An exceptional cast and intriguing SF/paranormal elements usher in a yarn that’s primed for expansion.
Alien creatures, armed cultists, and a psychic-powered teen come together in the pages of Sharpe’s speculative fiction novel, the first in a series.
In this first part of this bifurcated novel, a woman awakens in a strange forest. Her ID says she’s Clover Fields, but she can’t remember her past or how she got there. Fortunately, she’s taken in by a group of Forestrunners, and she learns about the dangers this world has to offer. One peril is the monstrous “shades,” creatures with which Clover shares at least a few features, including a tail and an ovipositor (an egg-laying organ). She also has powers to help defend the Forestrunners against such threats as the “ancients,” who create the shades and revel in torturing their victims. Clover can dreamwalk, a process in which she essentially enters someone else’s body. Part Two shifts the narrative to 14-year-old Josiah Powers, whose estranged father, Nicholas, needs his help. A cult is likely responsible for the death of Nicholas Powers’ brother, and “super-psychic” Josiah can surely find the cult and its leader. The boy didn’t know he had such abilities; once they’ve been awakened, Josiah begins involuntarily communicating with an alien. This alien tells Josiah about a “project” it’s working on and later warns him of an imminent event, one that practically demands the boy and his mother flee. In the book’s “interlude,” a mysterious man using the alias Darien Weever lands at a Tokyo airport to recover a Codex. His pursuit takes him into the city’s sewer system, which ultimately leads to a labyrinthine network of tunnels.
Sharpe introduces readers to myriad characters and concepts in this opening series installment. Clover and Josiah each make for likable, relatable protagonists: In her story, Clover vows to hone her dreamwalks, since she initially can’t control when they happen; Josiah, who has Asperger’s, begins one school day determined to stand up to a bully. Josiah’s mother, Linda, is another memorable character—she’s a great caregiver who manages to keep her sense of humor despite the travails that she and her son go through. The narrative moves at a steady clip as various creatures, astonishing abilities, and even the hint of alternate dimensions enter the mix. The author’s pithy prose gives the relatively short scenes and numerous subplots boosts of energy and conveys solid action: “The two of them rushed her, one leaping onto the wall with bare feet, sticking to it with crackles of blue energy. The other one came at her with an overhead swing of their staff, followed by an electrified kick as Clover parried the blow.” The quieter moments shine as well, as when Clover awakens with a cell phone and learns about her beloved father and sister by perusing old text messages. With the occasionally overwhelming influx of concepts, the stories don’t always mesh when Clover’s narrative suddenly hops to Weever’s and then to Josiah’s. (Most of what unfolds does connect in some manner before the novel is over—Weever pops up in Josiah’s story, and some characters are revealed to have unexpected relationships with others.) Numerous plot threads are left dangling for sequels to pick up.
An exceptional cast and intriguing SF/paranormal elements usher in a yarn that’s primed for expansion.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 9798367175424
Page Count: 305
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
One small step, no giant leaps.
Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or “porter,” whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth’s moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she’ll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon’s surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum’s automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don’t go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian’s smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike “Gizmos”), although intriguing elements—such as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russia—do show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, “for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator”—as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as “I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”
One small step, no giant leaps.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-44812-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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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