A series launch that primarily establishes its characters and environment but should spark readers’ curiosity for impending...
A U.S. Army colonel in the near future heads a mission that may give her a chance to get justice for her murdered mother in Syrus’ debut sci-fi novel, the first in a planned series.
Sienna McKnight is already a colonel at 23, barely a year after graduating from West Point. Her special-ops unit, the Dogs, gets an assignment to nab a criminal known as “Sidewinder” from the Central Asian nation of Khorosan, governed by the humanitarian organization Worldwide Help International. Sienna’s birth mother, Hamida Qazi, was also from that country, but Sienna has never known her, as she died in a stabbing that nearly killed Sienna in the womb. Adopted by new moms Annalies and Theodora McKnight (the doctor that saved her as a baby), Sienna spent her childhood on a North Carolina military base. She’s waited years to seek vengeance, and she attributes the murder of her mother to her terrorist cousin, Asrah Qazi, aka “the Scythe of Heaven.” In her latest assignment, Sienna plans to extract Asrah’s location from Sidewinder; she’s armed with the RAPTEK, a shoulder-mounted railgun that’s powered by a mysterious artifact, the Ansible, which Sienna helped recover earlier in Antarctica. When her latest mission goes awry, a captive Sienna experiences an unexpected “reawakening mind,” introducing her to newfound abilities. Despite its retribution-driven narrative, there’s little action in Syrus’ series opener. Nevertheless, lengthy scenes, such as a psychological evaluation, meticulously develop Sienna’s back story and an intriguing world of futuristic technology, made more familiar by contemporary references (such as Sienna acknowledging a “Buy It Now price” on her head). Radiant descriptions also enhance the story: “Temporary scars in the sky, pale streaks bleeding into deeper shades of dusk.” Syrus merely touches upon numerous elements, such as the Ansible; Sienna’s new capabilities, revealed in the final act; and the spirit inside Sienna that’s relentlessly pushing her toward violent impulses. This leaves a rather sizable amount of unanswered questions for subsequent volumes, although the ending cliffhanger is memorable.
A series launch that primarily establishes its characters and environment but should spark readers’ curiosity for impending sequels.Pub Date: July 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910890-06-6
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Yuan Kun Publishing Ltd.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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