A gritty, street-level take on familiar interstellar fare.
In Casbarro’s SF series starter, humanity’s desire for the “blue gold” powering the cosmos keeps the inhabitants of planet Deorum locked in familiar earthly patterns of oppression and control.
The book’s title refers to an uncanny spaceborne substance that’s allowed fantastic technological achievements and has propelled humankind into the furthest reaches of the known galaxy. Initially, the blue substance is quite difficult to acquire, but in 2351, scientists identify a fracture in space-time from which the coveted material spews forth. The discovery of this “Vital Cascade,” however, sparks wars that span centuries. Deorum emerges from the carnage in a unique position of power and importance. Casbarro grounds his interstellar adventure in the person of Roman Matthews; like Luke Skywalker before him, he starts out as an average, everyday teen who’s just trying to get by. After his parents are brutally gunned down before his eyes by soldiers (“klangs”) from the Coalition for Prosperity government, he’s forced to survive on the mean streets of Kairus, far beneath the circular city’s gleaming spires. Later, he spends time in the abusive crucible of the Ion Street Home for Boys and emerges transformed, assuming the role of a tough-as-nails bounty hunter on a collision course with the villainous Zerris Aganon, the most powerful man on Deorum. This introductory volume of Casbarro’s planned six-volume series carries all the hallmarks of classic SF escapism: expansive worldbuilding, robust lore, myriad characters, and fundamental philosophical inquiries.For all of its futuristic components, though, the appeal of this space opera undoubtedly rests on its two-fisted emphasis on action and adventure; as such, its style calls to mind the work of both Isaac Asimov and Quentin Tarantino: “Unable to aim in time, the goon’s head slams off the linoleum, causing him to involuntarily discharge a spray of bullets into the ceiling.” The tireless pursuit of quantities of Vitalerium in Casbarro’s fictional universe promises lots of gory good fun in future installments.
A gritty, street-level take on familiar interstellar fare.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798891324015
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2024
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 fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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