A thematically rich, brainy, and meditation-worthy “what-if” considering the ramifications of a life in which death has no...
Genetically gifted humans with unnaturally long lifespans evade the aging-obsessed pursuers who would exploit them in Bratman’s SF novel.
In this smart, witty SF tale, rare humans are born with the genetic mutation for extraordinary long life; they are categorized as “hafeems,” who undergo a slow aging process, living for centuries before they finally expire, or as “True Immortals,” who reach mid-20s maturity and remain vulnerable to fatal injuries but are otherwise eternally young. Only 300-something years old, Blair is a fresh Immortal who has already abandoned several wives to age and die without him (immortals live with mortal families in 12-year “frames” before changing identities and fleeing elsewhere.) Blair is identified as an immortal and tracked by powerful forces, assumed to be existentially tormented mortals who covet (and are willing to kill for) the secret of endless life. But things are not so simple. The storyline’s shifting narrators include Saul, a hafeem who mentored Blair in navigating their secret subculture before their estrangement, and Janice, a mortal drug addict and online sex worker who stumbles into a (kinky) affair with Blair when he mistakes her punk nihilism for the POV of a fellow immortal. Blair is naive and shallow, physically perfect but slightly weighed down by his guilt, selfish choices, and loneliness; in a canny move by the sly author, Blair disappears for much of the narrative, making room for richer characters, some reflecting an attitude of existence stretched over epochs. Immortality is a long-standing SF/Fantasy trope, and while the ingredients gathered here could produce a standard action-chase beach read, the author productively shifts gears, bringing in hard SF (prepare for heavy-duty DNA-lab talk), social satire, suspense, pop-culture references (from Shakespeare to Six Feet Under), and philosophy, with pithy zingers and jaded wisdom from the timeless ones and those who love them (“Here’s the definition of nerdy: you get love-crazy over things that shrink you instead of grow you”). Remember, some of these folks hung with Socrates.
A thematically rich, brainy, and meditation-worthy “what-if” considering the ramifications of a life in which death has no sting.Pub Date: May 5, 2023
ISBN: 9798393653156
Page Count: 478
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
