A simple backdrop and military story effortlessly set up what could be an intricate, entertaining series.
A small band of individuals, together by chance, stumbles upon a military base housing a covert project that armed soldiers want to keep secret in this debut thriller.
Dr. Delores Clark is testing the waters of Cooper’s Bay Marsh, off the coast of Mexico, to prove industrial giant Rayberdyn Industries Inc. is dumping chemicals. When black ops agents grab her and trash her work station, she gets help from Col. John Stone. John was already in the area searching for a crash site, refusing to believe his military-aviator brother’s accident from five years ago was due to pilot error. Also in the marsh are cousins Brian and Daniel Richardson, the latter monitoring Delores at the behest of Rayberdyn, and Lt. Debbie Shultz, who saves Daniel from a potentially nasty fall. Agents get the drop on John and the others and imprison them in a hidden compound nearby. Even if they escape their cells, they’ll still need to brave a dense jungle. Fortunately, they seem to have an ally in Jade, a warrior from an ancient tribe. They may, however, have trouble trusting her, as she has an unmistakable connection to Zix, who’s in cahoots with the nefarious and much-despised Col. Gerd Steinholtz. Gerd’s just one of the people behind an unsanctioned military project, and he’ll do whatever he can to contain the clandestine operation. The novel, undoubtedly a series opener, is an action-packed story with touches of sci-fi. Jade, for one, has special abilities signified by a “hazy blue glow,” while Zix uses a more sinister red light to steal others’ energies. These capabilities, along with the real-world skills of military-trained John and Debbie, make for exhilarating sequences during the numerous confrontations with bad guys. The story links characters in various ways (John and Debbie were cadets who witnessed Gerd’s violence firsthand) and introduces many elements, like Jade’s and Zix’s origins, that are not fully explained—but perhaps they will be in later books. Sullivan’s writing is smart and thoroughly detailed, though descriptions can be excessive. It’s clear, for example, what both a “sci-fi-looking cylindrical apparatus” and “futuristic gurney” are without the leading adjectives.
A simple backdrop and military story effortlessly set up what could be an intricate, entertaining series.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5049-6003-8
Page Count: 196
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2016
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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