Huge War of the Worlds stuff (war of the galaxies, actually): satisfying, tragic, and spectacular.
An alliance of humans and aliens prepares for a devastating attack by a mysterious, destructive force from another galaxy in this sequel.
In Williamson’s (Encounters, 2012) sci-fi epic, the humans of Amular are drastically transformed by alien first-contact with a blobular species nicknamed the Loud (for the earsplitting howls through which they converse). A millennium more advanced, the Loud grant the humans immortality (best for consistent trade over light-year distances) and undreamt-of technologies. But shockingly, the Loud’s home star system is destroyed by a menace even they can’t comprehend, a theoretical superrace nicknamed the Spiral Slayers, who have been piloting black holes and annihilating intelligence-bearing worlds since time immemorial. The first book ended with the humans resisting hopelessness, determined to fight against a nearly godlike entity heading toward Amular. The sequel nimbly covers the two-century timeline of the Slayer ship’s 200 light-years approach, as a Loud-human coalition mounts defenses and fallbacks against the invader. But a psychotic, disgraced human politician, who, with newfound immortality, allows his feuds to reach extinction level, starts a conspiracy-minded, anti-Loud terrorist movement (not unlike today’s climate-change deniers). Moreover, the Capt. Kirk–like series hero, Adm. Adamarus Maximus, gravitates toward infidelity against his now-rejuvenated, loyal wife (one of the few campy conceits of the material: hotties with heavenly bodies abounding). And what if the Loud are hiding something after all? In this novel, the author continues a saga of cataclysm on a cosmological scale, rivaling big-ideas authors Gregory Benford, Alastair Reynolds, Olaf Stapledon, et al. Williamson’s introduction defends his decision to set the plot—dated 300 million years ago—around an Earth surrogate. With a parallel evolution, Amular has flora, fauna, and a society practically identical to Earth. But by sidestepping details like political parties and national and ethnic affiliations, he gracefully shears off baggage that might have been cumbersome stuff as events hurtle toward a white-knuckle doomsday battle. Perhaps the long-time-ago-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away thing will pay off in one of the two more projected volumes in the series. Readers should be eager for more of Williamson’s shock-and-awe storytelling either way.
Huge War of the Worlds stuff (war of the galaxies, actually): satisfying, tragic, and spectacular.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5370-8593-7
Page Count: 664
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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