An interesting, ambitious and somewhat flawed opening chapter in a promising series full of science and action.
The first volume in a science-fiction series about a young man who’s abducted by benevolent aliens, bio-engineered to superhuman levels and sent back to Earth years later to stop an alien invasion.
When 19-year-old Jaden Martino stumbles on a downed spaceship, he instantly becomes the hunted prey of nefarious U.S. government agencies bent on confiscating the UFO—and eliminating any civilians who know about it. The alien machine not only protects Jaden from his pursuers but whisks him off to a distant planet where he makes friends with the aliens. They inject him with body-transforming nanotechnology and warn him of the evil Darclonians, who plan on using their own nanotechnology to conquer Earth. In Carter’s hyperkinetic narrative, Jaden is returned to Earth to use his enhanced knowledge and abilities to ferret out Darclonian infiltrators and rally the resistance of a world that doesn’t even know that it’s in danger. Along the way, Jaden must contend with the many secret U.S. government agencies that want to capture or kill him, so the author gets to play up his hero’s underdog status. Carter also daringly makes Jaden almost unlikable: he’s misogynistic, homophobic, completely self-centered and hungry for fame (characters are forever dream-casting the Hollywood movies of their lives). In fact, Carter says that the book is intended to simulate the experience of watching a movie, adding that he believes it could become next Star Wars, Matrix or Star Trek series (and that he feels like George Lucas in the early ’70s). To Carter’s credit, his tale has many elements that would translate well to a big budget, special effects extravaganza. The book is a fast, engrossing read—the pace never lets up for an instant—but it could have used a close edit to tighten up the nearly 700 pages.
An interesting, ambitious and somewhat flawed opening chapter in a promising series full of science and action.Pub Date: July 20, 2010
ISBN: 978-0578044545
Page Count: 682
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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