A novel of full-throttle sci-fi violence for lovers of the 1980s action-film heyday.
In this debut novel, an android terrorist destroys Washington, D.C., in an attempt to take over the world.
In 2051, the Palomino Corporation can upload the minds of dying humans into the bodies of android replicas. Two weeks before Christmas, President Frederick S. Nelson holds a press conference to announce that Palomino’s widely distributed J-8000 model will be recalled due to suspected major defects. Moments later, chaos erupts at the White House as forces controlled by a vicious android named Apollyon overtake the Secret Service. This day becomes known as Day Zero—the start of “one of the greatest wars in modern history.” Caught in the middle are D.C. natives Zach Becker, a war vet and cop; Emily Wedlund, a National Guard combat specialist; and young Jiro, an 8-year-old android. Apollyon has a specific reason for hunting the robot boy, whose cash-strapped parents threatened to return him, and he recruits another remorseless android named Emma to hijack a Wi-Fi component to help complete what he calls Operation Plexus. Luckily, there are still some sane androids left at the Crystal Lake Chapel, where all “Palomin” are welcome. Yet nowhere is truly safe as long as Apollyon is determined to save the world from humanity. Author Wilcoxson’s blood-drenched debut will be a hearty read for fans of the films Robocop (1987) and The Terminator (1984). Comprised primarily of simple, declarative sentences, the narrative often clatters forward like a runaway screenplay. This style helps to effectively dramatize familiar scenes, including Apollyon’s introduction (“A cracked, battered, and burnt face looks up, revealing mechanical work inside the broken skin”). There are some sedate, human moments, as well, such as when Zack finds a TV remote in the fridge—evidence of his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. However, they’re deeply overshadowed by the tableaux of well-crafted mayhem; in one firefight, for example, “[h]eads cock back, shoulders spin, and knees launch bone matter.” Despite a breakneck pace leading to a delicious finale, sci-fi fans may wish for a more engagingly futuristic world (although the nod to a second Korean War helps). Nevertheless, the novel’s stunning cliffhanger balances the excessive action.
A novel of full-throttle sci-fi violence for lovers of the 1980s action-film heyday.Pub Date: March 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0692401361
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.
Ware (In A Dark, Dark Wood, 2015) offers up a classic “paranoid woman” story with a modern twist in this tense, claustrophobic mystery.
Days before departing on a luxury cruise for work, travel journalist Lo Blacklock is the victim of a break-in. Though unharmed, she ends up locked in her own room for several hours before escaping; as a result, she is unable to sleep. By the time she comes onboard the Aurora, Lo is suffering from severe sleep deprivation and possibly even PTSD, so when she hears a big splash from the cabin next door in the middle of the night, “the kind of splash made by a body hitting water,” she can’t prove to security that anything violent has actually occurred. To make matters stranger, there's no record of any passenger traveling in the cabin next to Lo’s, even though Lo herself saw a woman there and even borrowed makeup from her before the first night’s dinner party. Reeling from her own trauma, and faced with proof that she may have been hallucinating, Lo continues to investigate, aided by her ex-boyfriend Ben (who's also writing about the cruise), fighting desperately to find any shred of evidence that she may be right. The cast of characters, their conversations, and the luxurious but confining setting all echo classic Agatha Christie; in fact, the structure of the mystery itself is an old one: a woman insists murder has occurred, everyone else says she’s crazy. But Lo is no wallflower; she is a strong and determined modern heroine who refuses to doubt the evidence of her own instincts. Despite this successful formula, and a whole lot of slowly unraveling tension, the end is somehow unsatisfying. And the newspaper and social media inserts add little depth.
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-3293-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© 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.
