by Steve Holgate ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 19, 2014
An intricate but fun sci-fi romp.
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The second volume in Holgate’s (Human Trials, 2014) Humankind sci-fi series explores the worlds populated by the descendants of Earth.
Young Jown’s world is thrown into turmoil when a space cargo shuttle hits his apartment building, killing his parents. The shipping company is found liable, and Jown is awarded a cargo ship of his own. He uses this ship, Gater, to leave his home planet of Blue and begin the trading profession, hauling cargo from planet to planet. By traveling through the rings—phenomena that enable ships to jump to other systems—he can reach a wide range of worlds. However, it is solitary, dangerous work, subjecting him to pirate attacks and occasional run-ins with Space Force, the policing authority. On one escape from pirates, Jown discovers a base in what seems to be an asteroid. Upon further inspection, he realizes that the base is unlike anything he’s ever seen; its builders were definitely not human. Ancient alien artifacts had been found before, but these instruments seem new and in perfect working order. Jown decides to present his information and artifacts to the ES Corporation, a research and development group known for its discretion. There, he meets Ellie Goodwater, who has secrets of her own: she left her home planet to avoid being framed for a politician’s murder. Her desperate escape went wrong, and she briefly took a transport ship hostage, releasing it as soon as she was safe. Nevertheless, there’s a bounty on her head. Jown and Ellie work with the scientists of ES as well as a brilliant retired physicist and his wife, a skilled translator. They discover that the aliens are indeed alive but are under deadly attack from another group called the Consumers—who are on a direct path to the ringed system. The group races against time to unlock the aliens’ technology to defend their worlds from certain destruction. Holgate succeeds at imagining a vibrant, realistic universe. The intricate level of detail for ships, technology, battle tactics, etc., will certainly appeal to die-hard sci-fi fans. He usually treads lightly with this, however, keeping the pace lively and the more general readers entertained. Some may be disappointed not to learn juicy tidbits such as what the ominous Consumers look like, but Holgate leaves little doubt of another volume in his series, in which he’ll likely reveal that and much more.
An intricate but fun sci-fi romp.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1501045295
Page Count: 336
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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by Max Brooks
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Cixin Liu ; translated by Ken Liu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 11, 2014
Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed.
Strange and fascinating alien-contact yarn, the first of a trilogy from China’s most celebrated science-fiction author.
In 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, young physicist Ye Wenjie helplessly watches as fanatical Red Guards beat her father to death. She ends up in a remote re-education (i.e. forced labor) camp not far from an imposing, top secret military installation called Red Coast Base. Eventually, Ye comes to work at Red Coast as a lowly technician, but what really goes on there? Weapons research, certainly, but is it also listening for signals from space—maybe even signaling in return? Another thread picks up the story 40 years later, when nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao and thuggish but perceptive policeman Shi Qiang, summoned by a top-secret international (!) military commission, learn of a war so secret and mysterious that the military officers will give no details. Of more immediate concern is a series of inexplicable deaths, all prominent scientists, including the suicide of Yang Dong, the physicist daughter of Ye Wenjie; the scientists were involved with the shadowy group Frontiers of Science. Wang agrees to join the group and investigate and soon must confront events that seem to defy the laws of physics. He also logs on to a highly sophisticated virtual reality game called “Three Body,” set on a planet whose unpredictable and often deadly environment alternates between Stable times and Chaotic times. And he meets Ye Wenjie, rehabilitated and now a retired professor. Ye begins to tell Wang what happened more than 40 years ago. Jaw-dropping revelations build to a stunning conclusion. In concept and development, it resembles top-notch Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven but with a perspective—plots, mysteries, conspiracies, murders, revelations and all—embedded in a culture and politic dramatically unfamiliar to most readers in the West, conveniently illuminated with footnotes courtesy of translator Liu.
Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7706-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
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by Cixin Liu ; translated by Joel Martinsen
BOOK REVIEW
by Cixin Liu ; translated by Joel Martinsen
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BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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