A sometimes-stirring space trek tale, with intriguing science and dark matter along the way.
An experienced astronaut and an untested young scientist lead a mission to the solar system’s outer reaches—where a mysterious force interferes with deep-space probes—in this novel.
In the near future, Ed Walker is an abrasive but courageous veteran NASA astronaut who manages—barely—to survive and save his crew from the harrowing end of the glitch-ridden International Space Station. Meanwhile, on the ground, young academic David Holmes is far ahead of his peers in determining that old, outward-bound space probes that reach the rim of the solar system are simply being plucked out of existence by some inexplicable force. Despite the seemingly incompatible personalities and the age gaps of the two men, an Elon Musk-like, internet/free energy billionaire with political connections forces them together to spearhead the government/private sector expedition of the Helios, a revolutionary, antimatter-powered spaceship headed out beyond the planets. The pioneering joint operation is to pave the way for human colonization, away from an Earth wracked by Sino-American wars and Islamic terror attacks toward the promise of other star systems—and perhaps to confront the ominous force that is causing the disappearance of unmanned NASA hardware. Peterson (Paradox 2, 2018, etc.) manages to satisfy (albeit in unequal measures at times) sci-fi fans of both the Arthur C. Clarke cosmic-wow variety and the more techno-minded aerospace yarn-spinners of yesteryear such as Frank G. Slaughter and Martin Caidin with their launchpad melodramas. This series opener’s middle passages sag under earthbound training exercises, plasma physics jargon, and crusty Ed’s bottomless supply of astronaut gossip about Alan Shepard and Sally Ride and his nostalgia for the lost Gemini era, when men were men and had the right stuff. But when the plot finally reaches the unknown void beyond Pluto, the payoff goes into macro-cosmic territory, the stuff of Carl Sagan’s finale to Contact—but far more bitter than that scientist/speculator’s ultimate optimism. Two other crew members, both women, register as lesser blips on the narrative’s radar, and Ed’s estranged, nagging wife fearfully demonstrates why a retirement-age pilot ace would face enigmatic and hostile aliens billions of miles away rather than go on a marital date night. A nonfiction essay-cum-bibliography by Peterson concludes the book.
A sometimes-stirring space trek tale, with intriguing science and dark matter along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-977974-01-3
Page Count: 446
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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