An engaging, multifaceted, fast-paced space adventure.
An SF novel focuses on two siblings who may save the world.
The year is 2090. Things on Earth aren’t great. Back in 2038, aliens known as Cephs landed in Antarctica. The Cephs were humanlike creatures that, in time, managed to live among “Earthlanders.” They also mated with humans, creating offspring commonly known as “half-breeds.” Human-Ceph interactions were not always friendly. In Greece, a half-breed named Djedefptah “Jed” Tegea was born. Tegea eventually rose to power, and his armies managed to take over much of the world. One significant holdout could be found in North America. Something called the Shaman’s Shield was created with the use of magic. The Shield initially spanned from California to Alaska and served as a force field of sorts, halting any objects that attempted to pass through it. Now, the Shield is beginning to recede. Torr Dagda is a young man on the front lines ready for just such a scenario. His team has guns waiting for when Tegea’s men decide to invade. But resistance proves futile. Surrender is demanded, and Torr flees north to find his family. His twin sister, Cassidy, awaits his arrival. Once Torr finally makes it home, he and Cassidy decide to head to the moon. While the twins have deeds to property there, the moon is still a harsh place. They wind up in a dusty human encampment living off rations. Survival will be the first part of their plan. Perhaps one day they will return to their home planet and free the world from Tegea’s rule.
The rise of Earth’s tribulations can get a little complicated. A close reading (and possible rereading) of the initial chapter on the “Cephean Invasion of Earth” may be required to understand the catastrophe. Whether or not readers fully grasp which former American cities put up the most resistance, the takeaway is that Cassidy, Torr, and almost everyone they care about are in big trouble. The twins’ flight to an uncertain future on the moon opens up a host of intriguing possibilities. And the moon is hardly the end of it. Interstellar shipping and travel are a reality in this world. The question of what new enemies the heroes will face keeps Pickering’s series opener going at a thrilling pace. But dialogue tends to be simple and obvious, as when Cassidy explains: “I’m worried about Mom and Dad.” At one point, Torr asks about strangers: “Who are the other guys?” Yet what the story lacks in sophisticated discussions, it makes up for in igniting the desire in readers to find out more about the arresting characters. An old legend hints that Cassidy and Torr may be something called “Star Children,” who will return to their home planet in order to save it. Of course, even for a pair as intrepid as these two, such salvation will be no small feat. Unexpected obstacles present themselves. Star Children or not, the twins certainly have a tough, complex battle ahead of them.
An engaging, multifaceted, fast-paced space adventure.Pub Date: March 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73256-880-8
Page Count: 598
Publisher: Mythology Press
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2022
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
Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the...
Brown presents the second installment of his epic science-fiction trilogy, and like the first (Red Rising, 2014), it’s chock-full of interpersonal tension, class conflict and violence.
The opening reintroduces us to Darrow au Andromedus, whose wife, Eo, was killed in the first volume. Also known as the Reaper, Darrow is a lancer in the House of Augustus and is still looking for revenge on the Golds, who are both in control and in the ascendant. The novel opens with a galactic war game, seemingly a simulation, but Darrow’s opponent, Karnus au Bellona, makes it very real when he rams Darrow’s ship and causes a large number of fatalities. In the main narrative thread, Darrow has infiltrated the Golds and continues to seek ways to subvert their oppressive and dominant culture. The world Brown creates here is both dense and densely populated, with a curious amalgam of the classical, the medieval and the futuristic. Characters with names like Cassius, Pliny, Theodora and Nero coexist—sometimes uneasily—with Daxo, Kavax and Sevro. And the characters inhabit a world with a vaguely medieval social hierarchy yet containing futuristic technology such as gravBoots. Amid the chronological murkiness, one thing is clear—Darrow is an assertive hero claiming as a birthright his obligation to fight against oppression: "For seven hundred years we have been enslaved….We have been kept in darkness. But there will come a day when we walk in the light." Stirring—and archetypal—stuff.
Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the future and quasi-historicism.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-345-53981-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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