A thoroughly enjoyable assemblage of old-time science fiction.
A collection of sci-fi short stories about Mars, from the late 19th century through the 1960s, including tales from H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, and others.
In the 1880s, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli noted that Mars’ surface seem to show a number of straight lines. The word he used to describe them (canali, meaning “channel”) was mistranslated in English as “canal.” The idea of Martian canals—and with it, the possibility of intelligent life—seized fiction writers’ imaginations. This collection chronicles this golden age of Martian fiction, which would last until NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft took close-up pictures of Mars’ surface in 1965, ending speculation about life on the red planet. The collection is prefaced with a history of Mars in fiction, and each story in the collection leads off with interesting biographical details about its author and what specific scientific ideas of the era may have informed its writing. For example, “Crucifixus Etiam” by Walter M. Miller Jr. (best known for A Canticle For Leibowitz) is prefaced with 1940s-era details of the Martian atmosphere; the story features a common idea among writers of the time—that Peruvians, Chileans, and Tibetans, who were already used to breathing similarly rarefied air, would make ideal Mars colonists. Despite the advanced age of some of these tales, they’re sure to keep the interest of modern readers. The sole exception is E.C. Tubb’s 1955 story of Mars colonization, “Without Bugles”; although well-written, its portrayal of a manly, stoic hero and the woman who loves him feels dated. By contrast, Bradbury’s 1950 “Ylla,” a tense, taut portrait of an unhappy Martian woman and her jealous husband, feels as if it could have been written today. Other stories by less well-known authors also shine: “The Great Sacrifice,” written by George C. Wallis in 1903, tells an exceptional story of intelligent beings on Mars putting their entire planet into the path of a deadly meteor storm, destroying themselves so that Earth may survive.
A thoroughly enjoyable assemblage of old-time science fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-226-57508-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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