A bleak, well-written environmentalist/SF actioner; good (or not) for rainy-day reading.
In a California valley that has become an embattled, self-sufficient community following national collapse, scientists, soldiers, and survivors cope with the increasing toxicity of the frequent rainfall.
Ritter, also a nature writer, sets his apocalyptic SF tale in a future that will be familiar enough to most genre readers—a post–United States California where national order, communication, and cooperation have dissolved, and it’s pretty much every district for itself. For decades, the Salinas Valley, a major agricultural region, has been self-sufficient and fairly functional despite a bitter ongoing border war with their neighbors. But an attempt at cloud seeding to produce crop-yielding rain went horribly wrong. Now the frequent precipitation in the Valley carries bacteria fatal to human life (though it becomes normal water seconds after contact with the soil). Willie Taft, a former hero soldier in the nation state’s ubiquitous military, goes rogue as the situation grows more chaotic. Adding to the dystopian ordeal is the emergence of “rainwalkers,” rare individuals who go unharmed by the lethal rain that otherwise poses an extinction-level threat. Taft’s school-age daughter is swept up in a cruel government scheme to find and weaponize any rainwalkers—all in the name of Valley patriotism, of course. Male characters are all named after past U.S. presidents, a peculiar affectation in an otherwise straightforward tale of authoritarian nationalism, political desperation, scientific arrogance, and eco-doom gathered under the same...umbrella. Ritter doesn’t do too badly himself at invoking an oppressive, menacing atmosphere in which the question of who’ll stop the rain is a lot more than a song title. And, of course, the whole thing can be taken as an extended, gloomy climate change metaphor.
A bleak, well-written environmentalist/SF actioner; good (or not) for rainy-day reading. (map)Pub Date: June 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9998960-2-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pacific Street Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Absolutely superb.
Leaders of Britain’s abolitionist movement join forces with a veteran of the Haitian revolution to push back Napoleon’s deadly forces in Parry’s second Shadow Histories novel.
Napoléon Bonaparte isn’t a particularly talented magician, but his potential as a general and conqueror attracts the attention of the same mysterious figure who manipulated Robespierre to set off the Reign of Terror in A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (2020). When Bonaparte summons a kraken to serve the French navy and later finds a dragon hidden in the sands of Egypt, it’s only a matter of time before France and Europe fall at his feet. William Pitt, meanwhile, is growing weaker by the day as he works to keep a deadly and dangerous magical secret from his enemies. William Wilberforce continues to fight for abolition but is stymied at every turn. Fina uses her magic to help Toussaint Louverture keep hold of Saint-Domingue, but she eventually makes the journey to London and meets Pitt and Wilberforce. With a first-rate blend of political drama and magic battle–action, Parry manages to inject tension and stakes into a historical drama where average readers will know at least the broad strokes of the ending. Effortlessly switching from France to England to Egypt to Saint-Domingue, Parry folds in show-stopping new characters like Kate Dove, a commoner weather mage dead-set on avenging her brother’s death by kraken, and Lady Hester Stanhope, who would become one of the most famous explorers of the 19th century. When the three main characters, Fina, Pitt, and Wilberforce, finally face off with the stranger, the resulting conflict brings the series’ meditations on idealism, the fight for human rights, and the necessary limits of institutional power to a head.
Absolutely superb.Pub Date: July 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-45915-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Redhook/Orbit
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dark and devastating conclusion that transcends its roots in historical fact to examine brutal truths.
In the final installment of the Poppy War trilogy, a warrior shaman resolves to seize control of her homeland from enemies far and near, no matter the cost.
Having suffered severe losses and betrayals, Rin rallies the Southern Coalition in an effort to defeat the Mugenese troops still in Nikan, the president of the Nikara Republic, and the foreign menace of the Hesperians, with their almost unimaginably advanced technology. But a southern army is not enough, and Rin must also rely on the unpredictable powers of her wild god, the Phoenix, and form a risky alliance with the Trifecta that once ruled Nikan. Drawing heavily on 20th-century Chinese history, Kuang continues to explore familiar themes—including imperialism, racism, colorism, and the terrible and long-lasting effects of war—while deepening Rin’s portrayal, as Rin experiences moments of heartfelt sympathy and connection with others while also continually seeking power and succumbing over and over to her own hubris and paranoia. This installment dwells heavily on the devastating realities of war and the costs of leading a nation in crisis but does not sink into overly grotesque meditations—or perhaps we, along with Rin, have become desensitized and hardened. Ultimately, despite the epic scope of the plot, the novel hinges on the relationships between Rin and those closest to her: A nation may rise or fall and thousands may lose their homes or starve in the process, but their fate depends not on magic from the divine plane but on simple, fallible people.
A dark and devastating conclusion that transcends its roots in historical fact to examine brutal truths. (Map, Dramatis Personae)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266262-0
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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