Avoiding the comic-book trap (though there is some resemblance to The Matrix), this cross-dimensional thriller should give...
A virus grants victims superhuman powers and perceptions (if it doesn’t kill them first), and Robert and Darryl are two such carriers, fighting crime and unstable fellow infectees.
In a near future when drug addiction and gangs push society closer to anarchy, the White-Fire Virus afflicts a small but important percentage. The STD shortens lifespans, distorts the mind and floods the body with bizarre, possibly sentient, photosensitive parasites. Those able to control the microbes via meds, their own will and light-tight full-body suits can develop amazing abilities, including shape-shifting and light bending (i.e. invisibility, heat rays and such). Other victims literally melt, and some go mad and turn into psychotic criminals. Robert and Darryl are two young virus-carriers who have joined an elite covert-ops squad, ostensibly searching for missing kids but more often hunting viral villains. Each man has his own baggage: The hard-nosed Robert mourns the loss of his family; maverick Darryl, sexually appealing to male and female alike, brainwashes pickups into permanent celibacy out of some spiritual crusade. They separately get involved with mystery women, also touched and warped by White Fire, who fancy themselves “arkangel” mystics ushering in a post-apocalyptic new world. But who are the do-gooders and who are the insane terrorists or pawns? Author Grey-Sun’s mutant-superhero, AIDS-metaphor concept may seem a bit overreaching at times, especially when it morphs into a philosophical quest, however, hallucinatory passages and alternative-reality themes echo the prose of Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick without seeming derivative—quite a feat there alone—even if a mismatched buddy-supercop template underpins much of the cosmic spectacle. Despite oft-referenced sexual elements, erotic content is hardly present; it’s the metaphysics—poetic, somewhat punny wordplay about the nature of God, art and Creation—that get full-frontal exposure. The author even injects an entertaining side detail: Sufferers from the virus are drawn to quoting arcane ideas and badly written allegorical novels. This title may even find a readership in religious fantasy literature, albeit of a pretty far-out variety.
Avoiding the comic-book trap (though there is some resemblance to The Matrix), this cross-dimensional thriller should give broad-minded readers a heady brew of thought and superpowered action.Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475005417
Page Count: 312
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
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
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.
A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.
Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.
Unrelenting, and not in a good way.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374172
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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