A well-written, fiery sci-fi tale about human warriors battling an alien regime.
A ragtag but determined army of exiled human soldiers faces strategic and moral dilemmas while trying to wrest a conquered Earth from an alien empire.
In this sci-fi debut, humanity’s successful technological leap into becoming a space-going culture has brought calamity to the planet. First, contact with nomadic aliens called the Ahai, willing to share “wormhole” technology, triggered the ruinous “Corporate War” launched by human mega-capitalists trying to protect their interests. Then came the threat that placed the Ahai into perpetual drifting exile: a warrior species with insect and reptilian aspects called the Hetarek, who wiped out upward of 90 percent of humanity and turned Earth into a (fairly minor) mining colony in their empire. It is now over 20 years after the subjugation, and the remaining humans toil as slave labor, administrated by long-captured Ahai who are the Hetareks’ puppets plus designated human go-betweens who have mastered the Hetarek language. (Traitorous though they seem, some of these quislings try to avoid unnecessary bloodshed by the occupiers.) An eager force of humans with military training who fled with the accommodating Ahai is rearming and starting to retake old possessions. An elite away team infiltrates the Pacific Northwest to foment resistance and rebellion. But among a generation of humans (and Ahai) who have known nothing but the Hetarek jackboot (or, more accurately, foot claw), the would-be liberators find themselves facing unexpected distrust and treachery. In this series opener, characterizations tend to be pushed to the margins by the intrigue, action, and military jargon–laden dialogue. But Thomas has thought through the mindsets of victors and vanquished, skillfully shading in the psychologies of the opposing forces before small feints and ambushes bloom into full-scale war. The semi-open ending leaves the tale, which at times recalls L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth, open to many further possibilities (most of them promising dire mayhem). Readers may discern in the story’s three-way species conflict parallels to real-life invasions and occupations (quagmires in the Middle East come to mind). But if a metaphor is at work here, it doesn’t overshadow the essential heroics.
A well-written, fiery sci-fi tale about human warriors battling an alien regime.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 521
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© 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.
