A deceptively deep investigation of human entitlement couched in a rollicking supernatural horror story.
An SF novel explores the infinite possibilities of sentience when an inventor of educational toys realizes that the inanimate objects in his life are talking to him.
Matthew Beren’s difficulties begin with an obsession with his wife Sofia’s latest painting, Outset, which depicts “a world muted into a bleak, powdered void.” His fascination with the artwork leads him to try to interfere with its sale and then to wander dazedly into traffic, causing a chaotic accident. Matthew’s strong reaction to the painting also sparks an even stranger phenomenon—his possessions begin to whisper to him, causing him to muse to Sofia: “What if objects are more than we think they are?” Matthew has achieved success and wealth manufacturing Melds, “caricature figures that turn into stretchable, shapeable slime when you heat them,” but his livelihood is soon at risk when he is caught on videotape talking to his products. Though at first reluctant to confirm his perceptions, Sofia finally concedes what Matthew has begun to suspect—“Our stuff is alive”—stunning him with the extraordinary statement, “Human, object, there’s no difference. They’re just stages of an overall life experience.” Going even further, she confides: “Some of them are trying to kill me.” Matthew quickly learns that he is unwittingly embroiled in an existential struggle in which most matter is working in collaboration with humans, while a small but powerful element, dubbed “Leopards” by Sofia and her relatives, is “fed-up with the way people…act as if elements are an unlimited, unthinking resource” and fighting back. Through Matthew’s amiably dumbfounded perspective, Cray weaves a quirky and engrossing tale centered on no less a theme than the nature of consciousness and the place of humanity in the totality of existence. This cerebral thesis is enlivened with action and suspense to rival any space opera, for example, in scenes such as the one in which Matthew and Sofia race to escape a home crumbling from the Leopards’ ire only to find the very pebbles on the roadway rising up to stop them. The complex realm of the conscious objects is vividly imagined, and the loving relationship between Matthew and Sofia provides a reassuring anchor in a world in turmoil.
A deceptively deep investigation of human entitlement couched in a rollicking supernatural horror story.Pub Date: June 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781940317151
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Third Quandary Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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
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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