Powerfully opinionated near-future SF mixes action, skullduggery, and conservative values.
In Glenn’s thriller, a Europe-based conspiracy schemes to control the world economy and impose totalitarianism in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
The author inaugurates a series of geopolitical (accent on political) near-future thrillers with this “what-if” tale. Following the 2020s quarantines and lockdowns, unelected European elites form the New Economic Order, also known as the Global Economic Union, ostensibly to safely shepherd society back to normalcy. In reality, it’s an Orwellian socialist cabal, imposing harsh authoritarianism worldwide. Though equally sinister blocs in China and Russia do not cooperate, the United States’ effete liberals and shrill leftist media push the GEU agenda (“The propaganda had been there all that time: equality, income inequality, the Marxist recasting of freedom in a new light of needs only, white guilt, universal basic income and demonization of the rich”). America is soon overrun with police-state surveillance and Big Brother indoctrination at universities—allegedly fighting climate change, mass shootings, homophobia, and other social ills while instituting jackbooted fascism. In Arizona, a secret resistance is run from the arcology, a self-sufficient, experimental city outpost off the electric grid dedicated to “libertarian Municipalism and anarcho-capitalism.” Here, freedom-loving Cory Bryson runs armed security and preps for inevitable attack by GEU stormtroopers. Bryson is joined by Amit Rubin, an Israeli general’s daughter—Israel being the only democracy gutsy enough to defy the GEU. The action is fast and furious when not being interrupted by pro-Second Amendment arguments, citations of authors and thinkers who shaped the author’s outlook, takedowns of Woodrow Wilson and FDR, and general Red State philosophizing (as in: Bible prophecy foretold lots of this). Glenn’s gifts for virile characterization, pacing, and combat scenes fail to establish any meaningful personalities for the villains; the GEU are colorless nasties and mercenaries. His style is well-suited to the quaint Yankee notion (popular in cautionary late-19th/early-20th century dystopian SF novels) of Europe as a breeding ground for tyranny. Future installments in the saga will doubtlessly offer more op-ed grist for the Glenn Beck–listening readership.
Powerfully opinionated near-future SF mixes action, skullduggery, and conservative values.Pub Date: March 6, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 384
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
