A brilliantly crafted yarn that also manages to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller. And funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. What are...
New collaboration about nanotechnology from Harrington (author of several stories set in universes created by Niven) and the vastly influential creator of the Ringworld series, etc.
Dr. Toby Glyer cured AIDS using nanotechnology. But his vision, and that of his genius partner, William Connors, ironically plagued by ill health and confined to a wheelchair, extended much farther. Twenty-five years ago, planning to mine wealth from asteroids, they launched a spaceship loaded with nanites that was to rendezvous with an asteroid and steer it back into Earth's orbit. But when the probe lost contact shortly after reaching its target, the U.S. government succumbed to the “gray goo” hypothesis—that nanites would inevitably run out of control and consume the planet—and shut Toby down. Now, the target asteroid has reappeared, heading for Earth on schedule. Unfortunately, it’s 10 times the size of the original and evidently won’t only take up Earth's orbit, but smack into it. The asteroid, Forge, is now inhabited—by intelligent nanites. The government’s only hope is to grab Toby, but thanks to a mysterious series of events, he teams up with rocket scientist May Wyndham and disappears. They soon realize they’re infected with nanites and now have perfect health, among other advantages. How? Why? Then, at the Olympics, a certain Mycroft Yellowhorse, representing the Joint Negotiating Alliance of Indian Tribes, wins the marathon in just over an hour and a quarter. Toby and May finally grasp who Mycroft must really be, what he has accomplished and what he still intends to achieve. Leaping from concept to concept at the speed of thought, the book is bulging with jokes, puns and witticisms and is plotted so cleverly you don’t even notice there is a plot.
A brilliantly crafted yarn that also manages to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller. And funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. What are you waiting for?Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7653-3323-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
For those who like their science fiction dense, monumental, and a bit overwrought.
Brown is back with Book 4 of his Red Rising series (Morning Star, 2016, etc.) and explores familiar themes of rebellion, revenge, and political instability.
This novel examines the ramifications and pitfalls of trying to build a new world out of the ashes of the old. The events here take place 10 years after the conclusion of Morning Star, which ended on a seemingly positive note. Darrow, aka Reaper, and his lover, Virginia au Augustus, aka Mustang, had vanquished the Golds, the elite ruling class, so hope was held out that a new order would arise. But in the new book it becomes clear that the concept of political order is tenuous at best, for Darrow’s first thoughts are on the forces of violence and chaos he has unleashed: “famines and genocide...piracy...terrorism, radiation sickness and disease...and the one hundred million lives lost in my [nuclear] war.” Readers familiar with the previous trilogy—and you'll have to be if you want to understand the current novel—will welcome a familiar cast of characters, including Mustang, Sevro (Darrow’s friend and fellow warrior), and Lysander (grandson of the Sovereign). Readers will also find familiarity in Brown’s idiosyncratic naming system (Cassius au Bellona, Octavia au Lune) and even in his vocabulary for cursing (“Goryhell,” “Bloodydamn,” “Slag that”). Brown introduces a number of new characters, including 18-year-old Lyria, a survivor of the initial Rising who gives a fresh perspective on the violence of the new war—and violence is indeed never far away from the world Brown creates. (He includes one particularly gruesome gladiatorial combat between Cassius and a host of enemies.) Brown imparts an epic quality to the events in part by his use of names. It’s impossible to ignore the weighty connotations of characters when they sport names like Bellerephon, Diomedes, Dido, and Apollonius.
For those who like their science fiction dense, monumental, and a bit overwrought.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-425-28591-6
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
As in Resurrection (1966) and The Wreckage of Agathon (1970) Gardner demonstrates his agility at juggling metaphysical notions while telling a diverting tale. Here he has used as a means of discovering man's unsavory ways that muzziest of monsters, Grendel, from the Beowulf chronicle. As in the original, Grendel is a bewildering combination of amorphous threats and grisly specifics — he bellows in the wilds and crunches through hapless inhabitants of the meadhall. But Grendel, the essence of primal violence, is also a learning creature. Itc listens to a wheezing bore with scales and coils, a pedantic Lucifer, declaim on the relentless complexity of cosmic accident. He hears an old priest put in a word for God as unity of discords, where nothing is lost. And Grendel continues to observe the illusions of bards, kings, heroes, and soldiers, occasionally eating one. After the true hero arrives sprouting fiery wings, to deal the death blow, he shows Grendel the reality of both destruction and rebirth. Throughout the trackless philosophic speculation, the dialogue is witty and often has a highly contemporary tilt: "The whole shit-ass scene was his idea, not mine," says Grendel, disgusted by a sacrificial hero. At the close one is not sure if the savior is "blithe of his deed," but Gardner, the word-pleaser, should be.
Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1971
ISBN: 0679723110
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
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