A tense shipboard mystery that builds to an absolutely thrilling tour-de-force finish.
A spaceship crew encounters a strange object near Jupiter in this SF sequel.
Several months ago, Cmdr. Calvin Scott of the spaceship Ulysses averted disaster on Ceres by outwitting would-be rebels who refused to refuel his vessel. He and his crew, consisting of Paul Arthor, engineer; pilot Sarah Samuels; Inez, the comms/IT specialist; Xu Zuoren, science officer; and medical officer Susan (nicknamed Doc), are now back on course toward Jupiter and their long-planned exploration mission. When a binary asteroid in the debris field surrounding Jupiter breaks apart, one object, the usual rock/ice asteroid, disintegrates, but the smaller and much brighter second chunk survives. It’s heading straight toward the Ulysses, and it’s accelerating. In the 10 days before it reaches them, Cal and his crew attempt to learn more about the object (Probe? Weapon? Alien life form or infection?), assess the possible danger, and come up with contingency plans. When the moonlet does arrive, it latches gently onto the Ulysses and infiltrates it with fractal, red-black tendrils that branch out and grow, taking over the ship yet causing little damage. Eventually the filaments begin redesigning themselves, embedding large structures in and around the Ulysses that have an enigmatic purpose and oddly compelling elegance. After finding a mathematics-based common frame of reference, the crew begins communicating with the weed when a new and terrifying development occurs. The alien entity takes the ship on a deorbit burn, seemingly dooming the crew—but the weed’s modifications to the Ulysses make possible an incredible journey downward through the gas giant’s surrounding turbulent maelstrom of magnetic fields, gravitational waves, diamond showers, simmering gases, and more. What the explorers see when they reach orbit again is nothing they could have expected.
Keith, creative director of a company that partners with NASA to design space-flight simulation exhibits, brings a well-informed imagination to this second volume of the Wine Dark Deep trilogy. The first book focused on Cal and his clever resourcefulness in getting out of a jam; in this outing, he also shows his leadership and good working relationship with the crew. Although their characterization remains hastily sketched, Cal’s shipmates now have more of a chance to display their mettle. As they do so, the novel deftly shows how thoughtfulness and deliberation are as important in navigating extreme situations as courage or bold action. The weed’s unknown intentions give the characters a compelling mystery to figure out, one that will have readers burning to know what happens next. Perhaps the story’s strongest section is the astonishing, vividly described trip down through Jupiter’s atmosphere: “The cerulean shades of the whipping atmosphere grew dark, mottled by turbinations of slate gray and streaks of obsidian. Another vibration hit. A shower of diamond ricochets washed over the ship, punctuated by a burst of lightning....Ahead of them clouds thickened, flowing like streamers of heavy cream.”
A tense shipboard mystery that builds to an absolutely thrilling tour-de-force finish.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73510-952-7
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Uphill Downhill Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning.
An intrepid teen encounters the dark secrets of the elite in her climate-ravaged world in this translated work from South Korea.
Sixteen-year-old Jeon Chobahm is shocked to learn that Goh Haeri, the beloved reality TV star who happens to be Chobahm’s look-alike, just died by suicide—and also that she’s being asked to become Haeri’s secret replacement. In their frozen, post-apocalyptic world, Chobahm, like everyone around her, leads a bleak life. She bundles up daily against the dangerous cold and toils in a power plant. But now she’ll live Haeri’s cushy life in Snowglobe, an exclusive, glass-dome-enclosed community, where the climate is mild, and the resident actors’ lives are broadcast as entertainment for those in the open world. As glamorous as life there may seem, however, Chobahm quickly learns that there’s a sinister underbelly: People are killed off when they’re no longer useful, and there’s something strange about Haeri’s family dynamics. As she meets a host of new companions, including Yi Bonwhe, the heir of Snowglobe’s founding family, Chobahm discovers a devastating secret and embarks on a risky plan to expose the truth. Climate change, societal inequity, and the ethics of escaping from our own lives by watching others’ are addressed in this intelligent, absorbing book. Chobahm is a complex character inhabiting a strongly developed world, and her compassion, ambition, outrage, and sorrow ring true.
Transporting and unputdownable; an appealing combination of deep and page-turning. (Dystopian. 12-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593484975
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK TO SCREEN
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.
Brown completes his science-fiction trilogy with another intricately plotted and densely populated tome, this one continuing the focus on a rebellion against the imperious Golds.
This last volume is incomprehensible without reference to the first two. Briefly, Darrow of Lykos, aka Reaper, has been “carved” from his status as a Red (the lowest class) into a Gold. This allows him to infiltrate the Gold political infrastructure…but a game’s afoot, and at the beginning of the third volume, Darrow finds himself isolated and imprisoned for his insurgent activities. He longs both for rescue and for revenge, and eventually he gets both. Brown is an expert at creating violent set pieces whose cartoonish aspects (“ ‘Waste ’em,’ Sevro says with a sneer” ) are undermined by the graphic intensity of the savagery, with razors being a favored instrument of combat. Brown creates an alternative universe that is multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth, much as in Frank Herbert’s Dune. This world is vaguely Teutonic/Scandinavian (with characters such as Magnus, Ragnar, and the Valkyrie) and vaguely Roman (Octavia, Romulus, Cassius) but ultimately wholly eclectic. At the center are Darrow, his lover, Mustang, and the political and military action of the Uprising. Loyalties are conflicted, confusing, and malleable. Along the way we see Darrow become more heroic and daring and Mustang, more charismatic and unswerving, both agents of good in a battle against forces of corruption and domination. Among Darrow’s insights as he works his way to a position of ascendancy is that “as we pretend to be brave, we become so.”
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-345-53984-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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