An engaging and unconventional thriller with a vibrant heroine.
An act of sabotage gives a teenage girl some remarkable new abilities in this debut SF novel.
Diana Dunphy is a normal 16-year-old girl whose parents’ work is anything but ordinary. Her divorced parents, Rita and Aaron Dunphy, are scientists collaborating on a project called the Tachyon Chamber, affectionately nicknamed the “Crock Pot.” Designed to tackle the twin problems of oil scarcity and waste disposal, the Tachyon Chamber sends discarded materials back in time, where they will become oil for present-day use. But on the night of the project’s demonstration, terrorists posing as high school friends of Diana’s attack the attendees in an effort to download the software that makes the chamber possible. Diana tries to intervene, but she is pushed into the chamber. Her parents rescue her; then, her father is killed trying to dispose of a bomb left by the terrorists. While recovering in a hospital, Diana notices something is different about her. She craves rare meat and uses her tongue to smell. Her mother tests her DNA and discovers similarities with a Tyrannosaurus rex’s genetic material. Diana must keep her new powers and instincts under control as she returns to high school, but her efforts are complicated by her desire to seek revenge against the terrorists responsible for her condition and her father’s death. Gleisser’s novel is a fast-paced SF thriller bolstered by a dynamic heroine and well-staged action scenes. The narrative is anchored by Diana, whose world is turned upside down when her DNA is spliced with that of a dinosaur. She is surrounded by a strong supporting cast, including her mother and Chuck Leadingham, a classmate who eventually develops a romantic interest in Diana. The investigation into the sabotage that led to Diana’s transformation leads to some of the tale’s most intense action sequences, particularly her use of her sense of smell to uncover the location of the terrorists. That said, there are a few minor editing inconsistencies. For example, the name of the institute supporting the Dunphys’ research is spelled both “Gotelle” and “Gottelle.”
An engaging and unconventional thriller with a vibrant heroine.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-948374-21-7
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Hydra Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PROFILES
Equal parts biting social commentary and page-turning thriller, a disturbing glimpse into humankind’s possible future.
The first installment of Liu’s Julia Z saga is an SF thriller set in a near-future “post-truth age” where the use of AI and the inundation of digital disinformation and data pollution have blurred the lines between delusion and reality.
Julia—whose immigrant mother, a divisive political activist, was murdered during a border protest—has lived on her own since she was 14. A brilliant hacker now 23, she’s been trying to live in online anonymity, acutely aware of the multitude of ways she can be identified and tracked. Living in a Boston suburb and struggling to make ends meet, she inadvertently becomes entangled with a lawyer named Piers Neri and his search for his artist wife, Elli Krantz—famous for her experimental work in vivid dreaming—who may or may not have been kidnapped. A prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance, Piers goes on the run with the help of Julia—and together, they begin putting together pieces of a mind-bogglingly intricate puzzle that links Elli to a powerful criminal with a global reach. As Julia digs deeper into the appeal of vivid dreaming and the criminal’s ruthless endeavors, she discovers the sham that is the American Dream: “America was corrupt and steeped in sin. The powerful had rigged the game for themselves and turned the country into a panopticon to imprison the rest of us. Anytime one of the powerless—it didn’t matter the color of your skin, the language you spoke, the place you were born in—was on the verge of climbing out, they would be ruthlessly tossed back into the pit.” And amid the backdrop of dealing with unresolved childhood trauma and the need to find her place in the world, she finds something unexpected—herself.
Equal parts biting social commentary and page-turning thriller, a disturbing glimpse into humankind’s possible future.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781668083178
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Readers willing to overlook the endless exposition may enjoy some diversity that's often missing in SF.
In this earnest space opera, an ensemble of badass women and nonbinary and queer characters fight corporate overlords on the semilawless planet Persephone.
A century ago, the Emissaries, hidden beings indigenous to Persephone, gave the gift of prolonged life to Rosie, a nonbinary cleric-colonizer, and Vissia, now head of the corporation that owns the planet. Despite and because of that gift, Vissia's bent on exploiting the Emissaries until nothing is left. Rosie, now a crime boss, enlists Angel, the expelled former student of an all-female martial arts academy, and her team of revivified United Republic of Worlds soldiers, to protect the Emissaries. Unless they can be convinced to reveal themselves and join the URW, making the corporate claim on Persephone void, the odds are not in their favor. With clear nods to Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, complete with an AI ship named Kurosawa, this has all the makings of a great SF adventure, but it doesn't have the depth to pull it off. With too many sluggish infodumps and a broad diversity checklist to hit regardless of authenticity, the narrative gets tangled and many threads get lost. So much so that a story trying to champion Indigenous autonomy makes "the benefits of assimilation" the final goal. Rosie, however, is a bright spot. Their gender-fluid nonbinariness is just one part of a delightfully complex, genuine, and amoral character who could make this novel worth your time.
Readers willing to overlook the endless exposition may enjoy some diversity that's often missing in SF.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1458-7
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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