A terrifying account of global disorder and American decline.
In a dystopian future, a secretive government project threatens a small town.
Resurrection, a modestly sized town in Colorado, has seen better days; its mine closed down, essentially killing its economy. Much to his surprise, Sheriff Rick Johnson one day discovers a peculiar fence erected around the abandoned mine and a heavily armed crew guarding activity inside, both frenetically and furtively conducted. Hank Keefer, the man in charge of the band, convinces Johnson to keep the project to himself for a couple of days, promising to donate millions to Resurrection in exchange for his cooperation. But during a major festival, Keefer and his men commandeer the town and forcibly quarantine it. Keefer reveals that he’s actually a colonel with the Army’s Special Weapons Division and that he’s been using the mine to develop a deadly biological weapon; as a result of a mishap, a toxin was inadvertently released in the air. The toxin has the potential to wipe out Resurrection’s entire population, but Keefer assures the residents he can save them with a vaccine he has in plentiful supply. Johnson, however, is skeptical from the start and suspects that Keefer’s true intentions are nefarious. Meanwhile, Johnson, a war hero suffering from the trauma of the violent campaigns he participated in, tries to find normality in Resurrection. He carries on a slow but tender romance with a local, Dahlia Stevens, the mother of a young boy, but struggles to reconcile with Cassie Baker, his former paramour, a scientist who returns to town to inspect the mine. Gunhus (Where Are Your Shoes, 2017, etc.) adroitly designs a frightening world upended by geopolitical chaos; the United States, the victim of catastrophic terrorist attacks, struggles to bring order to global madness: “The Chinese invasions through Asia, the instability in Russia, the chaos in South America, the street-to-street fighting against the Jihadis in European capitals, all of it showed the average American a world sliding toward darkness.” Johnson is a memorable and relatable hero, hardened by war and loss but astonishingly hopeful. This tale offers a deliciously creepy vision of a grim tomorrow rendered harrowingly plausible.
A terrifying account of global disorder and American decline.Pub Date: June 5, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Seven Guns Press
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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