A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife.
A badly tainted entrepreneur lands in an idyllic, virtual reality afterlife run by his company—but hostile takeovers and vengeful avatars threaten his control of this digital heaven.
This offering by SF/fantasy author Noble takes the shape of dossiers of recorded transcriptions and documentation spanning the 22nd century, obtained via private investigators and the “Library of Congress VR Division.” They cover, not always chronologically, the rise, fall—and resurrection and fall—of Gunter Holden, scion of a venal businessman father. Gunter sought dad’s favor, among other self-serving relationships, by creating (partially by the theft of technology) a VR afterlife for paying customers. Dubbed Bali Hai, the heavenly realm grants the wishes and fantasies of the deceased dwellers in a cyberscape. Many “bio” (living) individuals even kill themselves to gain early admission. Such was the case with Gunter—only for him, it was a murder-suicide, his way of resolving a love triangle in which he saw his wife (the latest of several) leave him for a black-sheep musician brother, whose finer qualities she more admired. Now the “transitioned” digital Gunter still bids to run his business from Bali Hai. But in the bio world, rivals move in over the decades. They include a Christian-operated, VR-afterlife competitor, who’s not averse to “deleting” millions of virtual people in a show of power, including a self-identifying-as-animals nature cult founded by a former “holo-porn” kingpin. Enemies like these almost make the criminal Gunter seem like a good guy. The fragmented time/space/hard-drive series opener may tax the patience of some readers, especially those seeking straightforward causality. The Holden family tree becomes torturously tangled with each new revelation of Gunter’s hidden early life. Meanwhile, the semi-redacted, digital evidence file presentation approaches the techniques of experimental fiction (or Max Headroom getting buggy), with abrupt “memory breaches” and a Citizen Kane–type mosaic of the tormented antihero. The result is a challenging but compelling vision of a privatized, synthetic heaven slowly eaten away by ungodly capitalism, cupidity, and the sins of its founder. Noble credits futurist Ray Kurzweil as a particular inspiration.
A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.
After being murdered and inexplicably reborn, a heavy metal musician sets out on a journey of self-discovery with nothing short of the future of humankind at stake in the first installment of Sanderson and Orullian’s Strata Wars saga.
Jack Solomon is not having a good day. After moving to London from the mean streets of Los Angeles and starting a metal band called the Hounds of Winter, he’s been kicked out of the group just weeks before they’re scheduled to open for Black Sabbath at Wembley Stadium. While Jack is walking with his good friend Henry Wilkinson—a father figure of sorts who has mentored Jack over the years and owns the music venue the Iron Horse—they are both shot and (seemingly) killed. Then Jack regains consciousness and finds himself in a hellscape with a massive mountain of fire in the distance and countless human statues everywhere. After Henry appears in the vision, telling Jack, “You’ve got more to do,” Jack awakens in front of Henry’s flat, unharmed but covered in blood. With Henry’s body missing, Jack begins to understand his new reality: He’s a thanatist (don’t call him a necromancer) and Henry’s venue hides an entrance to the Strata—“several long periods of London history that have coalesced to form layers of the past.” The Strata are inhabited by gruesome creatures and millions of memories, and Jack discovers that someone wants to take over the Iron Horse, with its staircase to every level of the Strata, and begin a revolution where music (curated by a madman) can change the future of humanity. The many shoutouts to legendary bands notwithstanding, this novel is powered by two elements: the exceptional worldbuilding of the subterranean Strata, whose potential is virtually limitless; and Jack’s deeply personal healing journey, which includes forgiving others—like his mother, who abandoned him—and himself. Jack’s story arc is comparable to his adventures in the Strata: The deeper he descends into the Strata, the deeper he delves into himself.
A headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series—heavy metal playlist sadly not included.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668068144
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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