A disappointing and disturbing sci-fi follow-up.
Cuban sci-fi author Yoss (Super Extra Grande, 2016, etc.) returns with another offbeat space comedy.
In the 24th century, humans have finally met aliens and discover that the protocol for contact throughout the galaxy is…sex. Josué Valdés is a Cuban “condomnaut,” a sexual ambassador living in a Catalonian space colony who brokers deals with extraterrestrials and boldly goes where no man has gone before. When news reaches New Barcelona that the first beings from outside our galaxy may have reached the Milky Way, Josué and his crew race to be the first to make contact and make a profit on whatever new technology they discover. Along the way, they’ll have competition not only from other aliens, but also from other spacefaring humans, including his archrival, German condomnaut Jürgen Schmodt. The story concludes with an alien sex surprise that readers may find comical or revolting—or possibly both. As in Super Extra Grande, the insubstantial plot is scarcely more than a framework to explore a far-out universe. Although the concept of contractual sex with aliens isn’t new (see also: Larry Niven’s Ringworld series), all its possibilities are fully explored here, although Yoss mostly cuts away before things get too explicit. However, there’s an unsettling flashback to 9-year-old Josué’s life, in which he discusses his desire for 6-year-old Evita. (He’s already had sex with his best friend, Abel.) At one point, Josué and Abel bathe her, “no longer staring at her naked body quite as innocently as we had the year before.” Later, Josué’s compelled to have sex with a morbidly obese woman, Karlita the Tub, which leaves him unable to perform sexually with any human woman and gives him an enduring disgust for fat bodies. Josué continues to long for the late Evita—who was raped and murdered by age 8—and tells readers that he calls “everybody with a BMI over 35” a “fucking whale.” Obviously, this sexualization of children and relentless fatphobia destroys what could have been another rollicking space tale—like the far-better Super Extra Grande.
A disappointing and disturbing sci-fi follow-up.Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63206-186-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Restless Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
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