A solid if flawed beginning to a potentially spectacular genre-blending saga.
Algabi’s debut fantasy/SF/mystery novel, the first installment of his Under the Alien Veil series, follows a framed ex-cop who’s mysteriously released from a maximum-security prison.
Joel Tremblay was close to taking down a human trafficking ring when the organization masterfully turned the tables and framed him, effectively destroying his reputation and career. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he’s shocked when he’s released 10 years early. Vowing to get revenge on those who framed him, he finds his life turned upside down when he discovers a gravely injured huge being in the middle of a road, cloaked in golden mist; next to him is a glass tube with what looks like a blue-skinned female being trapped inside. After losing consciousness, Tremblay awakes and discovers that he’s somehow become a hybrid—half human and half alien, with untapped abilities. He quickly realizes that he’s at the center of a grand conspiracy involving a sadistic alien faction that’s harvesting humans like crops. Algabi’s novel is a unique fusion of science fiction, dark fantasy, and detective fiction. The first half of the novel flows well, powered by nonstop action and intrigue, breakneck pacing, and tight storytelling, but the second half sputters a bit, hampered by an excessive focus on the nature of magic (“brooma”) and Tremblay’s attempts to use his newfound abilities, rendered in wonkish detail: “The brooma perception aptitude refers to the ability of someone to measure and determine, through sensing, the exact amount of brooma channelled into a part of his body.” The novel’s ending contains numerous jaw-dropping revelations—some readers may find the sudden introduction to so many new and significant characters and storylines overwhelming, but the new plot threads effectively act as teasers for a much larger story arc to come.
A solid if flawed beginning to a potentially spectacular genre-blending saga.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781038337122
Page Count: 264
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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