A chilling, futuristic tale of freedom lost.
Johnston’s SF novel provides an unsettling reminder that some things never change.
Twenty-seven-year-old Darien Segura is a writer and conspiracy theory aficionado living in the 22nd-century U.S. As Segura’s generation enjoys the technology of our dreams, their lives are entangled in a nightmare of bureaucratic inefficiency: A two-party political system self-perpetuates through conflict, while corrupt politicians pay lip service to social justice. The citizens long for a leader who shares their hope for true equality—a man like the almost hypnotically charismatic Reuben Rogov. With the apparent capacity to effect sweeping social change, Rogov’s Peace Party is literally too good to be true. Segura watches as a nation is caught up in propaganda and ideological fervor. This utopian wave sweeps Rogov into a position of unprecedented power and gives rise to a promise of global unity. Yet soon, a new rhetoric of fear emerges, citing the presence of a terrorist cell among the people. As accusations are thrown and books are banned and shredded by Rogov’s edict, Segura undertakes a quiet act of rebellion. But can an unknown author stand against a new world order? Reminding his audience that oppression can wear a benevolent disguise, the author convincingly depicts the often-subtle abuses of power that can herald the rise of dictatorship (“ ‘Some deep state operation formed the Peace Party,’ Papa said, ‘and they’re going all in to get Rogov elected President. If it happens, he’ll be running both NatGov and the United Nations, and a new world order will emerge just as they’ve planned for years’ ”). Johnston’s work is reminiscent of other popular dystopian narratives, distinguished by a rare thread of hope woven throughout the pages. There are even a few humorous and self-referential moments to lighten the tone. As the novel draws to a close, readers will long for a sequel (and hope it’s not already too late).
A chilling, futuristic tale of freedom lost.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8985645446
Page Count: 283
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 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
Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the...
Brown presents the second installment of his epic science-fiction trilogy, and like the first (Red Rising, 2014), it’s chock-full of interpersonal tension, class conflict and violence.
The opening reintroduces us to Darrow au Andromedus, whose wife, Eo, was killed in the first volume. Also known as the Reaper, Darrow is a lancer in the House of Augustus and is still looking for revenge on the Golds, who are both in control and in the ascendant. The novel opens with a galactic war game, seemingly a simulation, but Darrow’s opponent, Karnus au Bellona, makes it very real when he rams Darrow’s ship and causes a large number of fatalities. In the main narrative thread, Darrow has infiltrated the Golds and continues to seek ways to subvert their oppressive and dominant culture. The world Brown creates here is both dense and densely populated, with a curious amalgam of the classical, the medieval and the futuristic. Characters with names like Cassius, Pliny, Theodora and Nero coexist—sometimes uneasily—with Daxo, Kavax and Sevro. And the characters inhabit a world with a vaguely medieval social hierarchy yet containing futuristic technology such as gravBoots. Amid the chronological murkiness, one thing is clear—Darrow is an assertive hero claiming as a birthright his obligation to fight against oppression: "For seven hundred years we have been enslaved….We have been kept in darkness. But there will come a day when we walk in the light." Stirring—and archetypal—stuff.
Comparisons to The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones series are inevitable, for this tale has elements of both—fantasy, the future and quasi-historicism.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-345-53981-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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