An ambitious tale, but one that offers little solid ground for readers to stand on.
An alternate-history SF novel set during a version of World War II in which the Nazis triumph.
The D’mt, an alien warrior race, has been wandering through space in exile for eons after surviving a civil war. But they haven’t lost their warrior spirit—or their desire for revenge. Their goal is “to restore their former glory of a once-great empire.” Their leader, Nyarlathotep, has visited Earth before, impersonating a god and enslaving Jewish people. Later in human history, the D’mt forge an alliance with Nazi Germany and share their knowledge and technology to ensure a Nazi victory in World War II. But there remains a resistance group that’s determined to defeat them: the Mensheviks. Amru effectively showcases his love of literature throughout this novel; H.G. Wells and Ayn Rand actually appear as minor characters, and there are references to The Great Gatsby and King Lear existing in this fictional world. However, the novel as a whole is structurally confusing, which makes the basic plot difficult to follow; indeed, Amru seems more interested in writing a philosophical text than a cohesive novel. Several characters appear with little to no introduction, and throughout the text, readers will find it hard to determine who’s narrating or exactly when events are taking place. Very early on, for instance, readers follow Cassandra in 1913, who’s lived through a violent revolt; after the third-person text lays out her thoughts on God and faith, the narration shifts to first person; then, without warning, readers are following new players—Zoe Chasivan, Prescot Silver, and Jean Francois. Cassandra’s section is then repeated verbatim much later in the text, and the author’s intention with this choice is unclear.
An ambitious tale, but one that offers little solid ground for readers to stand on.Pub Date: May 31, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 361
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2021
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
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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