A solid core of character and concept that needs tighter editing to bring it up to speed.
Rothwell’s post-apocalyptic debut novel takes place after global warming ravages Earth and a new world order cobbles the pieces of the United States into a hegemonic nightmare.
In this all-too-near future, two men find themselves entwined in a conspiracy that will determine the future of the planet. The first is Mark Stills, a man balancing single parenthood with a vendetta against the politician who killed his brother. The second is Marshall Wyenth, who’s sentenced to gladiatorial combat for smoking. He’s not savvy in the ways of armed combat, though; he’s simply a nuclear physicist having a couple of hard-knock days. Binding their fates is Melvin Eliot—two parts crooked politician, one part survivalist, with a dash of Bond villain—and his plot to lower the Earth’s temperature by way of a nuclear winter. In other words, Rothwell knows how to bring interesting characters together. Granted, most are archetypes well represented in the dystopian-future genre—the reluctant everyman, the arena combatant, the despotic politician—but they all come with fun touches of originality. The world also contains some nifty gadgets and a helping of scientific fact to keep the sci-fi feeling real. Unfortunately, it can all be a rough read. Information repeats too often, sometimes in the very next sentence: “Most civilians didn’t have any idea how far a car could go without having to recharge. Like anything with a battery in it, [Stills] knew the car had to be recharged, but it was a mystery how far they could go.” There’s little focus, too. The book’s first half cuts through the timeline with abandon, and its omniscient narrator can’t settle on a comfortable perspective. At one point, the novel leaps between four different viewpoints in less than three pages. Finally, Eliot’s plot to bring about nuclear winter fizzles by novel’s end, making him just another bad guy with a bomb.
A solid core of character and concept that needs tighter editing to bring it up to speed.Pub Date: July 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0984744442
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Midnight Express Books
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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