A dense but satisfying read that will please devotees of the blockbuster political thriller.
A timely, complex thriller about the global politics of fossil fuels, patents and the promise of technological progress.
Howard generates a certain aura of skepticism with his book’s subtitle, “The Iranian Version of this Novel.” He isn’t talking about the language or ethnicity of his novel, but rather the previous incarnations that led to the book’s current form (swapping out Iraq for Iran). But once Howard begins his narrative proper, its daring is immediate—the first scene of this contemporary thriller features a tyrannosaurus bearing witness to the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous; the resource that the beast and other ancient fauna will produce after their deaths is at the center of the novel’s global plot. Howard wears his influences on his sleeve and his book is a creative reworking along the particular genre strains created by Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. The narrative jets around the world to multiple settings as the novel unleashes a salvo of exposition; there is a devastating crude-killing virus unleashed on the world’s oil supplies by the Iranians, a game-changing production process about to be unleashed on the insatiable global petroleum market by the Chinese, a young Israeli with a patent that may change the world’s entire economic order, a bold American CEO who refuses to let the United States fall behind and an American president who must navigate the West through the treacherous terrain of the 21st century. Howard deftly choreographs these potentially flighty plots, a remarkable feat considering the intimidating amount of complex political and technological detail. But he does so by an almost kaleidoscopic process of short chapters and abrupt changes in setting, from the Oval Office to Shenyang, China. These brief sections keep the reader burning through the pages, but there are a few instances in an otherwise thoughtfully crafted plot where elegance is sacrificed for efficiency. However, a techno-thriller with a message about humanity’s stewardship of resources is a welcome addition to a genre that often suffers from too many hack jobs and the wanton excesses of special-ops machismo. This is a book that plunges readers into a world dominated by avarice, fierce competition and breakneck innovation, and delivers them to a rousing, hopeful conclusion.
A dense but satisfying read that will please devotees of the blockbuster political thriller.Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461001171
Page Count: 355
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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