Futuristic fan fiction in questionable taste.
A planetary princess fakes her death to escape her royal family in Kinde’s SF novel.
In the year 2130, humanity has spread across the galaxy, but not much else has changed. People still drink wine, get married, have children, use phones and cars, and deal with pandemics. Capitalism still exists, and humanity continues to support and condemn hereditary monarchies. Dyanna Meng Wang, formerly princess of Kepler Prime, now lives on Old Earth as Myra Foley. Myra, the reader quickly realizes, is a thinly veiled, futuristic version of the 20th century’s Princess Diana. Like Diana Spencer, Myra marries an imperial heir who cheats on her and moves in with his mistress, “the love of his life.” Myra scandalously diverges from her expected role as princess and comes into conflict with her mother-in-law, the queen, experiences overwhelming depression and suicidal ideation, and provides an heir and a “spare,” a clear allusion to the title of Prince Harry’s memoir (“Without a doubt, my sons, those two boys I had to turn my back on so I could live, were pawns”). This and a few other elements of the book feel a bit insensitive; the first clue to the character’s inspiration is the day of her faked death, Aug. 31, the same day Princess Diana died. The reader learns that Myra lives with her new husband, Jones, who assisted in her escape after they fell in love. After traveling the galaxy, the couple moved to Old Earth, where they bought a winery and live in anonymity with their daughter, Katla. Now, several decades after their flight, Myra and Jones, now 66 and 72, respectively, live a satisfying life running the winery and spending time with Katla’s daughters. The conflict of the first half of the book largely comes from Myra’s memories, but at the midway point mysterious forces bring imperial drama back into Myra’s life. Although the plot slogs at points and the real-world inspiration is problematic, this is a rare work of SF featuring a woman in her 60s, making this a unique entry into the genre.
Futuristic fan fiction in questionable taste.Pub Date: March 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781928178378
Page Count: 220
Publisher: ISBN CANADA
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2023
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
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.
A time-toying spy romance that’s truly a thriller.
In the author’s note following the moving conclusion of her gripping, gleefully delicious debut novel, Bradley explains how she gathered historical facts about Lt. Graham Gore, a real-life Victorian naval officer and polar explorer, then “extrapolated a great deal” about him to come up with one of her main characters, a curly-haired, chain-smoking, devastatingly charming dreamboat who has been transported through time. Having also found inspiration in the sole extant daguerreotype of Gore, showing him to have been “a very attractive man,” Bradley wrote the earliest draft of the book for a cluster of friends who were similarly passionate about polar explorers. Her finished novel—taut, artfully unspooled, and vividly written—retains the kind of insouciant joy and intimacy you might expect from a book with those origins. It’s also breathtakingly sexy. The time-toggling plot focuses on the plight of a British civil servant who takes a high-paying job on a secret mission, working as a “bridge” to help time-traveling “expats” resettle in 21st-century London—and who falls hard for her charge, the aforementioned Commander Gore. Drama, intrigue, and romance ensue. And while this quasi-futuristic tale of time and tenderness never seems to take itself too seriously, it also offers a meaningful, nuanced perspective on the challenges we face, the choices we make, and the way we live and love today.
This rip-roaring romp pivots between past and present and posits the future-altering power of love, hope, and forgiveness.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781668045145
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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