Forges a sensational protagonist and an engaging story with plenty of opportunities to evolve.
A programmer learns that the incessant hum in her ears is just one sign of an extraordinary ability in this thriller.
Lilly Hoffnung has made a living and a name for herself as a highly skilled programmer. Though she generally prefers working with established people and deep pockets, she has genuine affection for the company Exousía and its product. But the interactive, artificial intelligence, home management, and security system has a defect: It’s locking people out of their homes. Lilly is unfortunately distracted as she scours the code for a bug. The hum she’s been hearing for the last couple of years is now accompanied by headaches, and she’s shaken by a hum-afflicted colleague’s suicide. One night, when her pain is unbearable, Lilly somehow makes the hum and headaches stop. Soon a man in her dreams, claiming to be a friend, offers to help her through an apparent “transition”—involving her newfound supernatural ability. Lilly isn’t the only one with this particular talent; in fact, she encounters a group invested in studying the phenomenon. What follows is a visit to a secured headquarters for Lilly to get some answers, so long as she can survive one individual’s unforeseen, heinous intention. Schumer’s (SEAL Catch, 2017, etc.) novel is a commendable introduction to the protagonist for a prospective series. Lilly is shrewd, adept, and entangled in diverting romantic subplots. These involve unwanted advances from fellow developer Ted Hendre and interactions with friend Jim Kinard, a potential lover. Despite the steady progress of Lilly’s supernatural discoveries, the shift in the final act is jarring, suddenly introducing a villain and corresponding peril. But there are likewise tantalizing hints of espionage and that Lilly’s ability could be used as a tool or even a weapon, all of which can be expanded in future installments. And Schumer’s writing is sharp, as when the pain of Lilly’s headaches is palpably described: “It focused, narrowed to a fine point, then pierced her temple like an ice pick.”
Forges a sensational protagonist and an engaging story with plenty of opportunities to evolve.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-9769603134
Page Count: 280
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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