A sometimes-stirring space trek tale, with intriguing science and dark matter along the way.
An experienced astronaut and an untested young scientist lead a mission to the solar system’s outer reaches—where a mysterious force interferes with deep-space probes—in this novel.
In the near future, Ed Walker is an abrasive but courageous veteran NASA astronaut who manages—barely—to survive and save his crew from the harrowing end of the glitch-ridden International Space Station. Meanwhile, on the ground, young academic David Holmes is far ahead of his peers in determining that old, outward-bound space probes that reach the rim of the solar system are simply being plucked out of existence by some inexplicable force. Despite the seemingly incompatible personalities and the age gaps of the two men, an Elon Musk-like, internet/free energy billionaire with political connections forces them together to spearhead the government/private sector expedition of the Helios, a revolutionary, antimatter-powered spaceship headed out beyond the planets. The pioneering joint operation is to pave the way for human colonization, away from an Earth wracked by Sino-American wars and Islamic terror attacks toward the promise of other star systems—and perhaps to confront the ominous force that is causing the disappearance of unmanned NASA hardware. Peterson (Paradox 2, 2018, etc.) manages to satisfy (albeit in unequal measures at times) sci-fi fans of both the Arthur C. Clarke cosmic-wow variety and the more techno-minded aerospace yarn-spinners of yesteryear such as Frank G. Slaughter and Martin Caidin with their launchpad melodramas. This series opener’s middle passages sag under earthbound training exercises, plasma physics jargon, and crusty Ed’s bottomless supply of astronaut gossip about Alan Shepard and Sally Ride and his nostalgia for the lost Gemini era, when men were men and had the right stuff. But when the plot finally reaches the unknown void beyond Pluto, the payoff goes into macro-cosmic territory, the stuff of Carl Sagan’s finale to Contact—but far more bitter than that scientist/speculator’s ultimate optimism. Two other crew members, both women, register as lesser blips on the narrative’s radar, and Ed’s estranged, nagging wife fearfully demonstrates why a retirement-age pilot ace would face enigmatic and hostile aliens billions of miles away rather than go on a marital date night. A nonfiction essay-cum-bibliography by Peterson concludes the book.
A sometimes-stirring space trek tale, with intriguing science and dark matter along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-977974-01-3
Page Count: 446
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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