An uneven but colorful and whimsical outer-space tale.
An office worker enjoys a surprisingly laid-back alien abduction in Terrick’s SF comedy.
It’s a typical day for DeBrand O’Donnell of Fort Wayne, Indiana, before his girlfriend unceremoniously dumps him via email. Things immediately go from bad to worse when a strange British woman knocks him out with a Diazepam-laced cup of coffee, and he regains consciousness on a medical examination table. He’s onboard a spaceship that’s orbiting Earth and that belongs to Bruno—an alien being who’s essentially a giant praying mantis. This playful, amiable extraterrestrial, who hails from a species of “chroniclers,” invites DeBrand to be his new emissary to Earth. DeBrand would replace Liza, the British expatriate who drugged him; she’s been Bruno’s emissary for centuries, courtesy of the “Rejuvenator,” which has allowed her to live multiple lives over 700 years or so. Although DeBrand is reluctant to take over this job, Bruno asks him to be a witness at his wedding. Currently, the alien’s betrothed is on another ship and unexpectedly delayed, which allows DeBrand to revel in the perks of Bruno’s spacecraft. They include an A/V lounge with an endless supply of music, and whatever foods or alcoholic beverages the Earthling can imagine. In the meantime, the abductee bonds with Bruno, as the two enjoy the same movies and TV shows—including, most notably, SpongeBob SquarePants. DeBrand is thrown for a loop, however, when Bruno’s future spouse isn’t the only being arriving for the ceremony; there’s also someone whom DeBrand knows quite well and doesn’t necessarily want to see again.
Terrick’s easygoing tale focuses on humor above all else. Accordingly, there’s minimal conflict, as DeBrand, who narrates, excessively details his time on the spaceship’s toilet, for instance, or details mundane scenes of the ship’s passengers playing cards. The SF elements, however, are entertaining throughout; along with the Rejuvenator, Bruno checks out something called a “materializer,” while the communicator on his arm inconveniently transmits his thoughts and dreams. Pop-culture references are abundant, as DeBrand namedrops albums and songs and quotes films and TV shows. There are serene moments, too, as when DeBrand, Bruno, and Bruno’s betrothed talk about their pasts (although Liza sadly provides next to nothing about the many countries in which she spent lifetimes). Much of the comedy comes through characters’ banter, which features copious riffs on DeBrand’s name; some are clever (as when he's called “Mr. Brand Flakes” during breakfast), and a few aren’t (such as “Brandkenstein”). Although the narrative is generally quite simple, some parts are confusing or otherwise lacking. Bruno, for instance, states that he’s been orbiting Earth for 20 cycles, with each roughly equivalent to 38 Earth years; that’s about 760 years total, and a far cry from Bruno’s later estimate of 1,500 years. Similarly, readers learn disappointingly little about the protagonist’s workplace or the Fellowship of Interstellar Worlds for which the alien gathers information. Still, DeBrand’s relatively quiet adventure takes some fun turns, leading to a fine ending that befits the overall tone.
An uneven but colorful and whimsical outer-space tale.Pub Date: July 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781038321954
Page Count: 222
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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