A worthy series kickoff with riveting characters and a world that readers will want to explore.
Debut author Hummel launches a sci-fi/fantasy series with the story of a young man in a post-apocalyptic America who bonds with a dragon.
Twenty-something Jared Cartwright is on his own in a far-future New York City that’s been ravaged by past nuclear wars. To avoid death by radiation, all humans, including Jared, must periodically inject themselves with microscopic nanites. One day, while searching for supplies, Jared finds a strange rock that generates electricity and visibly agitates the nanites in his injector. Out of curiosity, he injects these nanites into the rock, which turns out to be an egg. A fire dragon hatches; she goes by the name “Scarlet” and communicates with Jared telepathically. Because of their bond, Jared makes a formal vow to Scarlet’s dragon-queen mother to guard and protect her daughter. Fortunately, he also develops newfound abilities—for every hostile, mutated creature he kills, he earns nanites to bolster skills, such as “Heat Sight” and “Maximum Muscle.” Jared furthermore makes it his mission to aid Scarlet in her quest to help dragons re-emerge—as they’ve been hiding from humans underground for millennia. Along the way, Jared and Scarlet face numerous antagonists, including mutated monsters and other human survivors. Hummel’s tale is rife with elements of the LitRPG genre, which offers a fusion of sci-fi/fantasy literature and role-playing games. At the same time, the author also creates intriguing characters and an engaging fictional world. Although the narrative provides little backstory for Jared prior to his parents’ deaths, it meticulously establishes his and Scarlet’s camaraderie; this is helped by the fact that each character typically knows that the other is in trouble almost instantly. There’s also a potpourri of mutated beings, including a group of enslaved humans and some beasts whose mutations seem suspicious. Despite the fact that the story offers abundant exposition (via telepathic conversations), Hummel sets a firm pace that puts the heroes into frequent battles and confrontations with other perils.
A worthy series kickoff with riveting characters and a world that readers will want to explore.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73233-742-8
Page Count: 492
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A huge, churning, relentlessly entertaining melodrama buoyed by confidence that human values will prevail.
A rare, rattling space opera—first of a trilogy, or series, from Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).
Humanity colonized the solar system out as far as Neptune but then exploration stagnated. Straight-arrow Jim Holden is XO of an ice-hauler swinging between the rings of Saturn and the mining stations of the Belt, the scattered ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. His ship's captain, responding to a distress beacon, orders Holden and a shuttle crew to investigate what proves to be a derelict. Holden realizes it's some sort of trap, but an immensely powerful, stealthed warship destroys the ice-hauler, leaving Holden and the shuttle crew the sole survivors. This unthinkable act swiftly brings Earth, with its huge swarms of ships, Mars with its less numerous but modern and powerful navy, and the essentially defenseless Belt to the brink of war. Meanwhile, on the asteroid Ceres, cynical, hard-drinking detective Miller—we don't find out he has other names until the last few pages—receives orders to track down and "rescue"—i.e. kidnap—a girl, Julie Mao, who rebelled against her rich Earth family and built an independent life for herself in the Belt. Julie is nowhere to be found but, as the fighting escalates, Miller discovers that Julie's father knew beforehand that hostilities would occur. Now obsessed, Miller continues to investigate even when he loses his job—and the trail leads towards Holden, the derelict, and what might prove to be a horrifying biological experiment. No great depth of character here, but the adherence to known physical laws—no spaceships zooming around like airplanes—makes the action all the more visceral. And where Corey really excels is in conveying the horror and stupidity of interplanetary war, the sheer vast emptiness of space and the amorality of huge corporations.
A huge, churning, relentlessly entertaining melodrama buoyed by confidence that human values will prevail.Pub Date: June 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-12908-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Orbit/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.
More steampunk adventures of a samurai prognosticator, his clockwork octopus, and his human lovers.
Five years after her charming debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (2015), Pulley brings back the main characters for another scramble through the dangers and consequences of clairvoyance. Readers of the first book already know the big reveal: that Keita Mori—the eponymous London watchmaker—has an unusual memory that works both backward and forward. (Readers new to the series should put this book down and start with Watchmaker.) This time Pulley sets the action principally in Japan, where Mori; Thaniel Steepleton, a British translator and diplomat; Grace Carrow Matsumoto, a physicist; and Takiko Pepperharrow, a Kabuki actress and baroness, are working together to foil a samurai’s power grab and turn away a Russian invasion. At least, that’s what Mori’s doing; the others are rushing blindly down paths he’s laid out for them, which may or may not get them where he wants them to go. But if Mori knows what’s coming and what steps they can take to change the future, why doesn’t he just tell them what to do? The answer is half satisfying (because, as in any complicated relationship, communication isn’t always easy; because the characters have wills of their own and might not obey) and half irritating (because if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a story). Pulley’s witty writing and enthusiastically deployed steampunk motifs—clockwork, owls, a mechanical pet, Tesla-inspired electrical drama—enliven a plot that drags in the middle before rushing toward its explosive end. Perhaps more interesting than the plot are the relationships. The characters revolve through a complex pattern of marriages of passion and convenience, sometimes across and sometimes within genders and cultures, punctuated by jealousy and interesting questions about trust.
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63557-330-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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