Breezy, space-based fun with well-executed character development.
In Corley’s SF novel, an alien prince is finally ready to assume his throne after abandoning his responsibility years before.
Prince Parrtec was once the heir to the intergalactic kingdom known as the Twelve but decided to fake his death and walk away from everything he knew in exchange for a wandering life of fun and freedom. Now he goes by the name Parr, living on his beloved ship, the Aurora, which is reputed to be one of the fastest ships in existence. He mingles with all sorts of people, including pirates and other criminals in “the outer reaches.” But now he feels that it’s time to go back and take his rightful place after his parents’ deaths—if he can get through the well-defended gates of his home system of Bilena Epso Ach. A business opportunity goes awry that could have helped him do so, and he finds himself banned for life from entering the gates. Parr needs a new plan, but he has no more funds, and with the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter hot on his trail for reasons unknown, Parr will need all the help he can get—even if it means siding with Manc, an old pirate with shady motives, and Ren, a secretive and alluring figure. Will Parr ever make it back home—and if he does, will the new queen, his sister, welcome him back? Politics and romance intertwine in this fun space adventure that follows Parr around the galaxy as he ostensibly tries to make his way back to his throne. However, readers will find that Parr’s journey turns out to be one of personal transformation and self-discovery. Over the course of the novel, he loses his initial obliviousness and gains a deeper understanding of what it truly means to be the heir of a privileged family—who may, in fact, be tyrants. Corley, the author of Ghost Bully (2018), also effectively develops the story to show how Parr learns to trust people other than himself during his travels. Sadly, the protagonist’s tale ends too soon, but it offers an open ending that promises more adventures.
Breezy, space-based fun with well-executed character development.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Electric Fern
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.
Weir’s latest is a page-turning interstellar thrill ride that follows a junior high school teacher–turned–reluctant astronaut at the center of a desperate mission to save humankind from a looming extinction event.
Ryland Grace was a once-promising molecular biologist who wrote a controversial academic paper contesting the assumption that life requires liquid water. Now disgraced, he works as a junior high science teacher in San Francisco. His previous theories, however, make him the perfect researcher for a multinational task force that's trying to understand how and why the sun is suddenly dimming at an alarming rate. A barely detectable line of light that rises from the sun’s north pole and curves toward Venus is inexplicably draining the star of power. According to scientists, an “instant ice age” is all but inevitable within a few decades. All the other stars in proximity to the sun seem to be suffering with the same affliction—except Tau Ceti. An unwilling last-minute replacement as part of a three-person mission heading to Tau Ceti in hopes of finding an answer, Ryland finds himself awakening from an induced coma on the spaceship with two dead crewmates and a spotty memory. With time running out for humankind, he discovers an alien spacecraft in the vicinity of his ship with a strange traveler on a similar quest. Although hard scientific speculation fuels the storyline, the real power lies in the many jaw-dropping plot twists, the relentless tension, and the extraordinary dynamic between Ryland and the alien (whom he nicknames Rocky because of its carapace of oxidized minerals and metallic alloy bones). Readers may find themselves consuming this emotionally intense and thematically profound novel in one stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed sitting.
An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13520-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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