This book’s swift pace and passionate characters make up for a familiar premise.
A young man must brave exceedingly treacherous courses and fierce, deadly competitors to win a popular footrace in Brook’s YA dystopian sci-fi debut.
Through sheer determination, Kai Reed finally crosses the finish line first at an annual local run in the Valley, earning a kiss from a beautiful woman named Sara. But an even bigger reward awaits: a chance to participate in the No Limits Race, a worldwide phenomenon featuring 10 runners on 10 different courses in as many days. The prize for the winner is no less than a life of luxury. Kai is recruited (via drone) by Emily Starr, an agent at an athletic management firm, and she quickly secures a sponsor for him. Kai soon agrees to undergo major surgery that makes him “part human, part machine.” Assisted by Emily, technician Andy, and machinery designer Neen, Kai preps for races on varying terrain, including on ice and on the walls of abandoned buildings. In the ensuing weeks, he falls for his demanding but alluring agent. The impending race is unquestionably perilous, and some competitors have lost more than just their pride in the past. But Kai also worries about Emily—does she reciprocate his romantic feelings, or does she have another agenda? Sci-fi plots that focus on brutal contests have been done many times before, but Brook manages to inject plenty of romance and satire into her story. The developing relationship between Kai and Emily is gradual and convincing, and the author also effectively lampoons the media along the way; at one point, for instance, televised coverage is edited to make an unscrupulous runner look honorable. The simple, no-nonsense prose, concise paragraphs, and short chapters keep the story bouncing along. Orphaned Kai is a smart and resilient character, but he’s not quite as intriguing as others, including Emily, who has a murky history; Kai’s elderly neighbor, Ron, who’s indifferent to the race; and Venus, who’s the race’s sole female competitor.
This book’s swift pace and passionate characters make up for a familiar premise.Pub Date: June 2, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 249
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days...
In 1876, professor Edward Cope takes a group of students to the unforgiving American West to hunt for dinosaur fossils, and they make a tremendous discovery.
William Jason Tertullius Johnson, son of a shipbuilder and beneficiary of his father’s largess, isn’t doing very well at Yale when he makes a bet with his archrival (because every young man has one): accompany “the bone professor” Othniel Marsh to the West to dig for dinosaur fossils or pony up $1,000, but Marsh will only let Johnson join if he has a skill they can use. They need a photographer, so Johnson throws himself into the grueling task of learning photography, eventually becoming proficient. When Marsh and the team leave without him, he hitches a ride with another celebrated paleontologist, Marsh’s bitter rival, Edward Cope. Despite warnings about Indian activity, into the Judith badlands they go. It’s a harrowing trip: they weather everything from stampeding buffalo to back-breaking work, but it proves to be worth it after they discover the teeth of what looks to be a giant dinosaur, and it could be the discovery of the century if they can only get them back home safely. When the team gets separated while transporting the bones, Johnson finds himself in Deadwood and must find a way to get the bones home—and stay alive doing it. The manuscript for this novel was discovered in Crichton’s (Pirate Latitudes, 2009, etc.) archives by his wife, Sherri, and predates Jurassic Park (1990), but if readers are looking for the same experience, they may be disappointed: it’s strictly formulaic stuff. Famous folk like the Earp brothers make appearances, and Cope and Marsh, and the feud between them, were very real, although Johnson is the author’s own creation. Crichton takes a sympathetic view of American Indians and their plight, and his appreciation of the American West, and its harsh beauty, is obvious.
Falls short of Crichton’s many blockbusters, but fun reading nonetheless, especially for those interested in the early days of American paleontology.Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-247335-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.
Norwegian novelist Jacobsen folds a quietly powerful coming-of-age story into a rendition of daily life on one of Norway’s rural islands a hundred years ago in a novel that was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.
Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. The novel follows Ingrid from age 3 through a carefree early childhood of endless small chores, simple pleasures, and unquestioned familial love into her more ambivalent adolescence attending school off the island and becoming aware of the outside world, then finally into young womanhood when she must make difficult choices. Readers will share Ingrid’s adoration of her father, whose sense of responsibility conflicts with his romantic nature. He adores Maria, despite what he calls her “la-di-da” ways, and is devoted to Ingrid. Twice he finds work on the mainland for his sister, Barbro, but, afraid she’ll be unhappy, he brings her home both times. Rooted to the land where he farms and tied to the sea where he fishes, Hans struggles to maintain his family’s hardscrabble existence on an island where every repair is a struggle against the elements. But his efforts are Sisyphean. Life as a Barrøy on Barrøy remains precarious. Changes do occur in men’s and women’s roles, reflected in part by who gets a literal chair to sit on at meals, while world crises—a war, Sweden’s financial troubles—have unexpected impact. Yet the drama here occurs in small increments, season by season, following nature’s rhythm through deaths and births, moments of joy and deep sorrow. The translator’s decision to use roughly translated phrases in conversation—i.e., “Tha’s goen’ nohvar” for "You’re going nowhere")—slows the reading down at first but ends up drawing readers more deeply into the world of Barrøy and its prickly, intensely alive inhabitants.
A deeply satisfying novel, both sensuously vivid and remarkably poignant.Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77196-319-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Biblioasis
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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