While the pacing fails to match the urgency of the central plot, the tale delivers a complex blend of ecological sci-fi and...
Two eco-engineers trying to save their planet from environmental disaster discover their employer may possess a hidden agenda in this first installment of a series.
On the wind-swept plains of the planet Arcadia, a flyer descends and deposits its lone passenger, an eco-engineer named Fee Den Coille. She’s traveled from the mountains to meet her partner, Caleb Winter, a native of the plains and an expert in passive wind and solar utilization. Fee’s expertise in water and transpiration is needed in the plains. Both come from powerful corporate families. Caleb’s family company, Winter Solaris, is a leader in solar energy on the plains while the Den Coille family dominates the market in nutrient-rich trees. Fee and Caleb work for the Survey, an organization dedicated to maintaining the ecological balance of Arcadia. The environmental fabric of the planet is unraveling and the Survey has assigned to Fee and Caleb the task of rescuing Arcadia. Loyal to the Survey, they commence work on the project, knowing it will affect their families’ businesses. As Arcadia begins to change, they discover the Survey may be keeping secrets that place them and their families in danger. Jones’ (Swift Runs the Heart, 2016, etc.) sci-fi epic offers an intricate plot and rich characterizations. In creating Arcadia and the environmental dangers that threaten it, the author includes several themes, including the ethics of ecological engineering and corporate responsibility. Arcadia is a vividly imagined planet with distinctive terrain and ecological challenges, and a complex political structure. To help readers navigate Arcadia, Jones includes a full character list and a glossary of key terms and measurements used on the planet. Fee and Caleb are strong lead characters whose eventual romance unfolds gradually but provides a solid emotional core to the second half of the book. But for a story built around a race against time, at more than 600 pages, the novel’s pacing is leisurely.
While the pacing fails to match the urgency of the central plot, the tale delivers a complex blend of ecological sci-fi and political thriller.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-473-36657-5
Page Count: 608
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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