A futuristic tale with clever, gratifying worldbuilding that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the sequel.
In this debut SF adventure, androids abduct humans as part of a diabolical plan that threatens humanity.
By the late 24th century, humans have colonized Luna and Mars. They’re also living considerably longer, courtesy of aging cessation and “re-youthing.” Yet some things remain (relatively) the same, like Space Fashion Week in 2399. Former supermodel Samantha covers the event on her popular Holo show, Samantha! But this year, a Designer-bot Optimized for Shopping interrupts the Chanel show by asking for Sam. This robot, named simply DOS, claims Sention sims (essentially androids) have kidnapped his owner, Freddie Waverly, with plans to abduct fashion editor Pablo Starr as well. Most write off DOS’ interruption as a publicity stunt by Sam, who’s also an inventor, though few people take her seriously. But Sam believes DOS’ allegation is valid, especially after a search for her missing friend, Kiki Hong, points to her pal as another possible abductee. With help from her AI, Digital Intelligence with Voice Activation, and DOS, Sam tries convincing Pablo that he’s in danger. But Pablo is a recluse, tormented by his fiancee Air’s unexplained disappearance a century ago. Still, it’s soon apparent to everyone that something sinister is afoot. For starters, someone or something attempts to delete Sartoria, the first sentient AI and Pablo’s creation. This may be the same culprit who has evidently hacked the Sention sims, a misdeed that Sam, Pablo, and others ultimately link to a doomsday cult. But what’s really happening is far deadlier than they’ve foreseen.
Lopez’s series opener is a dense, lengthy introduction to a future universe. This includes a stable narrative foundation for character development in this story, with a potential for further evolution in the sequel. All AIs, for example, enjoy the same rights as humans, and Sartoria, despite Pablo’s having created her, has been living independently for some time. Similarly, characters are well established and dynamic. Even Rylie Cade, Sam’s co-host, who clearly wants her own Holo show, is a delightfully snooty antagonist who proves crucial in the final act. The tale tends to favor characters’ frequent discourse—backstories or a plan for confronting villains—over accelerating this installment’s plot. Nevertheless, there are surprising turns, particularly as the heroes get closer to unraveling what’s behind the kidnappings. Thankfully, Lopez avoids narrative lulls by dropping readers into the unknown world and allowing exposition or backstory to unfold organically without reducing the momentum. At the same time, readers won’t be lost, as the author makes much of the unfamiliar relatable: Super-Ping is a notable social networking site à la Twitter while Lux, despite few specifics, is unquestionably a form of currency. There’s also a fair amount of humor, mostly through visual descriptions: “Pablo sat in a white Eames-inspired chair in front of the main viewer, with a digital control panel in the right arm of the chair. An identical chair hovered to its immediate left, with a ‘BROKEN’ sign affixed to it.” Despite a thorough wrap-up, there’s much unresolved by the end and plenty of material for the next volume.
A futuristic tale with clever, gratifying worldbuilding that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the sequel.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-69339-739-4
Page Count: 490
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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