STONE FEVER

Name: STONE FEVER
Author: Norman Westhoff
ISBN: 978-1-77180-456-1

EREBUS TALES: BOOK 1

by Norman Westhoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 23, 2020

A gripping and well-constructed tale of first contact in a future Antarctica.

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

GET IT

An unlikely group of teammates hunts for a precious metal in a climate-ravaged future era.

As this first entry of Westhoff’s SF series gets underway, readers are introduced to Joaquin Beltran and Luz Hogarth, two young members of a horse-wrangling tribe of nomadic Onwei people contending with the resource-deprived world of 24th-century ice-free Antarctica. The primitive pattern of their existence is interrupted when a scientific party from the outside world (the “Sky-Bornes,” in tribal parlance) crash-lands on nearby Mount Erebus. This expedition, financed by a duplicitous oligarch, has been sent in search of the precious metal iridium. The novel’s main narrative strand follows the adventures of Canadian geologist Keltyn SparrowHawk, one team member, as she comes to know Luz and Joaquin and their people. The tribe has its own uses for iridium, and various internal treacheries and outside forces may be manipulating both groups toward unknown ends. The story that gradually unfolds is predominantly a detailed study of the inner workings of a tribal society that has fallen away from the increasingly insular technological world. Westhoff orchestrates this fairly standard SF quest plot with a great deal of narrative skill. By cannily adapting the usual SF first-contact idea to a Balkanized future in which resource scarcity has advanced societies sharing the planet with Iron Age nomadic tribes, he’s able to forego a good deal of the worldbuilding that can make such narratives tedious. Instead, he’s very adept at keeping his main characters distinct and individually compelling. The differences between the explorers and the tribe members are shown to run much deeper than their respective levels of technology, and both depictions are refreshingly free of condescension. Keltyn’s slow integration into this tribal setting, although it seems too pat at times, ultimately comes across as convincingly human. Readers finishing this first installment will very likely want to read another.

A gripping and well-constructed tale of first contact in a future Antarctica.

Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-77180-456-1

Page Count: 386

Publisher: Iguana Books

Review Posted Online: April 7, 2022

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

- BOOK REVIEW
GIFTS OF A DARK GOD
by Norman Westhoff

- BOOK REVIEW
THE COLOR OF GREED
by Norman Westhoff

bookshelf

THE BOOK OF KOLI

by M.R. Carey ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.

bookshelf

The first volume in Carey’s Rampart trilogy is set centuries into a future shaped by war and climate change, where the scant remains of humankind are threatened by genetically modified trees and plants.

Teenager Koli Woodsmith lives in Mythen Rood, a village of about 200 people in a place called Ingland, which has other names such as “Briton and Albion and Yewkay.” He was raised to cultivate, and kill, the wood from the dangerous trees beyond Mythen Rood’s protective walls. Mythen Rood is governed by the Ramparts (made up entirely of members of one family—what a coincidence), who protect the village with ancient, solar-powered tech. After the Waiting, a time in which each child, upon turning 15, must decide their future, Koli takes the Rampart test: He must “awaken” a piece of old tech. After he inevitably fails, he steals a music player which houses a charming “manic pixie dream girl” AI named Monono, who reveals a universe of knowledge. Of course, a little bit of knowledge can threaten entire societies or, in Koli’s case, a village held in thrall to a family with unfettered access to powerful weapons. Koli attempts to use the device to become a Rampart, he becomes their greatest threat, and he’s exiled to the world beyond Mythen Rood. Luckily, the pragmatic Koli has his wits, Monono, and an ally in Ursala, a traveling doctor who strives to usher in a healthy new generation of babies before humanity dies out for good. Koli will need all the help he can get, especially when he’s captured by a fearsome group ruled by a mad messianic figure who claims to have psychic abilities. Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s (Someone Like Me, 2018, etc.) immersive, impeccably rendered world, and his speech and way of life are different enough to imagine the weight of what was lost but still achingly familiar, and as always, Carey leavens his often bleak scenarios with empathy and hope. Readers will be thrilled to know the next two books will be published in short order.

A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.