Extraordinary space travelers propel this dense but undeniably enthralling journey.
An archivist unearths possible corruption—and worse—aboard a colony spaceship headed toward a habitable planet in Josephides’ SF thriller.
Sandrine Liet lives among thousands of other passengers on the Thetis, a multilevel, multigenerational ship that’s been traveling from Old Earth for nearly two centuries. It’s headed for one of two potential planets for “Resettlement”—a decision that must be finalized soon. Until then, 29-year-old Sandrine, as a Senior Archivist, continues to oversee the Code of Law on a ship that hasn’t experienced violent crime in four generations. She handles an accusation of attempted extortion from the Thetis’ leader, PrimoSebastian Anderson, although the accusation becomes suspicious when Anderson later tells her to forget all about it. Rather than dropping the issue, “protocol-purist” Sandrine tracksthe missing, would-be extortionist: a scientist named Almaz Bashiri, who asserts that Anderson may be involved in an attempt to weaponize his research. What exactly the leader is up to—along with his wife, Cassidi, who heads the Public Health Security division—is a bit murky. Later, data goes missing in an archive system that was supposed to have undeletable files, and the Andersons try to sully Sandrine’s name in the media. She pieces together a conspiracy that involves deceit, political corruption, and maybe even murder, although she’ll need rock-solid evidence to prove her case.
Josephides packs a lot of worldbuilding and backstory into this novel, starting by laying out the tower-shaped Thetis. Copious levels house residential areas, the Archive office, and the Sensory Farm, which is primarily used for educational purposes. Although the pleasant Level 19, where Sandrine lives, provides her with solace, the nerve-wracking lower levels appear to harbor dark secrets. Many gleefully curious details surrounding the Thetisgradually come to light over the course of the novel, most of them tied into the growing conspiracy. For example, alleged extremists called Eternists champion space habitats over planet-bound ones, and Sandrine’s hacker ex-partner, Kilian Ngo, was involved in activities that got Sandrine’s permission to have children revoked “for only associating with him.” Kilian is just one of several memorable members of the cast, which also includes Sandrine’s boss, Nyasha Woo, who treats her like a family member. Sandrine, however, is the most entertaining character—she takes guff from no one and stays cool in nearly every situation. For instance, when one of Anderson’s loyal right-hand men responds to one of his directions in her presence, Sandrine remarks, “Good dog.” The author explains the distant-future tech thoroughly and intelligently, from the encrypted chip implanted into each passenger’s finger to the Thetis’ manner of propulsion. In contrast, the investigative side of things is deliberately cryptic; characters either avoid directly answering questions or engage in prolonged discussions before offering any elucidation. For much of the novel, Sandrine is baffled, and most readers will likely be, too. Nevertheless, the ending provides a welcome and gratifying resolution.
Extraordinary space travelers propel this dense but undeniably enthralling journey.Pub Date: April 7, 2024
ISBN: 9798988667940
Page Count: 455
Publisher: Pygmalion Media
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2024
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
Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.
Some people are born supervillains, and others have supervillainy thrust upon them.
Charlie Fitzer, a former business journalist–turned–substitute teacher, is broke and somewhat desperate. His circumstances take an unexpected and dangerous turn when his estranged uncle Jake dies, leaving his business—i.e., his trillion-dollar supervillain empire—to Charlie. Charlie doesn’t really have the skills or experience to manage the staff of the volcano lair, and matters don’t improve when he’s pressured to attend a high-level meeting with other supervillains, none of whom got along with his uncle. With the aid of his uncle’s No. 1, Mathilda Morrison, and his cat, Hera (who turns out to be an intelligent and typing-capable spy for his uncle’s organization), Charlie must sort out whom he can trust before he gets blackmailed, blown up, or both. This book serves as a follow-up of sorts to Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022) in that both are riffs on genre film tropes. The current work is fluffier and sillier than the previous novel and, indeed, many of Scalzi’s other books, although there is the occasional jab about governments being in bed with unscrupulous corporate enterprises or the ways in which people can profit from human suffering. This is one of many available stories about a good-hearted Everyman thrust into fantastical circumstances, struggling to survive as a fish out of water, and, while well executed for its type, the plot doesn’t go anywhere that will surprise you.
Fun while it lasts but not one of Scalzi’s stronger books.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780765389220
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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