Kress’s always-excellent characters wrestle with a splendid array of puzzles and problems, human, alien, and scientific:...
Sequel, as predicted, to Kress’s wonderful alien-contact yarn Probability Moon (2000). Humanity is at war with the ruthless, xenophobic, uncommunicative alien Fallers. Planet World’s furry, intelligent humanoids somehow “share reality”: they think and react alike, or suffer the consequence of blinding head pain. Also on World reposes an ancient artifact, a relic of some vanished race, that can generate a shield impenetrable to directed-energy weapons. On another setting, the artifact causes heavy radioactive elements to explode. And, by manipulating probability, the artifact gives rise to the Worlders’ shared reality. A second expedition to World, led by the masterfully diplomatic Colonel Lyle Kaufman, includes genius physicist Thomas Capelo—he’ll study the artifact—and gene-modified Marbet Grant, supernaturally capable of interpreting body language and involuntary cues, to interrogate a captured Faller. Though the Fallers already possess the shield against energy beams, Capelo makes no progress toward understanding the physics behind the device. Marbet makes little headway in communicating with her captive. The artifact, Capelo learns, might protect the Solar System against Faller attack—but if they remove the artifact from World, the inhabitants’ shared reality will collapse, along with their civilization. Then Marbet shows her Faller a model of the artifact, for which treasonous act she’s arrested and thrown into the brig—leaving all Lyle’s plans in ruins.
Kress’s always-excellent characters wrestle with a splendid array of puzzles and problems, human, alien, and scientific: another resounding success for this talented, sure-footed writer.Pub Date: July 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-87407-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
An eerie odyssey that would be right at home in the pages of the pulpy Warren comics.
The second, equally creepy novel from Deadspin columnist Magary (Someone Could Get Hurt, 2013, etc.).
Magary channeled postmodern horror-comedy in his first novel, The Postmortal, and here taps into a similar vein that posits an Everyman in a video game–like setting, with a Kafka-esque transformation thrown in for good measure. We meet Ben as the suburban family man has left his family in Maryland and arrives at a hotel in rural Pennsylvania for a business meeting the next day. He decides to go for a hike. And then all hell breaks loose. For starting out with such a grounded setup, Magary isn’t shy about getting weird fast. Ben is soon pursued by a pair of killers who wear the disembodied faces of skinned Rottweilers. He’s left messages with his name on them that read, “Stay on the path, or you will die.” He’s kidnapped by a cannibal giantess named Fermona who forces him to fight a man to death in her arena, and that’s before she sics the dwarves on him. Along the way, Ben is told his only solution is to find a demigodlike character called only “The Producer.” “I don’t even know if I’m still on Earth, or if I ate some kind of bad mushroom or something,” Ben tells his only companion, a talking crab named Crab. “I don’t know anything. But this path opened up and any time I leave it, something tries to kill me.” It seems that Ben is in an alternate dimension, one with two moons, death clouds, and time travel. It all unfolds much like a video game does, so readers who don’t enter this weird world with a lot of preconceived notions should have a blast. It’s worth noting that Magary even nails the ending with a Twilight Zone twist that would have Rod Serling nodding with approval.
An eerie odyssey that would be right at home in the pages of the pulpy Warren comics.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-56385-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rather one-dimensional but mostly satisfying child-soldier yarn which substantially extends and embellishes one of Card's better short stories (Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories, 1980).
Following a barely-defeated invasion attempt by the insect-like alien "buggers," a desperate Earth command resorts to genetic experimentation in order to produce a tactical genius capable of defeating the buggers in round two. (A counterinvasion has already been launched, but will take years to reach the buggers' home planet.) So likable but determined "Ender" Wiggins, age six, becomes Earth's last hope—when his equally talented elder siblings Peter (too vicious and vindictive) and Valentine (too gentle and sympathetic) prove unsuitable. And, in a dramatic, brutally convincing series of war games and computer-fantasies, Ender is forced to realize his military genius, to rely on nothing and no-one but himself. . . and to disregard all rules in order to win. There are some minor, distracting side issues here: wrangles among Ender's adult trainers; an irrelevant subplot involving Peter's attempt to take over Earth. And there'll be no suspense for those familiar with the short story.
Still, the long passages focusing on Ender are nearly always enthralling—the details are handled with flair and assurance—and this is altogether a much more solid, mature, and persuasive effort than Card's previous full-length appearances.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1984
ISBN: 0812550706
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1984
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