A fun, tech-focused YA novel set in a futuristic yet familiar world.
Two teenage friends from different parts of the United States embark on a high-tech adventure in Shaw’s (Neworld Papers: The Warriors’ Tale, 2016, etc.) YA sci-fi tale.
GundTech, the technology firm that revolutionized the world years ago with its cutting-edge communication and artificial-intelligence products, has a new device that’s poised to change everything once again. The Interactive Holographic Transporter allows users to experience a virtual reality so real that it may even be physically dangerous. For Cameron Rush in Wisconsin and Rosa Costas in New Mexico, the best part of the announcement involves the creation of an IHT Academy for teenagers like them. Although the two have never met in person and come from very different backgrounds, they’re both “geeks” (whether Cameron will admit it or not) who hang out via their GundTech multiComs. For them, the reward of getting accepted to the academy outweighs any potential risks. What they don’t know is that there are other forces at work behind the scenes. For one, the mysterious child prodigy behind GundTech’s inventions is grown up now and starting to realize that his well-intentioned products can cause unintended consequences. And the tech’s code still has some bugs, including some that are dangerous and others that that may have been planted by someone (or something) with his or her own agenda. Shaw has crafted a thought-provoking story that hints at issues that today’s youth already face, such as how technology can be a boon as well as a bane, but he never lets these topics overwhelm the joy of the overall story. Young readers will quickly relate to Cameron and Rosa as they get swept up in their virtual studies. However, the story sags a bit in the second half due to the introduction of a game called “time tag,” a neat idea, but one that distracts too much from the plot. Some readers may be dismayed at the all-too-abrupt ending, as well. But most will find this novel to be an intelligent, inspiring adventure with fully formed characters.
A fun, tech-focused YA novel set in a futuristic yet familiar world.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-37518-1
Page Count: 326
Publisher: iPulpFiction.com
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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