A disturbing vision of a future America, with an impact boosted by the startling authenticity of individual perspectives.
Stephenson’s debut dystopian thriller trails the lives of people in 2027 America, crippled by war, natural disasters, a crumbling economy and the threat of nuclear destruction.
Times are bleak for America in the near future. It’s suffering through the Second Great Depression; Florida has been devastated by Hurricane Luther; and having toppled countries, Iran has become a superpower. In fact, the U.S. joined the European Army to form the Allied Forces in a war against the Great Empire of Iran. Meanwhile, Iranian terrorists carry out attacks on American soil, riots are becoming more common and another hurricane is making its way to Texas. In light of all this, President Malcolm Powers must decide whether to protect his nation or save the world. Despite its global setting, Stephenson’s novel stays sharp by honing in on specific characters: billionaire genius Howard Beck, a recluse tucked away in his “fortress” with his artificial intelligence, Hal; California inmate Richard Dupree; Santa Fe, Texas, Police Chief Maxwell Harris; and President Powers. Each third-person narrative offers an account of the action, as Richard looks for escape from the lethal clouds of smoke from raging wildfires, Max and other cops encounter gunmen as the storm nears, and the president seeks counsel on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He learns that even the White House may not be safe from rioters. Beck’s involvement in the plot is drolly ironic: He has completely isolated himself from the outside world—Hal feeds him news stories to keep him up-to-date—but his heavily fortified estate makes it an ideal spot for powerful people. Stephenson’s novel, the first of a series, feels like a buildup to a confrontation that doesn’t happen here. In the same vein, supporting characters—including an unemployed investment banker who joins the military when his family becomes homeless and a Jiffy Lube manager–turned–survivalist leader—provide riveting subplots that, at least in this book, remain unresolved. But Stephenson knows how to sear images into the brain, such as the destitute living in Central Park in “Obama-Camp” (“a throwback to the ‘Hoovervilles’ built during the First Great Depression”) and frightened citizens wearing bulletproof vests in church.
A disturbing vision of a future America, with an impact boosted by the startling authenticity of individual perspectives.Pub Date: July 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477654637
Page Count: 456
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A philosophically charged tour de force by one of the best living novelists in English.
A gravely post-apocalyptic tale that blends mystery with the academic novel.
McEwan’s first narrator, Thomas Metcalfe, is one of a vanishing breed, a humanities professor, who on a spring day in 2119, takes a ferry to a mountain hold, the Bodleian Snowdonia Library. The world has been remade by climate change, the subject of a course he teaches, “The Politics and Literature of the Inundation.” Nuclear war has irradiated the planet, while “markets and communities became cellular and self-reliant, as in early medieval times.” Nonetheless, the archipelago that is now Britain has managed to scrape up a little funding for the professor, who is on the trail of a poem, “A Corona for Vivien,” by the eminent poet Francis Blundy. Thanks to the resurrected internet, courtesy of Nigerian scientists, the professor has access to every bit of recorded human knowledge; already overwhelmed by data, scholars “have robbed the past of its privacy.” But McEwan’s great theme is revealed in his book’s title: How do we know what we think we know? Well, says the professor of his quarry, “I know all that they knew—and more, for I know some of their secrets and their futures, and the dates of their deaths.” And yet, and yet: “Corona” has been missing ever since it was read aloud at a small party in 2014, and for reasons that the professor can only guess at, for, as he counsels, “if you want your secrets kept, whisper them into the ear of your dearest, most trusted friend.” And so it is that in Part 2, where Vivien takes over the story as it unfolds a century earlier, a great and utterly unexpected secret is revealed about how the poem came to be and to disappear, lost to history and memory and the coppers.
A philosophically charged tour de force by one of the best living novelists in English.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593804728
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
