Man was thrown from paradise to suffer and die, but he took a book with him; now modern-day terrorists and the Vatican are willing to kill to possess it.
Opening with a failed suicide bombing attempt in Jerusalem, the book plunges readers into the fevered mind of the bomber and the social consequences he faces following his failure. The dark underbelly of the antiquities market and the desperate search for a mythological Templar treasure build up the story’s pace. However, Azariah-Kribbs unexpectedly switches gears midway and focuses on the thought processes and relationships of several of the main characters, including two Indian women—one of whom is traditional while the other isn’t—and the man for whom they both have feelings. The book loses momentum as it becomes bogged down by unrequited relationships. The pace picks up again as the puzzle of the mythological book is solved and the solution is posted on the Internet for all to see. As a result, there is no more hunger or thirst, and spells can be spoken to provide for every need. As people unlock the secrets of paradise, they nearly become gods themselves; in fact, they pay to have themselves killed and brought back to life so that they can see where they will spend eternity. No one ever encounters paradise however, just the waiting depths of hell. Despite people’s best efforts to serve each other, their outcome never changes. Only the granddaughter of one of the terrorists learns the deepest secrets of the book, bringing the story full circle. Azariah-Kribbs writes in a clear, unadorned prose that keeps the world he had created accessible, even as it deals in the supernatural. Shifting perspective among several main characters keeps the action fast-paced and the pages turning. Azariah-Kribbs is at his most innovative when focusing on the Kryptografik, the mythical book from paradise; he treats the Kryptografik as a character, and this decision feels fresh and enhances the book’s mystical tone. Readers drawn to religious myth and action/adventure will find much to enjoy here. A rollicking, provocative read that hits a few speed bumps.
Pub Date: July 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983401933
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Keith Azariah-Kribbs
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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