An intellectual, stylish, and brisk sci-fi tale.
A debut novel follows two characters in their own time periods who are each outfitted with a potent object.
In late 17th-century England, Elizabeth’s mathematician father, Owens Blake, trusts her to deliver a package to Sir Isaac Newton. But she turns around after spotting strangers heading in the direction of her farm. She discovers the family property in flames, her mother and little brother gone, and her father dead. According to a farmhand, Owens had refused to reveal to the strangers the location of a particular item. Elizabeth later unwraps the package and a device inside activates, surprisingly attaching itself to her back. In 2018 Canada, Mikael heads to Bryo, a research lab, for an internship but instead becomes an unwitting participant in an experiment: His spinal cord is replaced with an unusual object. Luckily, a doctor helps him escape the lab and explains that the device allows Mikael to “influence the laws of physics.” Both he and Elizabeth are pursued by nefarious groups that resort to lethal means to retrieve the item. Meanwhile, the superpowered protagonists slowly master new skills, like subverting gravity and effectively walking on the ceiling. Olejarz’s clever and entertaining series opener is rife with intelligent notions often relayed in layperson’s terms without oversimplification. Manipulating fundamental forces, for example, may stem from a “mysterious energy” or an unknown element that surrounds everything. The author alternates between time periods with ease, with the storylines’ similarities (for example, the two protagonists dodging baddies and likely using the same object) giving the overall plot cohesion. Intermittent displays of the device’s capabilities fuel the narrative’s momentum while descriptions are occasionally lyrical: “Science is a lighthouse in a fog filled with beliefs.” Subsequent installments of the sci-fi series will hopefully address the device’s specific origin and perhaps reveal a stronger connection between the two protagonists and time periods other than the enigmatic object.
An intellectual, stylish, and brisk sci-fi tale.Pub Date: April 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77528-223-5
Page Count: 327
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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