Engagingly rendered, thoughtful hard sci-fi.
In Dingus’ (Worlds in Transition, 2017) sci-fi novel, a 24th-century scientist, caught in a Martian revolt, tries to protect his two secret projects: an advanced computer intelligence and a group of children who are a leap forward in human evolution.
In the year 2331, an overcrowded Earth has caused humanity to spread across the solar system. Mars is a particularly restive colony, with insurgencies violently agitating for political independence from patrolling military forces. Genetic engineering and the Martian environment have spawned distinct differences between the Martian residents and the oft-augmented Earthers, escalating the hostility. In this volatile cauldron of interplanetary intrigue, George Mills, an idealistic scientist with personal failings and a divorce in his past, makes two major breakthroughs. One is a self-aware quantum-computer intelligence called Will whose abilities and apparent emotions surpass any technology yet developed. The other, George’s collaboration with his sometime-lover and soul mate, biologist Joanne Zhu of Mars, is a set of genetically engineered children who are not only superior in intellect, but also cleansed of humanity’s instinctual aggression and bloodthirstiness. They are, in fact, a new species. Both creations are regarded as threats by Earth’s heavy-handed authorities, who once considered Mars an inferior backwater. Dingus is a scientist himself with a background in physics and software development, and one is tempted to compare his impressive novel with the work of sci-fi grandmasters such as Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, or Arthur C. Clarke—also researchers, inventors, and thinkers who blended narrative with extraordinary scientific acumen and heady concepts. However, the way that George, Joanne, and Will shield themselves, as well as the children, from a dismal fate tends to fall together a little too neatly (via deus ex machina, in more ways than one). The well-engineered prose still effectively reflects the author’s upbeat, humanistic worldview, though, even though the plot could have easily veered into weapon-happy, paramilitary-thriller territory. George is a likable, reluctant hero throughout, although the action sometimes halts for long, hard-science exposition dialogues. However, these intervals are cleverly staged as sojourns in virtual reality (courtesy of Will), where time passes differently.
Engagingly rendered, thoughtful hard sci-fi.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9785232-0-6
Page Count: 440
Publisher: SpeculativeFictionReview.com
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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, 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
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