A grand, if slightly uneven, SF adventure with big ideas and relatable characters.
In Masip’s thriller, a scientist discovers a secret hidden within human DNA that has world-altering consequences.
Camille DuBois is a graduate student in genetics who’s fascinated by “junk DNA” that doesn’t code for proteins. She’s convinced that it hides a secret, and her research attracts the attention of Carter Industries, an incredibly wealthy corporation involved in “tech, AI, and space dreams.” With their resources, Camille and her colleagues discover that a sequence in human DNA contains specific coordinates: “a celestial map, directing us to a specific location on Mars….written into our very genetic code for millennia, waiting for us to uncover it,” notes benefactor Nathaniel Carter. Camille then becomes a member of the first human crew ever sent to the red planet, where she finds an ancient Martian AI, which explains that there was an advanced civilization there, billions of years ago. The Martians created it when they were on the verge of extinction, it says, so that it could steer development of life on Earth. Now, the AI intends to “merge” its memories with humanity to form one united species. Camille and her crew are afraid that this will mean the destruction of humankind, so they alert the corporation back home, leading to a tense, frightening standoff. In many ways, Masip’s novel reads like a blockbuster SF movie; the action is grand and sweeping, and a few preternaturally skilled characters risk peril and revelation to save the day. The story is exciting and tense throughout, and it’s easy to root for the main characters. However, the book has some of the problems that many movie blockbusters also have: Convenient coincidences occur as the plot demands, which saps the dramatic power, and the novel’s length worsens this problem, as it’s difficult to maintain escalating tension for nearly 500 pages. However, the story’s themes are heartening, and Masip takes care to give his characters rich internal lives and distinct perspectives. Despite its flaws, this novel is a lot of fun and clearly written with care.
A grand, if slightly uneven, SF adventure with big ideas and relatable characters.Pub Date: June 12, 2025
ISBN: 9789083549316
Page Count: 488
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2025
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 rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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