A lively international, and otherworldly, adventure.
An action-packed SF thriller-series installment concerning international relations on Earth and extraterrestrial contact.
In this follow-up to Thunderbird Rising (2024), Maxx King and his girlfriend Gabby Fisher are having coffee in Seattle. The year is 2002 and the United States is still reeling from the attacks of September 11, 2001. Gabby and Maxx are set to meet with Connie Xi, the daughter of a high-level Chinese scientist. Their goal is to get the elder Dr. Xi to cooperate with the U.S. government on a secret project, but before anything can be arranged, assassins shoot Connie in broad daylight. As it turns out, the project, known as Thunderbird, is named after an alien communication device, and the events of 9/11, during which Maxx was injured, were connected to a conflict between China and the U.S. over who would activate the device first. Afghanistan was invaded, according to this novel’s version of historical events, due to its proximity to China’s western border, and the American government bulked up its military based on instructions from the aliens. Ideally, the two Earth superpowers would find a way to work together in common cause because, as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney points out, “Our national security and possibly the fate of the planet are dangling by a thin thread.” However, even this dire state of affairs does not make cooperation easy, as the different players in this game have very different goals—with some of them more ill-intentioned than others.
This sequel’s intricate setup throws a lot of information at readers very quickly. Indeed, the historical background and the intricacies of alien communication make for dense exposition as the novel recaps events of the first book. Nevertheless, the combination of alien-SF with more conventional thriller material is intriguing. Likewise, the aliens are an interesting lot who don’t put much trust in humanity, for reasons that readers will find understandable: “It is your nature to deceive.” A revelation about midway through the story also indicates that the Earth-alien relationship is far more complex than one might initially expect. It’s clear that these advanced creatures are incredibly powerful—especially compared to humanity—and much of the excitement comes from suspense over what they’ll do next, especially after their plans to come to Earth are revealed. After all, the aliens “have been building worlds for millennia” and humankind’s “attempts at duplicity are well known” to them. The dialogue can be awkward at times, as when someone rather obviously says of Dr. Xi early on, after Connie is killed: “He is going to be emotionally distraught from the loss of his daughter yesterday, but you need to convince him that we must work together, or all is lost.” The book also sometimes relies on stock genre lines, such as “This is a dangerous game you are playing.” However, as the story progresses with locations ranging from Seattle to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, to Kabul, it offers a welcome mix of alien and earthling hostilities.
A lively international, and otherworldly, adventure.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798990672048
Page Count: 360
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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