Fun in a knowing, rather sophomoric way; should keep most readers engaged and guessing.
In-jokey science fiction yarn from the author of Callahan's Key (2000), etc. The Dreamworld theme park offers wholesome, appealing entertainment: rides, fireworks, a Heinlein area, Strawberry Fields, Mike Callahan and friends, Master Li and Number Ten Ox, etc. Fleeing a horrible existence, young Mike goes behind the scenes determined to become invisible and live there forever. He soon runs into Annie, a supersmart midget who's lived invisibly in Dreamworld since it opened; she helps out in all sorts of ways and is known to awed maintenance workers as the Mother Elf. Many of Dreamworld's employees are midgets or dwarfs, actors, characters, or ideal for operating in tiny spaces. Annie takes a shine to Mike's quick wits and obvious love of Dreamworld; she shows him how to survive, open doors, and tap into the computer network. Alonzo Haines, however, jealous owner of the rival, violence-ridden Thrillworld, schemes to destroy Dreamworld; he's hired dangerous thug Randall Conway to probe for weaknesses. Conway reports that, somehow, more worker dwarfs come out of Dreamworld than go in. Independently, Annie's just observed the same thing. As Annie and Mike investigate, Conway becomes aware of them. They discover what the intruders are, which makes it doubly important to prevent Conway grabbing one. But can Annie and Mike deal with the ruthless Conway as well as unravel the mystery of the uninvited guests?
Fun in a knowing, rather sophomoric way; should keep most readers engaged and guessing.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-86524-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2001
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A new edition of the by now classic collection of affiliated stories which has already established its deserved longevity.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 1963
ISBN: 055338256X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1963
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