A powerful portal story with a stirring protagonist; it’s everything a good sci-fi tale should be and more.
Causey delivers a mix of business, government, religion, and fantastic technology in this debut sci-fi novel.
Time is not running out; it’s running backward. Using the discoveries of the genius Dr. Lacy Sylvan and the work of his paternal grandfather, William, Carlton Ferguson has opened portals into the past—generating massive profits for the family company. Any time and place in the last 48 hours can be reviewed through these Reflection Windows, and while the public doesn’t know it, Carlton hasn’t stopped there, extending his reach by years toward his dream of viewing right up to the beginning of time. Not only that, but he’s kept the secrets of the technology between himself and Sylvan, and even she doesn’t know the full extent of his capabilities. The Reflection Windows have rendered nearly all crime a thing of the past, so it’s tough to imagine anyone going after Carlton. But when Sylvan’s home is bombed, it’s just the beginning of a cascading series of events that could put everything he’s accomplished in jeopardy. Both the religious contingent and the government want control of the technology, either to discover secrets or out of the belief that some things are better left unseen. And when Carlton finally begins to make decisions about monumental issues—whom to trust, how to live, what is right or wrong—the world may be forever changed. This story grapples with ideas that are precise and contemporary, like the question of security versus privacy, and others that are timeless, like whether it is greater for the mind of man to know or simply to wonder. And the glue binding these concepts together is made of precise, well-crafted prose and intricate details, not to mention a fascinating main character. Indeed, the digressions into the precise ways Carlton gets things done and the mechanics of the Reflection system might become dull were it not for the passion the protagonist shows for his life’s mission as well as the complexities of his psyche, from his family history to the loneliness he inflicts on himself. He plays God but nonetheless remains distinctly human. This is a remarkable novel and hopefully a herald of great things to come.
A powerful portal story with a stirring protagonist; it’s everything a good sci-fi tale should be and more.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5144-0038-8
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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 fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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