Holgate pieces together an alternate-world future history, where humanity colonizes Mars, almost accidentally, and discovers evidence of an ancient, advanced civilization that once flourished there—and may offer knowledge that could save both Earth and Mars from a terrible fate.
This future-history of humanity opens with a preface written by Mons Iridium, a Martian descended from early human explorers of the planet. Mons illustrates “Early Mars History” with vignettes—some from official documents, some extrapolated into narratives—covering several decades of events. George Wilson and Mark Yoshiru, a pair of engineers, are the characters most often used to illustrate events in this portion. Mons signs off after this first section, leaving the rest of the history to be penned by unknown hands. The next segment, “Discovery History,” features Julia, a Martian geologist, and tracks the discovery and aftermath of an ancient, nonhuman Martian civilization. However, the advanced technology this discovery leads to isn’t enough to solve all of humanity’s problems. The third section, “The Exodus,” delves into humanity’s increasingly untenable position and its solution—forced exodus to other, hopefully habitable, planets. The final section, “The New World,” charts the interstellar transit and eventual landing and colonization of a new home world, Potheo. From there, a strange fate befalls both Earth and Mars. Altogether, this span of several centuries of future-history is a well thought out, fascinating exercise in imagining what future might lie before us. Holgate pays careful attention to the sociological and scientific aspects of living on another planet. Unfortunately, the vast span of time and the relatively scant attention paid to individual characters ensures that it reads more like dry history than an engrossing story. Characterization is often reported as fact—“Prissy was pretty quick at understanding things”—but the prose is nevertheless clean and crisp, and the chain of events, while not fully developed, is diverting.
A smart, if sometimes-dry, exploration of space and humanity’s future that should appeal to history buffs and fans of hard sci-fi.Pub Date: July 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495910692
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: SCIENCE FICTION | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
84
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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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BOOK TO SCREEN
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Categories: GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | FANTASY
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