Even at this length, a narrative that should be—and often is—pure fun repeatedly gets bogged down in philosophical debates....
Like Finity (1999), a tall story that keeps getting taller . . . and taller . . . and taller.
As writer/college professor John Barnes (yes, that John Barnes), of Gunnison, Colorado, downloads an interactive Web cartoon, Gaudeamus (“let us rejoice”), old college pal and private investigator Travis Bismarck shows up. Travis’s current case involves trying to determine how Negon stole top-secret information from rival researchers Xegon—the latter’s studying an exciting quantum effect, called . . . “gaudeamus.” His inquiries lead to grad student/hooker Lena Logan and her lucrative sideline in sex-enhancing “goddies,” a.k.a. “gaudeamus” pills. The pills also confer telepathy. And in Lena’s apartment Travis discovers a weird device, called . . . you guessed it. Later, Travis learns that every intelligent race eventually discovers Gaudeamus technology; it converts energy from one form to any other, without reference to space or time: the possibilities, indeed, are endless. However, the machine also signals the universe at large that Earth is ripe for exploitation. Before Travis learns this, though, he has an encounter with a UFO containing scientists in clown costumes—scientists who are also members of the world’s worst grunge rock band. Then there are Brown Pierre, a genius who’s intent on saving the world; All Thumbs, the galactic marshal; the inexplicable activities of the Hardware Store Killer; and a deadline of February 4, 2011, by which time planet Earth must be fully up to speed on Gaudeamus technology—or else.
Even at this length, a narrative that should be—and often is—pure fun repeatedly gets bogged down in philosophical debates. Not Barnes’s best, though entertaining enough.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2004
ISBN: 0-765-30329-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004
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
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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