An often enjoyable, if slightly formulaic, SF novel about breaking away from a collective.
A parable in which unrest comes to a neatly hierarchical future state.
In the future world thatO’Neil imagines, society underwent a grand Reorganization a generation ago and is now carefully organized into levels of affluence. In Tier One are the Swells, who live in gated communities and have their every need or want quickly attended to by attentive “artificial intelligence entities”; they’re also guarded by the omnipresent, robotic Mech Marshals who enforce the law. On Tier Two are the Shoals, who likewise enjoy comfortable lives with all of their needs met, although perhaps less quickly or urgently than the people in Tier One. And finally, there’s Tier Three—the vast majority of the population, known as Sands, who are mostly contentedly idle and want for nothing, although they enjoy fewer luxuries; sometimes they provide luxuries for others in the form of Sands-made items, which are coveted by the upper Tiers for their supposed authenticity. Against this backdrop, readers meet the human law enforcement officer Lansing, his investigative AI partner (named “Partner”), and 15-year-old Traxter, a follower of an underground philosophical movement aimed at undercutting the seemingly perfect world society. One of Traxter’s instructors warns him about their AI helpers: “They meet all our needs. They spread us out. They teach us to behave. So they can ignore us.” Indeed, the darker reality underlying all the supposed contentment is stressed repeatedly over the course of the narrative: “The AIs are slowly cutting humans out of the decision cycle,” Lansing warns at one point. “We don’t make any sense to them, and they see our control as interference.”
In an unusual wrinkle, O’Neil’s novel is a companion piece to on an earlier nonfiction work by the same author. In The Unused Path(2021), he outlined a straightforward philosophy of life for readers to consider when they’re confronted with potentially corrosive complexities of the modern world. In this new novel, “the Unused Path” is intriguingly employed as the name of a dissident group disrupting the seemingly flawless society; it’s also the name of that group’s philosophy of nontechnological mindfulness, which features such mantras as “Develop your mind,” “Spend time alone with your thoughts,” and “Specificity contributes to accuracy.” Readers don’t need to read the first book in order to appreciate this one, but the use of such textual interconnectedness does make the somewhat familiarplot—about fugitives in a blandly perfect environment finding an off-the-grid, subversive alternative—more compelling than it would ordinarily be. Various subplots feel, more or less, like afterthoughts, but the main action manages to capture the imagination and hold it. The main players are developed well over the course of the narrative, and the book’s dialogue, especially, rings true and is consistently snappy and readable. The worldbuilding is thorough and internally consistent, as well, although many readers may wish the author had offered more specific details about the Reorganization that lies at the heart of the work.
An often enjoyable, if slightly formulaic, SF novel about breaking away from a collective.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73782-451-0
Page Count: 324
Publisher: FNG Press
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
A standout in the series.
The sixth adventure of Harvard symbology professor Robert Langdon explores the mysteries of human consciousness, the demonic projects of the CIA, and the city of Prague.
“Ladies and gentlemen...we are about to experience a sea change in our understanding of how the brain works, the nature of consciousness, and in fact…the very nature of reality itself.” But first—Langdon’s in love! Brown’s devoted readers first met brilliant noetic scientist Katherine Solomon in The Lost Symbol (2009); she’s back as a serious girlfriend, engaging the committed bachelor in a way not seen before. The book opens with the pair in a luxurious suite at the Four Seasons in Prague. It’s the night after Katherine has delivered the lecture quoted above, setting the theme for the novel, which features a plethora of real-life cases and anomalies that seem to support the notion that human consciousness is not localized inside the human skull. Brown’s talent for assembling research is also evident in this novel’s alter ego as a guidebook to Prague, whose history and attractions are described in great and glowing detail. Whether you appreciate or skim past the innumerable info dumps on these and other topics (Jewish folklore fans—the Golem is in the house!), it goes without saying that concision is not a goal in the Dan Brown editing process. Speaking of editing, the nearly 700-page book is dedicated to Brown’s editor, who seems to appear as a character—to put it in the italicized form used for Brownian insight, Jason Kaufman must be Jonas Faukman! A major subplot involves the theft of Katherine’s manuscript from the secure servers of Penguin Random House; the delightful Faukman continues to spout witty wisecracks even when blindfolded and hogtied. There’s no shortage of action, derring-do, explosions, high-tech torture machines, attempted and successful murders, and opportunities for split-second, last-minute escapes; good thing Langdon, this aging symbology wonk, never misses swimming his morning laps. Readers who are not already dyed-in-the-wool Langdonites may find themselves echoing the prof’s own conclusion regarding the credibility of all this paranormal hoo-ha: At some point, skepticism itself becomes irrational.
A standout in the series.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780385546898
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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