Thoroughly enthralling, thanks to humanity’s representative—a perceptive, tireless protagonist.
In this sci-fi debut, a graduate student’s ability to speak an alien language makes her essential to the prospective alliance between humans and the extraterrestrials.
Avery Alcott was born in 1993, the same year Earth had first contact with the humanoid Vardeshi. But the peaceful aliens left shortly after arrival, offering the vague reason that humans were “a volatile race.” More than two decades later, Avery’s professor Dr. Alistair Sawyer at a California graduate school offers her a unique opportunity. Having spent years translating the Vardeshi’s native tongue from various recordings, Sawyer teaches it to Avery. When the Vardeshi subsequently return, Avery is the primary choice for a cultural exchange. In fact, she won’t merely be living among them; she becomes a low-ranking member of their fleet for a one-year, round-trip journey to their home planet, Vardesh Prime. Acclimating to the Vardeshi aboard the ship, Pinion, is strenuous: It takes time for Avery to master nuances of language and customs. But the ship’s commander, Khavi Vekesh, isn’t interested in exchanging cultures, as he orders others not to converse in English with Avery. It’s soon clear someone on Pinion opposes a human/Vardeshi partnership and enacts a dastardly scheme to ensure its failure. In her series opener, Pechenick aptly parallels the human/alien relationship with the real-life diversity of world cultures. For example, in this book there are some, including certain groups on Earth, who protest the alliance while Avery strives to immerse herself in Vardeshi traditions without losing her own. The story’s steady pace meticulously develops characters, such as Zey Takheri; he shares the same low rank as Avery and becomes a loyal friend to the often lonely woman. Along with a touch of suspense (a threat to the ship and crew near the end), there’s humor: The aliens’ initial visit ultimately produced Vardeshi-obsessed fans, called Vaku, as well as popular Vardramas on TV. Though the narrative is predominantly in English, the author adds a few choice Vardeshi words and includes a glossary.
Thoroughly enthralling, thanks to humanity’s representative—a perceptive, tireless protagonist.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73231-230-2
Page Count: 490
Publisher: Ink Sigil Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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