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THE SILVER SHIPS

Name: THE SILVER SHIPS
Author: S.H. Jucha
ISBN: 978-0990594024

by S.H. Jucha ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 10, 2015

A good, meat-and-potatoes space-opera adventure.

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In Jucha’s debut sci-fi novel, a bright, pragmatic starship captain from a far-future human-colonized world finds his life changed by an exciting, ominous discovery in deep space.

After many years of collecting ice asteroids with his explorer-tug-ship Outward Bound to support New Terra’s expansion, Alex Racine undertakes a very dangerous maneuver to find a derelict starship called the Rêveur, built by humans more advanced than those in his own society. It turns out that there are survivors aboard the ship who’d been in suspended animation since an attack left their vessel drifting in the void. These people, the Méridiens, are led by Renée de Guirnon, who tells Alex of their highly advanced enemies aboard a strange silver ship. The friendly but somewhat introverted Alex, with the aid of the Rêveur’s sarcastic artificial-intelligence computer, Julien, decides to help the Méridiens make their craft space-worthy again and get home. Along the way, Alex comes to know and care for Renée, learns about the Méridiens’ way of life, and puzzles out some of the mystery of the silver ships and the aliens controlling them. Overall, this book is straightforward fun. The characters are sympathetic and entertaining, if a little thin—although none of them seem intended to be much more than fun, action-adventure personalities. Alex himself is likable enough, if perhaps a bit too perfect, but light sci-fi is often built on such idealized characters. The plot is straight-ahead and quick-paced with plenty of action, and the clear-cut, descriptive, but stylistically neutral text keeps things moving. If there are underlying literary themes, they’re slight, submerged, and kept out of the way of readers’ fun. The story is just grown-up enough to avoid a young-adult tag, but it steers clear of anything that’s stereotypically adult. As is de rigueur for the genre, it’s the first installment of a planned series.

A good, meat-and-potatoes space-opera adventure.

Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-0990594024

Page Count: 306

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: April 20, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.