An inventive sci-fi tale with plenty of heart and an emphasis on the benefits of found families.
In this sci-fi novel, an extremely long-lived woman unexpectedly reunites with her long-lost brother.
It’s 2019, and Tae-hee Kim is a nurse in the university town of Springfield; she looks 33 but was actually born in Korea in 1867. She owes her long life to hosting a threlphax, an “extraterrestrial life form” that, when merged with a human, is “something akin to what we might call [a] spiritual companion.” Although she’s kept this fact a secret from most people, she’s met a few elder threlphax-human hybrids; she spends much of her time outside of work with a few of them at KSH House, an auction house and communal living space. At the beginning of the novel, Tae-hee is startled by a man she’s never seen before, who claims to be her twin brother, Tae-soo. He looks nothing like the sibling she remembers; besides, she saw his dead body years ago and even scattered the ashes from his cremation. The man explains that during a battle, he “knew he was dying, so he jumped into a Thai soldier’s body,” transmigrating his consciousness. Tae-soo, who now goes by the name Kit, is able to convince her of the truth of his claims, and Tae-hee introduces him to the KSH House group. Romantic sparks soon fly between Kit and Jong, a group member who comes “from a long line of Korean shamans” and can sense something different about Kit’s energy. Dooley also delves into the history of the threlphax, their presence on Earth, and the story of a rogue threlphax called Mroniea. The latter’s dangerous goals, and the fact that the main threlphax tribe’s leader is missing, provide the book with compelling stakes, although Kit’s identity crisis and complicated romance with Jong also effectively drive the narrative. The group of friends at KSH House are diverse and have well-developed and satisfying backstories. Some of the threlphax-related logistics become confusing, and their overall aims remain opaque, but Dooley effectively pivots between the alien narrative and the interpersonal drama to create a balanced plot with an intriguing cliffhanger.
An inventive sci-fi tale with plenty of heart and an emphasis on the benefits of found families.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2025
ISBN: 9798317805043
Page Count: 348
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
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
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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