An understated genre tale that should engage readers with its smart, lighthearted tone.
A billionaire enlists a noted ex-advertising man to promote space tourism for a public that, in light of a recent UFO sighting, may be a bit wary in this sci-fi-infused sequel.
Convincing the world that a man named Sebastian was the Messiah reborn was just another gig for Mal Thomas. But now he’s famous, with his resultant book a best-seller that has turned him into an “accidental spiritual guru” approached by random strangers. He catches the eye of Huw Hudson, CEO of Space Rider, who aspires to provide outer space tours. Space tourism could be a reality in a matter of years, but a phenomenon in Mthatha, South Africa—unexplained lights and a rugby ball shape—may prove a detriment. Hudson wants Mal to allay any of the public’s potential fears of contact with an alien species. But FBI Special Agent Chloe Swift sees reason to distrust the CEO: she’s unofficially investigating the disappearance of Italian cold fusion physicist Aldo Totti. The physicist vanished while vacationing in Florida but he may have visited Hudson’s Brazilian facility. Mal heads to Mthatha to talk to the town residents, and he and Swift soon deduce that the reputed UFO may have been a hoax, part of a coverup to conceal Hudson’s true agenda. Much of Holden’s (Sea of Doubt, 2016, etc.) story plays like a compelling mystery: the puzzling lights, the missing scientist, and later someone’s kidnapping. The sci-fi elements are minimal but absorbing, especially once whatever Hudson has at his facility is revealed. Mal is a likable, fully developed protagonist who recognizes his faults. He acknowledges that Hudson could be manipulating him, simply because Mal has previously succumbed to similar maneuvering. Mal also observes situations as a sci-fi fan (he’s an admitted Trekkie), though the deft descriptions fortunately don’t rely on pop-culture references. For example, he may anticipate the USS Enterprise for a craft’s cockpit but recounts instead an atypical “cavernous interior.” The eventual diverting foray into sci-fi territory is a revelation for Mal, both as an extraordinary event and a personal experience.
An understated genre tale that should engage readers with its smart, lighthearted tone.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9978970-1-2
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Clean Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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