An engrossing tale about starting over on a faraway world.
An assortment of teenagers bands together to survive on a new planet in this debut YA SF novel.
Leigh Crawford awakens with fuzzy memories on a shuttlecraft. From what she can gather, she and 19 other teens from Earth have been in cryosleep for 13 years. But none of them remembers volunteering for this apparent mission, which entails kids from various countries. They land on a water-based planet in another solar system (“Juxtaposed with the midnight blue of the ocean, the sky was pale, a light blue flecked with wispy white clouds, reminiscent of a winter sky over the Texas prairie”). The party quickly comes across teen colonists who have already established ground rules. There are work groups, for example, like Maps, and absolutely no intimacy is allowed in this world they’ve dubbed Marjol. The colonists are also anticipating further landing parties (Leigh’s was the third), which is why discovering signs of a possible shuttle crash unnerves them. While many of the teens mourn the families they may never see again, they strive to bolster their Marjol colony. That includes building a raft for more extensive exploration on the chance they’ll run into additional survivors. Brownlow’s tale is, at times, breezy, as the teens encounter nominal conflicts or threats, like a huge sea creature they spot from afar. Moreover, Marjol is akin to Earth; Leigh’s party first stays at beachside cabins. But the colony has grappled with various problems—the initial landing parties endured an epidemic prior to Leigh’s arrival. Throughout the story, the diverse cast shines, with colonists hailing from Australia, France, West Africa, and America, among other places. It’s hardly surprising when some grow close and contemplate breaking that no-sex rule. Leigh, meanwhile, makes a remarkable hero; she interviews people to compile a history of the colony and hides behind an alias (Lorelei) to distance herself from a scandal involving her Texas family. A handful of shocks awaits readers in the engaging novel’s latter half, especially concerning what Leigh and others find when they embark on a precarious raft excursion.
An engrossing tale about starting over on a faraway world.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 978-1960146335
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Warren Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia.
A teenage witch goes up against the evil king of the mountain to save a cursed village.
Witch-in-training Verity Vox has spent a year apiece in different villages, helping in any way she can as she learns her art. When it’s time to move on, she receives a sign that shows her where to go next. When the latest sign appears in the form of a note begging for help that floats down on a leaf, she’s eager for the challenge. Verity winds up in Foxfire, a village in the Appalachian mountains that’s been magically cut off from the rest of the world for years, leaving its people close to starvation. The root of their suffering is a man they know as Earl, who lives in the hills and strikes deals with the townspeople that ultimately cause crops to wither, folks to disappear, and the only bridge out of the valley to crumble. Verity is determined to change the villagers’ fortunes, but to do so she’ll have to face off against not just Earl but the ancient power of the mountains itself. Loosely based on the Germanic Erlking legend and told in a voice reminiscent of folktales, the story features a queer romance and a cast that presents white. The convoluted magic system undercuts the strong themes of reciprocity, poverty, and privilege, but Appalachian readers will instantly recognize home.
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890032706
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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