A promising beginning for a new writer, but to make the most of his talents, Woodward needs to work on developing an ear for...
Seeking reasons behind the extinction of humankind some 7,000 years before, a team of humanoid dogs uncovers an impending invasion of crystalline aliens and a traitor at the heart of their society.
Woodward’s debut novel is based on the entertaining premise that, after the extinction of humans at the hands of an alien race called crystallen, dogs developed superintelligence and opposable thumbs. This race, which calls itself Canidae, is divided into numerous tribes and recently united as the Unified Canidae Society. Azure is the 19-year-old son of the Chancellor of UCS, and as the story opens, he undergoes a rite of passage that will pinpoint his calling in life. To his surprise, he is revealed as a potential leader, despite his lack of interest in politics. To gain further insight into his path, Azure volunteers to join an expedition investigating the cause of human extinction. Their expedition uncovers journal entries and other documentation of Dr. Zennith, the last human, while they simultaneously encounter the resurgent crystallen. Woodward has developed a strong plot that, unlike many first installments of what is clearly intended as a series, resolves satisfyingly within the volume. The idea of dogs as the dominant species on Earth has great potential, both serious and humorous; however, that potential remains unfulfilled. The Canidae seem to be little more than furry humans with doggy faces (effectively portrayed in DiLeva’s chapter-head illustrations). Canidae families are called “packs,” but they evince little packlike behavior; Vence, who serves as a guide dog—a joke still waiting to be made—has a better sense of smell than the others, but there is otherwise little exploration of how the canine experience of the world differs from humans. And one can’t help thinking that the preservation of human structures and paper documents for 7,000 years would be slightly less unbelievable if that time were in dog years. Either way, the writing is often repetitive and clunky: “ ‘Let’s go to the ruins.’ Azure, Kael, Yasu and Vence all left the tent and began heading toward the ruins.”
A promising beginning for a new writer, but to make the most of his talents, Woodward needs to work on developing an ear for language and worldbuilding.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692323045
Page Count: 258
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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