A splendid cast leads this enthralling SF tale.
This YA SF series opener follows three teenagers whose potential extraterrestrial origins put them in danger.
Sofia Kaye, 17, having bounced around foster homes, yearns for independence. The bright Iowa high schooler’s way out—her acceptance to MIT—doesn’t seem feasible without a full scholarship. So she reluctantly agrees to compete in Road to Riches, a TV show that billionaire Makin Daher is sponsoring. There’s no guarantee she’ll win, but she scores a cool $10,000 just for showing up for the shoot in Nice, France. Over in Texas, Zach and Liv Schultze, both 17, who live as twins but aren’t biologically related, are likewise desperate to pay for college. The three aren’t in Nice for long when Zach feels an undeniable connection to Sofia. They also learn that Road to Richesmay be a sham—the nefarious Daher’s elaborate way to draw out the teens. When one of the trio ends up kidnapped, the others meet a stranger with a wild story; the teens apparently are aliens. That certainly explains their unusual abilities, such as seeing UV lights, all of which come in handy for a rescue mission. Bell introduces likable, down-to-earth teens who face relatable troubles, such as Sofia’s jobs and studies eating up her free time. They also have impressive powers—some they haven’t quite recognized and others they hone, including Liv’s telekinesis. At the same time, sharply defined villains and an early scene with the protagonists as toddlers generate a revealing backstory, though the exposition never weighs the tale down. There are mysteries as well, from details about a few named planets to signs of an enigmatic symbol. This brisk narrative propels readers through conflicts (for example, Liv’s love for Zach stirs up envy at his closeness to Sofia) and a suspenseful final act that sets the stage for the sequel.
A splendid cast leads this enthralling SF tale.Pub Date: March 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73650-030-9
Page Count: 234
Publisher: MTB Publishing, Inc. LLC
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.
Set in the future and reminiscent of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power.
In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an “inferior” class, though he’s happily married to Eo, an incipient rebel who wants to overthrow the existing social order, especially the Golds, who treat the lower-ranking orders cruelly. When Eo leads him to a mildly rebellious act, she’s caught and executed, and Darrow decides to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of this outrage. He’s recruited by a rebel cell and “becomes” a Gold by having painful surgery—he has golden wings grafted on his back—and taking an exam to launch himself into the academy that educates the ruling elite. Although he successfully infiltrates the Golds, he finds the social order is a cruel and confusing mash-up of deception and intrigue. Eventually, he leads one of the “houses” in war games that are all too real and becomes a guerrilla warrior leading a ragtag band of rebelliously minded men and women. Although it takes a while, the reader eventually gets used to the specialized vocabulary of this world, where warriors shoot “pulseFists” and are protected by “recoilArmor.” As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury.
A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative worlds.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-345-53978-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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