An energetic sci-fi yarn that’s sure to please series fans and maybe even recruit a few new ones.
In this third volume in Joseph’s (Khamlok, 2013, etc.) sci-fi series, members of an alien civilization return to their planet, Alterra, after being stranded on Earth only to encounter terrorist attacks and treachery.
Alterrans have settled Earth, and the portal to return to their planet can’t be powered due to a solar eruption destroying Alterra’s atmosphere. When they’re able to generate enough energy for a portal, they send back the elders as well as Anu, son and successor to Supreme Leader Ama. Unfortunately, Banallo of the Kans—who are in opposition to Anu’s clan, the Ens—rightly surmises Anu’s leeriness of his son, En.Lil. The father knows that Alterran purists—particularly those on the Supreme Council—will disapprove of Lil’s decision to adapt to Earth for survival, defying their civilization’s vegan ways by consuming meat and marrying an earthling, Alana, who gave birth to their hybrid son, Iskur. But Banallo isn’t the only threat to Anu’s imminent leadership: People are protesting living underground while the surface is being terraformed, while the bombing of solar arrays suggests terrorism from saboteurs who may be working with the Kans. In the meantime, Lil’s half brother, En.Ki, and sister, Ninhursag, look for a way to bring back Lil’s dead wife, a plan that has unexpected results. Readers new to Joseph’s series may have trouble adjusting. Although the book opens with a message from Lil to his “quad” grandfather Zeya, and it adequately recaps the previous novels, numerous characters and places are named with little context. After those names are eventually clarified, it’s apparent that someone like Rameel is an ally to Lil, while “that pesky Elinara,” Lil’s quad grandmother, is largely antagonistic. The author includes a good deal of stellar technology, often with names that make their purposes self-explanatory, like a soundgun or rejuvenation chamber; sadly, there’s little visual reference, and any tech specifics are unknown. Joseph isn’t frugal with her descriptions, however, and she’s quite literally colorful, distinguishing Kan leaders’ black eyes from En leaders’ cobalt blue. In another stirring image, traveling through a portal renders the humans’ skin luminous and their hair white. Though a possible rebellion on Alterra is teased for most of the story, a strange turn near the end has a character wind up on trial, paving the way for Book 4.
An energetic sci-fi yarn that’s sure to please series fans and maybe even recruit a few new ones.Pub Date: May 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1484817186
Page Count: 292
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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