A series opener that skillfully balances sobering ecological facts with fanciful galactic adventures.
A YA space opera sees a princess step toward her destiny as an interstellar savior.
In the Andromeda Galaxy, Princess Warrior Nella Grizel Reiner of the planet Centaurius has just turned 1,800 spiral rings in age. Nella, roughly equivalent in development to an 18-year-old earthling, has been commissioned by King Montrobius to command a mission to Earth, the mirror planet of Centaurius. The princess, along with her protector, Konan, and members of the Fur and Feathered Warriors (including the birdbot Cluck-Cluck), travels on her ship, the Phoenix. Their assignment is to stop the terrorists Zennibar and Abigor (of the Whirlpool and Fireworks Galaxies, respectively) from releasing a dangerous captive entity called the Red Brume. Created by the wizard Jarvis, the Red Brume was designed to “educate intelligent life forms of the catastrophic results of greed, hatred, and war,” but “something went wrong.” Meanwhile, on Earth, Allen Killian McBride is Nella’s warrior twin, prophesied by the Book of Twenty (“the Bible to the Universe”) and with whom she’ll join forces. Allen’s stake in the matter is nothing less than Earth itself, which humanity has pushed to the environmental brink. He and Nella must stop Zennibar and Abigor so their galaxies can one day peacefully merge into the New Milkomedia Galaxy. Though McGarry (Echoes of the Mind, 2017, etc.) opens her adventure with the harrowing murder of a gorilla family in Congo, the tone softens, inviting fans of space epics like Star Wars along for the ride. There’s an enjoyable profusion of gadgetry and lore embedded in every page, from brain chips that animals use to telepathically communicate to the Wooden Warriors—talking trees—of Wethersfield. This first volume in a series brings a tremendous amount of backstory to light, including Allen’s birth and Nella’s training. But the focus always returns to the plight of Earth, where oceans will rise, “regardless of any future efforts...to curb greenhouse gasses.” Occasionally, gaffes appear (like “emancipated” instead of emaciated), but they don’t detract from a bighearted message.
A series opener that skillfully balances sobering ecological facts with fanciful galactic adventures.Pub Date: April 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-09-281602-1
Page Count: 182
Publisher: SJM Unlimited Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2019
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
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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