Apart from the tough-slog present-tense narrative and sheer density of detail: McAuley's heart-of-darkness is as bleak,...
Near-future biological horror from the talented, versatile British author of Whole Wide World (2002), etc.
Perhaps 30 years from now, Africa has been ravaged by “gengineered” products ranging from the playful—butterflies whose wings bear corporate logos—to deadly plagues like Black Flu and the plastic disease; gene hackers have re-created extinct animals like saber-toothed tigers and four-tusked elephants; in the huge, mysterious Dead Zone, the trees have, literally, melted. Obligate, an environmentally conscious transnational, controls the Congo, where former soldier Nick Hyde, now working for the aid concern Caritas, goes to investigate a reported massacre by rebel troops, only to find the bodies mutilated as if by wild animals, the livers and brains ripped out and eaten. Soon Nick and his companions are attacked by fast, vicious, apelike white devils-creatures smart enough to learn how to use guns. Nick barely escapes. He will team up with courageous journalist Harmony Boniface, eventually learning—despite a lethally heavy cover-up attempt—that the creatures were an attempt to re-create Australopithecus by reverse-engineering chimpanzee DNA. The three scientists involved were Matthew Faber (his mind schizophrenically shattered, he now observes the Gentle People, nonaggressive cousins of the white devils), vanished mind-control expert Danny Lovegrave, and Faber's ex-wife Teryl Meade, currently an Obligate bigwig—and prepared to do anything to conceal her involvement. Meanwhile, Faber's archaeologist daughter, Elspeth, has uncovered firm evidence of cannibalism among direct human ancestors; and survivalist-religious fanatic Cody Corbin has taken it upon himself to destroy the abominations and their makers.
Apart from the tough-slog present-tense narrative and sheer density of detail: McAuley's heart-of-darkness is as bleak, scarifying, persuasive, and terrible as it gets.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-765-30761-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2003
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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