibles in this inventive debut novel by Drucker (Fabulas Feminae, 2015, etc.).

The principal characters in this wildly imaginative, laugh-out-loud funny, and ultimately heartbreaking story are a 3.8 billion-year-old cellular life form known as an Archaeon, a restless calico cat named Callie who sets out from Boston, and an unnamed lion, whose shrinking habitat forces him to wander far from his home in Tanzania. The Archaeon, who dryly informs us that he is "not one of those swaggering microorganisms," recounts the "downdrift" (or is it "uplift"?) of emotions, communications, and careers from humans to the animal kingdom. Chimps discover organized warfare. Birds open a public relations firm. Antelopes wearing earbuds listen to the music of "Beasthoven," "Moosart," and "Mauler." Poodles drive taxicabs. Adders become accountants. Vegetarianism comes into vogue. In short, "all the animals are susceptible to seepage from the human species." The mutations and contagions accelerate as Callie and the lion, who "feels the loss of everything he has ever known or relied on," head toward their mutual destination. The Archaean's tales of the many different animals are delivered in deliciously short chapters that build over the course of one year into a story that's by turns droll, subversive, pensive, brooding, off-the-charts weird, and wonderfully surprising. When Callie and the lion find each other, the novel becomes a poignant meditation on the fate of the wild, the future of domesticity, and our own limited knowledge and understanding of the astonishing animal kingdom of which we are a part.

Animal lovers will enjoy the antics of the beagles, bears, salamanders, cows, spiders, and other creatures, but the author's beautifully subtle message isn't just for pet owners or environmentalists. It's for all of us.

Pub Date: April 10, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-941110-61-4

Page Count: 296

Publisher: Three Rooms Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018

Categories:

DYSTOPIAN FICTION

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THE ONE

by John Marrs ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 2018

Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read...

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Marrs’ debut novel traces the stories of five people who find their soul mates—or do they?

Imagine if you could submit to a simple DNA test and then receive your Match in your email. Not just an online date who might be geographically compatible, but a true and unique genetically destined partner. While the potential long-term benefits may seem to outweigh the negative consequences, the system is far from infallible; as any science-fiction fan could tell you, if it sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catastrophe lurking at the other end. Marrs’ novel traces five individuals who meet their Matches under varying circumstances and with widely conflicting outcomes. During the course of their romantic adventures (and misadventures), the entire DNA matching algorithm will prove to be susceptible to hacking, also proving that (gasp!) just because something may be driven by science doesn’t mean that it’s free from the world of human error. The philosophy posed by the novel speaks not just to the power of love and the laws of attraction, but also serves as a commentary on today’s world of genetic exploration. Do these breakthroughs simplify our lives, or do they make us lazy, replacing the idea of “destiny” or “fate” with “science” as a larger power that we don’t need to question? These ideas keep the novel moving along and create a deeper level of interest, since most of the narrative threads are fairly predictable. The two exceptions are the psychopathic serial killer who meets his Match and begins to lose interest in killing and the heterosexual man matched with another man, both of whom must then redefine sexuality and love, commitment and family.

Will simultaneously intrigue both romantics and skeptics. The science might oversimplify, but it’s gripping enough to read all in one sitting.

Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-335-00510-6

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018

Categories:

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | LITERARY FICTION | DYSTOPIAN FICTION | SCIENCE FICTION

- BOOK TO SCREEN
Netflix’s ‘The One’: Two of Hearts

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GOLDEN SON

From the Red Rising Trilogy series , Vol. 2

by Pierce Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 6, 2015

Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the...

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Brown presents the second installment of his epic science-fiction trilogy, and like the first (Red Rising, 2014), it’s chock-full of interpersonal tension, class conflict and violence.

The opening reintroduces us to Darrow au Andromedus, whose wife, Eo, was killed in the first volume. Also known as the Reaper, Darrow is a lancer in the House of Augustus and is still looking for revenge on the Golds, who are both in control and in the ascendant. The novel opens with a galactic war game, seemingly a simulation, but Darrow’s opponent, Karnus au Bellona, makes it very real when he rams Darrow’s ship and causes a large number of fatalities. In the main narrative thread, Darrow has infiltrated the Golds and continues to seek ways to subvert their oppressive and dominant culture. The world Brown creates here is both dense and densely populated, with a curious amalgam of the classical, the medieval and the futuristic. Characters with names like Cassius, Pliny, Theodora and Nero coexist—sometimes uneasily—with Daxo, Kavax and Sevro. And the characters inhabit a world with a vaguely medieval social hierarchy yet containing futuristic technology such as gravBoots. Amid the chronological murkiness, one thing is clear—Darrow is an assertive hero claiming as a birthright his obligation to fight against oppression: "For seven hundred years we have been enslaved….We have been kept in darkness. But there will come a day when we walk in the light." Stirring—and archetypal—stuff.

Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the future and quasi-historicism.