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
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
This novel began as a reworking of W.W. Jacobs' horror classic "The Monkey's Paw"—a short story about the dreadful outcome when a father wishes for his dead son's resurrection. And King's 400-page version reads, in fact, like a monstrously padded short story, moving so slowly that every plot-turn becomes lumberingly predictable. Still, readers with a taste for the morbid and ghoulish will find unlimited dark, mortality-obsessed atmosphere here—as Dr. Louis Creed arrives in Maine with wife Rachel and their two little kids Ellie and Gage, moving into a semi-rural house not far from the "Pet Sematary": a spot in the woods where local kids have been burying their pets for decades. Louis, 35, finds a great new friend/father-figure in elderly neighbor Jud Crandall; he begins work as director of the local university health-services. But Louis is oppressed by thoughts of death—especially after a dying student whispers something about the pet cemetery, then reappears in a dream (but is it a dream) to lead Louis into those woods during the middle of the night. What is the secret of the Pet Sematary? Well, eventually old Jud gives Louis a lecture/tour of the Pet Sematary's "annex"—an old Micmac burying ground where pets have been buried. . .and then reappeared alive! So, when little Ellie's beloved cat Church is run over (while Ellie's visiting grandfolks), Louis and Jud bury it in the annex—resulting in a faintly nasty resurrection: Church reappears, now with a foul smell and a creepy demeanor. But: what would happen if a human corpse were buried there? That's the question when Louis' little son Gage is promptly killed in an accident. Will grieving father Louis dig up his son's body from the normal graveyard and replant it in the Pet Sematary? What about the stories of a previous similar attempt—when dead Timmy Baterman was "transformed into some sort of all-knowing daemon?" Will Gage return to the living—but as "a thing of evil?" He will indeed, spouting obscenities and committing murder. . .before Louis must eliminate this child-demon he has unleashed. Filled out with overdone family melodrama (the feud between Louis and his father-in-law) and repetitious inner monologues: a broody horror tale that's strong on dark, depressing chills, weak on suspense or surprise—and not likely to please the fans of King's zestier, livelier terror-thons.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1983
ISBN: 0743412281
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
