by John Lallier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 2020
An entertaining, very-special-episode entry of a fine series.
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In Lallier’s SF prequel, a human is appointed by aliens to unite a fractious Earth.
By 2182, the people of Earth are exploring the cosmos under the aegis of the Solar Commonwealth, a governmental body led by a sharp, charismatic, and somewhat mysterious man known as the Regent. In this novel, the Regent relates his origin—and that of the Solar Commonwealth—to an aged admiral of his fleet. Initially, the Regent was an anonymous human, plucked from Earth in 2017 by powerful, benevolent aliens who erased much of his memory but granted him enhanced intelligence, longevity, and other advantages. He was then put in charge of a formidable fleet of advanced ships (including one called Enterprise) and some 12 million human troops abducted by aliens over centuries. The Regent must use these to make contact with Earth and unite the peoples of the turbulent planet under a single, progressive authority; otherwise, mankind will be classed as a hopeless case and quarantined. Unlike many humans under his command (including latter-day imperial Roman troops), the Regent wants to find a peaceful way to get Earth to submit. However, his methods not only make him an enemy of China and the United States, but also spawn treachery in his own ranks. Followers of Lallier’s Solar Commonwealth series hopefully consider it one of contemporary SF’s better Star Trek–inspired space operas, and this book will do nothing to dissuade them. It doesn’t follow the Roddenberry blueprint excessively closely, but it’s clearly fueled by that franchise’s optimistic view of an imperfect but diverse, human-led military/scientific federation that uses intelligence, good judgment, and diplomacy. Some readers will be delighted by this prequel’s characterization of the unnamed U.S. president as a Donald Trump–like caricature; he’s an egotistical blowhard surrounded by sycophants and bolstered by right-wing media. It sets up a dynamic that brings to mind James T. Kirk versus Richard Nixon, or Spock against Gen. William Westmoreland. Clever maneuvers and statesmanship keep this prequel cruising at full impulse power, and it will leave readers ready to boldly go back to Lallier’s previous installments.
An entertaining, very-special-episode entry of a fine series.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2020
ISBN: 979-8683832162
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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.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
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by Cixin Liu ; translated by Joel Martinsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 2015
Once again, a highly impressive must-read.
Second part of an alien-contact trilogy (The Three-Body Problem, 2014) from China’s most celebrated science-fiction author.
In the previous book, the inhabitants of Trisolaris, a planet with three suns, discovered that their planet was doomed and that Earth offered a suitable refuge. So, determined to capture Earth and exterminate humanity, the Trisolarans embarked on a 400-year-long interstellar voyage and also sent sophons (enormously sophisticated computers constructed inside the curled-up dimensions of fundamental particles) to spy on humanity and impose an unbreakable block on scientific advance. On Earth, the Earth-Trisolaris Organization formed to help the invaders, despite knowing the inevitable outcome. Humanity’s lone advantage is that Trisolarans are incapable of lying or dissimulation and so cannot understand deceit or subterfuge. This time, with the Trisolarans a few years into their voyage, physicist Ye Wenjie (whose reminiscences drove much of the action in the last book) visits astronomer-turned-sociologist Luo Ji, urging him to develop her ideas on cosmic sociology. The Planetary Defense Council, meanwhile, in order to combat the powerful escapist movement (they want to build starships and flee so that at least some humans will survive), announces the Wallfacer Project. Four selected individuals will be accorded the power to command any resource in order to develop plans to defend Earth, while the details will remain hidden in the thoughts of each Wallfacer, where even the sophons can't reach. To combat this, the ETO creates Wallbreakers, dedicated to deducing and thwarting the plans of the Wallfacers. The chosen Wallfacers are soldier Frederick Tyler, diplomat Manuel Rey Diaz, neuroscientist Bill Hines, and—Luo Ji. Luo has no idea why he was chosen, but, nonetheless, the Trisolarans seem determined to kill him. The plot’s development centers on Liu’s dark and rather gloomy but highly persuasive philosophy, with dazzling ideas and an unsettling, nonlinear, almost nonnarrative structure that demands patience but offers huge rewards.
Once again, a highly impressive must-read.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7708-1
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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