A well-realized cast breathes life into a deadened dystopian world.
Various people survive in the brutal landscape of a tech-heavy future America in Deaton’s debut SF novel.
It’s 2070, and James-Patrick “JP” Boseman is one of several Scrap Miners salvaging old technology for the Zhì Shàng Commonwealth, which was once part of the United States. When armed assailants interrupt one the Miners’ relatively standard deliveries in California, JP teams up with a Zhì Shàng cyborg employee to figure out who exactly their new enemies are. Three more stories follow, centered on other men but set in the same post-World War III America. Rhys Hanson, a sniper-trained killer for hire in Florida, joins and befriends a group of mercenaries to whom he soon reveals a dark secret. In Detroit, Donovan Grimes relies on pills to quiet “the Demon”: a scary part of himself that revels in others’ pain and suffering. His addiction costs money, and to secure gainful employment, he agrees to get extensive cyber-implants. Finally, Texas street racer Franklin Blanchard has a corporate job that may be threatened if anyone discovers what he’s doing late at night. Deaton’s somber depiction of a post-apocalyptic future comes with a bleak but memorable view of technology. For example, Scrap Miners sift through piles of discarded or forgotten equipment, people tend to weaponize their cybernetic body parts, and Franklin is in danger of losing his memories if his cerebellum implant fails. The four main characters mingle with a well-developed secondary cast, and their relationships help to alleviate the pervasive gloominess; JP’s camaraderie with white-eyed cyborg Liu Kê Xīn and Franklin’s potential romance with motorcycle-riding street racer Bethany Iyuuk are highlights. Perhaps the book’s strongest elements are its action scenes, in which characters fight, evade, and gun down “gangers” and assassins; Texas is the site of a series of frenzied, increasingly dangerous street races. Overall, Deaton’s unadorned, concise prose keeps scenes moving at a steady clip.
A well-realized cast breathes life into a deadened dystopian world.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9798883000194
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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