A riveting multigenre tale with an otherworldly ally and series potential.
In this sci-fi debut, a being from a parallel dimension tries to aid humanity by impeding terrorists and a dangerous microchip.
The Valdors, guardians of the multiverse, have a momentous decision to make. They seek integration with the universal creator, Alpha, but first must ensure the evolution of another species to replace them as sentinels. Sol III (aka Earth) may be the answer, but humans’ spiritual evolution is hampered by technological advancement. Most significant is a microchip to be implanted in brains, which will enhance minds artificially and stunt humans’ natural development of mental abilities. As this is a threat to the harmony of the spiritual realms, the Valdor Council opts for Sol III’s annihilation, but the council leader, Valianx, instead sends Balthazar to Earth on a mission. Taking residence inside government agent (and widower) James Baxter’s brain, Bal telepathically convinces the man of his origin and the Valdors’ purpose. The microchip is in the hands of Ethanael Kingston Vanderbyl, a career criminal dabbling in legitimate business, who most certainly has sinister mind-control plans. So Baxter proposes a trade-off: he will help Bal thwart King and the microchip if the Valdor helps stop Islamic terrorists plotting to follow a New York bombing with an even deadlier strike in the United States. Alexander adeptly melds sci-fi with a modern thriller. For example, threats in the story are terrorists and thuggish but powerful King, while Bal and recurring Valdor perspectives remain a constant presence. Moreover, the author solidifies abstract elements, like Bal inside the agent’s brain, with a virtual stroll through Baxter’s cranium that’s easy to imagine: “He moved into the thalamus, which acts as a switchboard for information. Next he surveyed the hypothalamus.” The novel’s first half is methodically paced, introducing notable characters, such as Laura Bentley, Baxter’s love interest, who was his wife’s best friend. But it picks up steam as predicaments escalate: the attack is imminent, and King tests the microchip in obscene and frightening ways.
A riveting multigenre tale with an otherworldly ally and series potential.Pub Date: Dec. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-920526-70-2
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Quickfox Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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