by Matt Charles ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
This engrossing speculative yarn envisions potential future geopolitical fallout from climate change.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Climate change brings the world’s two superpowers to the brink of war in Charles’ propulsive thriller.
In the very near future, the southwestern United States suffers from a crippling drought; this results in a plan for a pipeline to carry fresh water from the Great Lakes to that dry region. A troop of Michigan rebels, unwilling to share their local water, gets into a firefight with the ATF. Taking advantage of this conflict, a squadron of planes thought to be from China appears off Alaska, but American fliers drive them off. As America needs items produced in China, a fragile detente between the powers is maintained (“Once again, Weapons of Mass Destruction had preserved world peace”). With the planet slowly dying, the superpowers move into space, and the Americans set up an asteroid mining operation based at the Alan Shepherd Space Station. Before long, Chinese pilots attempt to intercept an asteroid that the Americans are ferrying back to be mined (Chinese commandos also try to invade the station). But the United States has an ace in the hole: Qing Li, a double agentinside the China Academy of Space Technology who slips his CIA handler the specs for a Chinese weather satellite with orbital nuclear strike capabilities. The author has crafted a thoughtful debut novel. His scenario is a natural progression of the current climate crisis; with the nation becoming divided into the haves and the have-nots, it’s logical that natural resources could be the next commodity to be fought over. Though the action-packed narrative takes place over seven years, Charles still makes it fly along seamlessly. He approaches the tale in the manner of Rashomon, split between the perceptions of a half-dozen, mostly lower-level characters. The result is an exciting space opera that remains closely tied to Earth’s problems.
This engrossing speculative yarn envisions potential future geopolitical fallout from climate change.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8366421768
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
230
Our Verdict
GET IT
New York Times Bestseller
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Max Brooks
BOOK REVIEW
by Max Brooks
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
Awards & Accolades
Likes
18
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2024
New York Times Bestseller
by Liz Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2024
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
18
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2024
New York Times Bestseller
Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
More by Liz Moore
BOOK REVIEW
by Liz Moore
BOOK REVIEW
by Liz Moore
More About This Book
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.