A high-spirited tale for readers interested in archaeology and sustainable living.
An archaeological fantasy adventure that brings one of the world’s greatest mysteries into the modern political milieu.
Self-professed archaeology geek Bob Wallace has written a controversial new book, The Impossible Mayan. In it, he posits that the ancient Mayan civilization, rather than dying out, made contact with and joined the “People of the Sea” from the lost city of Atlantis. He and his 13-year-old daughter, Tara, are on a flight back to the United States from a conference in England when the plane’s electronics fail and it crash-lands in the ocean. Meanwhile, Bob’s ex-wife, Jenn Wallace, awaits them at Playa del Carmen in Mexico. She’s set to lead a tour of the Mayan ruins beneath Tulum, where recently discovered images and artifacts lend credence to Bob’s theory. The same phenomenon that downed the plane—an electromagnetic pulse—causes fog to cover the beach, followed by a small-scale tsunami. Bob, Tara, and other conference attendees, including the insufferable Evan Masters, survive the plane crash only to encounter low, wooden ships powered by oars. Aboard them is a contingent that Bob recognizes as ancient Mayan. The rescuers bring the survivors to an island formed by “Three rings of water, and three of land”—Atlantis itself. In this opener to a new series, author Enock (Doc Christmas and the Magic of Trains, 2016) soon shows what happens when a large nation of benevolent visionaries, who believe that “no single voice must...be allowed to speak for all,” is thrust into the chaotic 21st century. The book is both playful and politically savvy; for example, the Atlanteans appear superficially primitive, but they know enough to use their force-field technology to protect the island from scrambling world powers, such as China. However, they also trust in the visions of the mysterious Diachrome, who foresaw the world’s end in 2012. Although this plot thread leads to moments of humor, another one about global elites reaping technological benefits while humanity suffers is frightfully consequential. By the end, Bob’s and Tara’s lives are changed forever, urging readers toward the next volume in the series.
A high-spirited tale for readers interested in archaeology and sustainable living.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-988108-01-8
Page Count: 440
Publisher: iTinkr Inc.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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