An invigorating sci-fi mystery that’s so plugged in it may leave readers’ brains buzzing.
An investigator uncovers a conspiracy to launch a viral attack in Claburn’s (Reflecting Fires, 2001) sci-fi thriller.
In 2050, Capt. Luis Cisco brings in “data speculator” Sam Crane to investigate the murder of scientist Dr. Xian Mako. Sam takes Mako’s peculiar rose-colored glasses to his friend Jacob to find out how much they might be worth. The case quickly becomes personal when Jacob is found dead and the glasses go missing. Sam looks further into Mako’s purchase of the specs and, because the scientist was poisoned with tetrodotoxin, he pays a visit to a restaurant that serves fugu. It seems, however, that some people don’t want the murder solved: Luis warns Sam off the case, and a mysterious, “sharply dressed man” follows Sam around. Before long, the feds are accusing the investigator of ties to terrorists. Meanwhile, a biological attack that causes blindness prompts another investigation. The novel is a chic fusion of the sci-fi and detective genres. For example, Sam is roughed up by FBI agents who forcibly hook him up to a device to read his mind; he also converses, via helmet mic, with a network agent who has Marilyn Monroe’s voice. Sam is a solid protagonist who’s always ready to employ a snappy line or his fists when the situation calls for it. But he’s also sympathetic: he’s unquestionably upset over Jacob’s death, for example, and regularly sees his comatose 5-year-old daughter, Fiona, who needs constant medical care. The story piles on the mysteries; at one point, for example, the affluent Harris Cayman, whom Sam has never met, bumps Fiona to the top of the list for a drug trial. Claburn also injects a notable satirical theme involving advertising—the network agent endlessly pitches products, depending on what Sam’s doing, and even ominously suggests life insurance. (Sam can only temporarily silence Marilyn by paying.) The narrative is self-contained, ultimately answering every question it raises, but it leaves the door open just a crack for a potential sequel.
An invigorating sci-fi mystery that’s so plugged in it may leave readers’ brains buzzing.Pub Date: March 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0986101601
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Lot 49 Labs, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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