An engrossing scientific thriller that challenges metaphysical orthodoxy.
In this novel, a renowned physics professor gets arrested for murder, a crime that inexplicably places him in two places at the same time.
Patrick Eldridge is a brilliant physicist at Columbia University, famous for his unconventional interpretations of quantum mechanics. He contends that one can travel between different universes—literally existing in two places simultaneously—and that he in fact has done it himself. This bold theoretical claim becomes a matter of great practical importance when he’s arrested for the murder of rival professor Frank Singleton, and there is evidence Eldridge was at the victim’s home in California but also in New York City at the time of the crime. Michael Evans, a journalism teacher in New York, decides to look into the peculiar case and learns that Eldridge had a twin brother, Ron, a cognitively disabled patient in a medical institution who died a few years ago. Investigating Eldridge’s twin leads Michael down a murky road to the world of Native American shamanism and the possible intersection between its mystical view of the cosmos and modern physics. Fialkov offers a tantalizing interpretation of scientific possibility, one that stretches the ordinary categories of understanding. Unfortunately, the author’s prose is unembellished by literary style and can devolve into clichés, the weakest feature of the novel. Consider the reaction of Cheveyo Eaglefeather, a young Hopi training to be both a physician and a shaman, when he loses his girlfriend, Tuwa, to an accident: “The happiest time in his life had come and gone in a blink. It had been the only time in his life when he’d felt whole, complete; and now, he was empty again, incomplete, as if half of him were missing. Tuwa—he cried into the void—why did you leave me?” But the uneven prose doesn’t ruin the story’s gripping premise—this is an intelligent crime drama, thoughtful and complex.
An engrossing scientific thriller that challenges metaphysical orthodoxy.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2021
ISBN: 979-8708266507
Page Count: 345
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.
This debut novel, the first of a projected trilogy, blends science fiction, fantasy, gothic chiller, and classic house-party mystery.
Gideon Nav, a foundling of mysterious antecedents, was not so much adopted as indentured by the Ninth House, a nearly extinct noble necromantic house. Trained to fight, she wants nothing more than to leave the place where everyone despises her and join the Cohort, the imperial military. But after her most recent escape attempt fails, she finally gets the opportunity to depart the planet. The heir and secret ruler of the Ninth House, the ruthless and prodigiously talented bone adept Harrowhark Nonagesimus, chooses Gideon to serve her as cavalier primary, a sworn bodyguard and aide de camp, when the undying Emperor summons Harrow to compete for a position as a Lyctor, an elite, near-immortal adviser. The decaying Canaan House on the planet of the absent Emperor holds dark secrets and deadly puzzles as well as a cheerfully enigmatic priest who provides only scant details about the nature of the competition...and at least one person dedicated to brutally slaughtering the competitors. Unsure of how to mix with the necromancers and cavaliers from the other Houses, Gideon must decide whom among them she can trust—and her doubts include her own necromancer, Harrow, whom she’s loathed since childhood. This intriguing genre stew works surprisingly well. The limited locations and narrow focus mean that the author doesn’t really have to explain how people not directly attached to a necromantic House or the military actually conduct daily life in the Empire; hopefully future installments will open up the author’s creative universe a bit more. The most interesting aspect of the novel turns out to be the prickly but intimate relationship between Gideon and Harrow, bound together by what appears at first to be simple hatred. But the challenges of Canaan House expose other layers, beginning with a peculiar but compelling mutual loyalty and continuing on to other, more complex feelings, ties, and shared fraught experiences.
Suspenseful and snarky with surprising emotional depths.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31319-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An epic space adventure.
A thief and a teleporter team up to save their former crew in the finale of Mihalik's Starlight's Shadow trilogy.
Lexi Bowen is one of the most accomplished recovery specialists—code for thief—in the galaxy. She's nervous about taking a contract that requires her to return to Valovia, home planet of the ruthless enemies she once fought as a soldier, but the payout is too enticing to decline. Once she arrives on Valovia, she is almost immediately cornered by the Empress Nepru’s private guards. Teleporter Nilo Shoren appears in the middle of the altercation and teleports her to safety. Lexi’s history with Nilo is complicated. They were both crew members on Starlight’s Shadow, but Lexi has never forgiven Nilo for luring her to what she thought was a date only for him to steal a job right out from under her. She can’t understand why Nilo would save her now, and she’s determined to escape Valovia on her own. Nilo convinces her to accept his help escaping the empress, but their plans change when they discover Starlight’s Shadow and its crew are missing. Lexi and Nilo suspect that their friends were heading for the planet Rodeni, trying to capture a fugitive, and they set a course to mount a rescue mission. Lexi is a likable, tough-as-nails character determined to make it on her own. The truth is that she suffers flashbacks and panic attacks from the war, and she is afraid to show her vulnerabilities to Nilo. Although she tries to convince herself that her attraction to Nilo isn’t serious, she finds it impossible to resist him. In order to be together, they must learn to trust and openly communicate with each other, whether on the battlefield or in the bedroom.
An epic space adventure.Pub Date: June 20, 2023
ISBN: 9780063051102
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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