A thoughtful, eccentric sci-fi novel that’s as creepy as it is comic.
A computer manager gains otherworldly powers in Tumbler’s (Seb Cage Begins His Adventures, 2014, etc.) latest novel.
As his prophetic name might indicate, Thomas Beckon is no ordinary man. His everyday life bears all the marks of normality: He’s married and has two daughters and two cats. However, he discovers that he can use the cats as vehicles to observe the behavior of people’s souls, independent of their bodies. It turns out that he’s an Inlooker: a quasi-human, supernatural entity with the ability to examine the contents of anyone’s soul, and he uses that power to carry out his own brand of justice. Soon, and with careful practice, he learns how to transcend his own bodily limitations. He takes possession of an abusive acquaintance, causing him to crash his car and die in a coma. Soon, his malevolent, volatile powers can’t be contained, and he applies them to the pursuit of industry, first mastering the manufacture of an advanced, alien-derived transportation technology and eventually dominating the world’s governments. Tumbler’s strange, even outlandish novel is a highly original remix of standard sci-fi thriller concepts laced with Beckon’s witty, sardonic asides, which guide readers through each chapter. The narrative eventually becomes overly detailed, and it lags when Beckon’s worldly aims become loftier and more complicated. Nonetheless, this is a playful, even funny, book—one with sharp edges, a dark underside, and quirky, metafictional streaks. It also has more than a few things to say about the psychology of sociopaths like Beckon and creates a futuristic version of society that’s neither completely utopian nor dystopian. The protagonist’s habits, which range from acts of violence to sexual reconnaissance and manipulation, will likely prompt readers to consider the limits of power and the importance of privacy.
A thoughtful, eccentric sci-fi novel that’s as creepy as it is comic.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1909121768
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Acorn Independent Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
