An action-packed thriller with careful doses of sci-fi and family drama.
In Renneberg’s (The Mothership, 2013) new thriller, a corporate financier seeks the truth about his long-lost father and finds himself caught up in an international time-traveling conspiracy.
Craig Balard works in mergers and acquisitions at a well-to-do New York City firm. After a secretive and wealthy client, MLI, suddenly cuts off its business, all the company’s partners are speedily, professionally executed. Before Craig realizes what’s happening, a mysterious caller offers him information about his father, whom he believed died a Gulf War hero, in exchange for the master list of MLI’s bank accounts. Craig escapes his imminent death or capture by several different violent conspiratorial bodies—including the FBI and a dangerous military group exacting a coup d’état in Moscow—with the help of Marlena, a hologram projected into the present from a dystopian 23rd century, and Valentina, a Russian criminal investigator. Glimpses into Marlena’s devastated reality, where mankind barely survives aboard a space station, reveal that Craig’s present-day actions could determine the very future of humanity. Renneberg delivers a typically exciting thriller, with plenty of sharp turns, heavy weapons and touches of science fiction. The time-traveling, continent-hopping narration is remarkably smooth, although the storytelling is sometimes complicated by the author’s wordy fascination with military gear and intelligence, but techno-thriller readers who geek out over helicopter models and Soviet special ops will likely be pleased. The plot is also uncomfortably driven by Cold War–hangover politics that sometimes smack of anti-Russian and anti-Chinese xenophobia; such unsubtle tropes are familiar in spy stories but muddle an otherwise balanced take on geopolitical corruption and conflict. Nevertheless, Renneberg’s complex, accessible tale is fun to follow.
An action-packed thriller with careful doses of sci-fi and family drama.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9874347-6-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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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