An ambitious, often exciting thriller that doesn’t quite reach its full potential.
In this paranormal fantasy thriller, otherworldly forces battle the CIA and each other for control of a family with extraordinary abilities.
Maggie Stewart and her children, John and Rachael, are on the run from the Gray Department, a mysterious division of the CIA. The Stewarts are “talents,” the products of a government initiative to breed people with telekinetic powers and use them as agents against the Russians and Chinese. It turns out that others are following the Stewarts as well—operatives from an alternative universe called Purgatory. After Gray agents capture John and Rachael, Maggie plots to free them. So does Oliver, a Purgatory “ranger” whose mission is to take the Stewarts back with him, because a prophecy has said they’re needed to fight against the evil forces of Lucifer. Meanwhile, a mentally unstable man, Jurgis Phin, sets out to murder the Stewarts, and Grievely, a CIA infiltrator from Purgatory, is on a mission to turn the children into Lucifer’s agents. But his subordinate, Besque, hates talents and would gladly kill them all. As the various antagonists converge, their battle awakens yet another, ancient force deep under the Earth, which rises to wreak havoc. The suspenseful climax sets the stage for a sequel. Brown creates a complex, multilayered story full of nonstop action, intriguing characters and well-crafted scenes. Unfortunately, the novel is held back by a series of missteps: The prologue and the underground monster seem superfluous, the story’s reliance on Dantean and Miltonian Christian cosmology sometimes stifles its originality, and its numerous references to other books, authors and television programs seem forced. Also, the explanation of how the four universes interrelate isn’t convincing, and the political background of Purgatory lacks detail. At times, the story backtracks to follow different characters through the same time period, which can be confusing.
An ambitious, often exciting thriller that doesn’t quite reach its full potential.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500722814
Page Count: 226
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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