Not quite yet top drawer but a vast improvement on its circuitous, dawdling predecessor.
Second part of Hamilton's alien-invasion space opera trilogy (Salvation, 2018).
Of the three main plot threads here, two are set early in the 23rd century. Thanks to the shattering discovery made at the end of Book 1, humanity now knows that the seemingly benevolent Olyix actually plan to turn humans into pods and carry them away to meet the Olyix god at the end of the universe. With their subterfuge now revealed, the Olyix launch a full-scale invasion. Various members of the fabulously wealthy Zangari family, which controls the instantaneous-transfer wormhole portal network, plan Earth's defense along with the Utopial agent Callum Hepburn and others. A second alien race, the Neána, arrived stealthily some years ago and grew human bodies; one such, Jessika, now advises humanity to run and hide. But, disconcerted by the Olyix treachery, the humans don't really trust her despite her revelations and outright reject the run-and-hide strategy in favor of direct action. The second thread involves a gang of thugs led by Tronde, who've been hired to sabotage Zangari facilities; they don't care why. Ten thousand years in the future, meanwhile, the soldier trainees we met in the first book set a trap for an Olyix vessel, intending to learn the whereabouts of the alien homeworld; they're being secretly observed by a mysterious and powerful entity and may be disastrously overconfident. The thugs are problematic, being mostly an incorrigible bunch whose self-centered doings serve little purpose other than to pad out the proceedings. For the remainder, though, the pacing is swift, with spectacular action, thoughtful strategies, eye-popping ideas, and Hamilton's usual attention to detail, all woven into a taut, gripping narrative.
Not quite yet top drawer but a vast improvement on its circuitous, dawdling predecessor.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-17885-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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