Exciting, heart-pounding action; genuine motivations; and vivid writing make this a compellingly entertaining coming-of-age...
A teenager who can grasp alien symbols becomes the key to resisting a megacorporation in this debut YA sci-fi novel.
In 2038, Earth is dense with huge, overcrowded apartment buildings populated by a workforce for enormous factories that cheaply manufacture goods sold at high prices in wealthy, luxurious off-world colonies. Militarized robots police the worker bees, and information is highly censored. Samuel Hughes sees only one way to help his unemployed father, William, and gravely ill sister: by working in Tricium Group’s off-world mines. It’s dangerous, and William warns Sam that stories of mining wealth are just propaganda, but the boy is determined, and at age 15, he’s old enough. But then he and other miners barely make it from their crashing transport ship to an escape pod, which lands on an Earth-like planet uninhabited by people or animals, although ruins are visible to the north. The survivors include nine men and eight women; the youngest are Sam and Rebecca Helmsford. The pod contains food and other supplies, but the survivors have to scatter when huge robots begin attacking. Sam and Rebecca flee with Tamrun Jones, a tall ex-soldier whose calm leadership is invaluable. After regrouping in the ruins, Sam discovers that he can perceive a symbol field, at first with pain and difficulty and then increasing facility, which will allow him to control the planet’s technology. In the mountains nearby, he can also get crucial guidance from the Sentience, a kind of wise computer. A ruthless Earth conspiracy at the highest reaches wants to use Sam to exploit the planet’s rich resources—but with help from the Sentience, his friends, and the resistance movement, Sam might pull off a dangerous bid to return to Earth and beard the all-powerful Tricium lion in his den. In his well-written novel, Flanagan tells an appealing story of the seemingly small and weak standing up to overwhelming forces. Though technology is in some ways at the center of the tale, the author takes care to underscore the human element, as in the tender relationship between Sam and his sister, Kara. Similarly, the attraction between Sam and Rebecca isn’t perfunctory or simply a matter of physical attraction but based on the qualities they’ve displayed. When Sam tells her, “I think the person you are is amazing,” it’s believable and touching. The extraterrestrial civilization seems truly—and captivatingly—alien, not just familiar elements in exotic dress. Flanagan does a fine job of establishing what’s at stake by first showing the dreary futility of life for most on Earth, a plausible haves/have-nots setup with resonance for readers today given widening wealth inequality. The plot is well-orchestrated, with several tense battle scenes, some surprises, and a growing sense of urgency as the narrative progresses that leads to a taut, deftly described, complex, and cinematic action sequence. The ending is well-judged, with an outcome that leaves room to grow.
Exciting, heart-pounding action; genuine motivations; and vivid writing make this a compellingly entertaining coming-of-age tale.Pub Date: Dec. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5423-6948-0
Page Count: 235
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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