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
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning.
An intrepid teen encounters the dark secrets of the elite in her climate-ravaged world in this translated work from South Korea.
Sixteen-year-old Jeon Chobahm is shocked to learn that Goh Haeri, the beloved reality TV star who happens to be Chobahm’s look-alike, just died by suicide—and also that she’s being asked to become Haeri’s secret replacement. In their frozen, post-apocalyptic world, Chobahm, like everyone around her, leads a bleak life. She bundles up daily against the dangerous cold and toils in a power plant. But now she’ll live Haeri’s cushy life in Snowglobe, an exclusive, glass-dome-enclosed community, where the climate is mild, and the resident actors’ lives are broadcast as entertainment for those in the open world. As glamorous as life there may seem, however, Chobahm quickly learns that there’s a sinister underbelly: People are killed off when they’re no longer useful, and there’s something strange about Haeri’s family dynamics. As she meets a host of new companions, including Yi Bonwhe, the heir of Snowglobe’s founding family, Chobahm discovers a devastating secret and embarks on a risky plan to expose the truth. Climate change, societal inequity, and the ethics of escaping from our own lives by watching others’ are addressed in this intelligent, absorbing book. Chobahm is a complex character inhabiting a strongly developed world, and her compassion, ambition, outrage, and sorrow ring true.
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning. (Dystopian. 12-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593484975
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK TO SCREEN
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.
Brown completes his science-fiction trilogy with another intricately plotted and densely populated tome, this one continuing the focus on a rebellion against the imperious Golds.
This last volume is incomprehensible without reference to the first two. Briefly, Darrow of Lykos, aka Reaper, has been “carved” from his status as a Red (the lowest class) into a Gold. This allows him to infiltrate the Gold political infrastructure…but a game’s afoot, and at the beginning of the third volume, Darrow finds himself isolated and imprisoned for his insurgent activities. He longs both for rescue and for revenge, and eventually he gets both. Brown is an expert at creating violent set pieces whose cartoonish aspects (“ ‘Waste ’em,’ Sevro says with a sneer” ) are undermined by the graphic intensity of the savagery, with razors being a favored instrument of combat. Brown creates an alternative universe that is multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth, much as in Frank Herbert’s Dune. This world is vaguely Teutonic/Scandinavian (with characters such as Magnus, Ragnar, and the Valkyrie) and vaguely Roman (Octavia, Romulus, Cassius) but ultimately wholly eclectic. At the center are Darrow, his lover, Mustang, and the political and military action of the Uprising. Loyalties are conflicted, confusing, and malleable. Along the way we see Darrow become more heroic and daring and Mustang, more charismatic and unswerving, both agents of good in a battle against forces of corruption and domination. Among Darrow’s insights as he works his way to a position of ascendancy is that “as we pretend to be brave, we become so.”
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-345-53984-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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