Pure "hard" sf of the finest: developing and embellishing some of the ideas put forth in One Human Minute (1986), Leto presents a disturbing, highly intelligent, and scathing account of medium-future humanity's attempt to contact an extraterrestrial civilization. When unmistakable signs of technological civilization are detected on a planet hidden inside the Coalsack nebula, an expedition—including a priest and an amnesiac—is dispatched with orders to study the aliens and make contact. In spaceship Hermes, they duly arrive near planet Quinta, where facts quickly accumulate but prove baffling. On Quinta itself, the inhabitants have set up powerful transmitters that prevent all communication by broadcasting white noise. The planet itself is surrounded by a ring of ice, as if the natives had decided to expel some of their oceans' water into space and then given up the project halfway through. An experiment, or weapon, or device, of fusion energy lies abandoned on Quinta's moon. Hermes captures two dead Quintan satellites; both are infected with virus-like molecules that probably caused the satellites' destruction. Efforts to communicate with the Quintans produce no response. Suddenly Hermes is attacked with devastating weapons; only the reactions of the computer, DEUS, and the human mastery of "sidereal engineering" (gravity control) save them from disaster. Captain Steergard is forced to conclude that two or more factions on Quinta are permanently locked in a deadly space war. Nevertheless, Steergard's orders are to make contact, and this he will proceed to do—even if it means destroying the Quintans in the process. Throughout, Lem's scientific extrapolations are nothing short of brilliant; his characters too are fully realized—including computer DEUS. There are a few minor drawbacks: an overextended and largely irrelevant prologue; the usual, and still unreal, absence of women; and frequent digressions that, while illuminating, also distract from the narrative. Powerful, brooding, fascinating work, with a frightening and urgent message for Star Wars-mongers.
Pub Date: May 26, 1987
ISBN: 0156306301
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1987
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 breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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