A boldly political and boldly offensive sendup of America’s War on Terror and its aftermath.
A sexually frustrated Iraq War veteran grapples with past and present sins in Shallman’s satirical erotic thriller.
It’s 2003, and U.S. Navy Capt. Rod Solo loves being a fighter pilot. Flying his F/A 18F Super Hornet during the Iraq War is, for him, something close to sex. He’s also sexually intimate with his male co-pilot, Willy Green, while they’re stranded in the desert following a crash. After surviving capture, sexual torture, and even a bomb, Rod makes it back to America where (after a short fling with Edwina, the transgender sister of Willy, who’s missing in action), he embarks on a new career as a CIA drone pilot. Although a lack of arousal keeps him from having sex with his wife, Lulu, he has the opposite problem at work, where the grainy images of buildings and vehicles he targets leave him sweaty. His sexual desire carries over an in-person encounter with a co-worker, Mission Specialist Honey Bagwell—which, in turn, leads to the accidental bombing of a school in Pakistan. To atone for their horrific mistake, Rod and Honey are sent to Karachi disguised as DJs to kill the man they were supposed to eliminate: narco-terrorist Mohammed Rafiq. On-the-ground missions are a lot more dangerous than remote ones, and Rod realizes that the CIA may have decided he’s better off dead than alive. Over the course of this novel, Shallman offers high-octane prose that combines over-the-top prurience and nihilist political satire, as in a scene in which Rod takes a break at work: “As he pleasured himself, Rod imagined his penis was a joystick and his welling sperm ballistic missiles poised for launch from a gigantic turgid flesh drone hovering over Langley.” The book is certainly self-aware (at one point Shallman himself even makes an appearance) and the author’s use of hypersexuality to critique American imperial violence is certainly thought-provoking. Overall, though, the book isn’t as sexy, or even as funny, as it is discomfiting—and perhaps that’s the point that the author is trying to make.
A boldly political and boldly offensive sendup of America’s War on Terror and its aftermath.Pub Date: May 8, 2024
ISBN: 9798986354859
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Flying Bed Books
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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
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