Another compelling and hugely fun adventure that delivers a thrill ride.
When Russian oligarchs try to meddle in American politics, a pilot who can fly invisibly tries to thwart them in this fifth installment of a series.
It’s been almost a year since the small-plane crash that pilot Will Stewart barely survived. It should have killed him—but instead, the accident has left Will with the gift of invisible floating, a phenomenon he calls “the other thing.” Over time, he’s learned more about his gift and how to control his flight with mechanical devices, although he’s still working on propelling himself through thought alone. He’s used the other thing to help his wife, police detective Andrea “Andy” Stewart, solve cases. He’s rescued innocents, intimidated criminal bigshots into better behavior, and—through a still-mysterious process—cured some dying children. Will finally has medical clearance to return to work as a charter pilot for the Essex County Air Service in Wisconsin, but a quiet life isn’t in the cards. Special Agent Lee Donaldson turns up wanting Andy’s help with Josiah James, a racist talk radio host and conspiracy theorist. Since Will last saw Donaldson providing private security for a billionaire criminal, he’s not sure whether the agent can be trusted. But James’ hatemongering played a role in a local tragedy, giving the Stewarts motivation to look into him. Their investigation takes a turn when James is assassinated at a rally by an old man, leading Will and Andy into a complicated maze of conspiracy, the dark net, Cold War spycraft, and Russian interference in United States politics, all while attempting to protect the secret of the other thing. Seaborne (Divisible Man: The Seventh Star, 2019, etc.), a former flight instructor and charter pilot, continues his winning streak in this series, offering another page-turner. By having Will’s knowledge of and control over his powers continue to expand while the questions over how he should best deploy his abilities grow, Seaborne keeps the concept fresh and readers guessing. Information about what actually happened during the crash (which Will can’t remember) has been doled out by the quarter-teaspoonful, which is enticing—and sometimes frustrating. But the thriller nicely thinks through matters like Will’s being the perfect spy: “I don’t speak Russian. Or Arabic. Or any other language. I can’t read the Russian signs that say, ‘This Way To Secret World Takeover Laboratory.’ People don’t sit around chatting about their evil plans.” Meanwhile, Will’s enemies are becoming aware of him and perhaps developing techniques to detect him, which makes the question of how he can protect himself while doing the most good a thorny one. The conspiracy is highly dramatic yet not implausible given today’s political events, and the action sequences are excitingly cinematic. It does seem past time for Will to make some kind of plan instead of reacting to events, giving readers much to anticipate in the next volume.
Another compelling and hugely fun adventure that delivers a thrill ride.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7336834-2-5
Page Count: 396
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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