A seriocomic novel that explores the possibilities of futuristic technology and the classic tropes of a mismatched duo.
Debut author Zakreski offers a sci-fi novel about a lawyer dealing with an intergalactic computer virus.
After law student Andron Varga meets a folk singer named Astrid who “smells of rare mountain flowers,” it doesn’t take long for the two to fall in love. Down the road, Andron proposes marriage. Then, suddenly, Astrid is killed by a falling meteorite. Sent into despair, Andron becomes determined to make sense of the tragedy. During his quest for answers, he downloads and installs the software for ILEAP, a project that aims to make contact with civilizations elsewhere in the universe. After he clicks the “FIND LIFE button” and utters some lonely words (“there must be someone somewhere to love me”), things become even stranger. Soon enough, the entire Internet crashes and authorities believe that Andron is involved with a cyberterrorist attack; he’s brutally tortured but eventually released. At this point, the plot lacks direction for several pages until Zakreski introduces a new entity to craftily set it back on course. Andron, through his blundering, has managed to download a virus named Cygnus, who tells him that his own cyber-DNA “got into your computer…and boom Mac Daddy, here I am.” It’s a virus with an attitude, and woe to any innocent lawyer who thinks he can put that genie back in the bottle. They wind up as a team of sorts, and although they initially have some fun, Cygnus steers into moral gray areas. For example, it increases Andron’s bank account exponentially, causing him to worry that something bad is around the corner. In a story that’s part William Gibson-style cyberthriller, part wacky comedy, the pendulum swings between an investigation of the human soul and off-color remarks, such as Cygnus’ opinion that “Bitches are all for successful older dudes with tragic pasts.” Zakreski depicts Cygnus as foulmouthed and capable of dark actions, and he’s certainly shown to be a handful for a man like Andron, who simply wants to stay out of trouble. Readers who enjoy such chaotic characters are likely to enjoy the conflict, though others may wish there were more to the overall premise.
A seriocomic novel that explores the possibilities of futuristic technology and the classic tropes of a mismatched duo.Pub Date: June 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5333-9182-7
Page Count: 366
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
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
PERSPECTIVES
© 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.
