The narrative style distracts from a compelling dystopian world.
Rogers’ debut dystopian novel takes place between two earthen apocalypses.
Oona Kane lives on an unrecognizable Earth after an apocalypse that no living person remembers. The humans returned to the planet generations ago, divided into two isolated groups: poverty-stricken Surv and privileged Selene. Many years after Earth’s repopulation, Oona had the misfortune of being born Surv, and the story focuses on her pursuit of something more after a disastrous, abusive marriage to a cult member. She’s able to accomplish this unthinkable goal not because of a special skill but because her father was instrumental in the survival of Jacob Millhaven, a noted Selene philosopher. Equally as important, Oona figures out how to work the system: She climbs the social ladder one man at a time, discarding each. To her credit, she returns for her daughter and makes a path for her nephew and his friend, but when Oona enters Selene society, she forgets Marcel, the man who helped her cross the social barrier. Once married into Selene society, she’s still not fully accepted despite the uneasy patronage of the philosopher’s son, Eldridge Millhaven. As Oona continues to bridge the two worlds, visiting her family in the Out Country and carelessly showering them with Selene fancies while ignoring their real needs, Earth is crumbling once again in ways no one seems to understand. Oona, for her part, can’t bring herself to be concerned. Despite the dystopian setting, there’s little mention of the government’s controlling nature and the people’s apparent acceptance of it. Right after Oona’s second husband, Raymond, dies, Earth’s evacuation is ordered, with Eldridge offering Oona a spot with him on the first transport. Her refusal sparks some sort of metamorphosis in her after too much navel-gazing, but what exactly happens in her mind isn’t clear. More characterization and scene setting would have benefitted the story by allowing readers to connect to Oona, since she’s a somewhat difficult character to relate to as is. She seemingly brushes everything off and doesn’t allow herself to make emotional connections to the people around her, including her daughter.
The narrative style distracts from a compelling dystopian world.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456841898
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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