A time-hopping dramedy that’s often fun and insightful.
In Blaisdell’s debut SF novel, time travel becomes commonplace—and then unexpected flaws emerge.
With the invention of “digitime™” in the 2020s, traveling into the past becomes possible, as well as widely accessible. Transportation services called TimeLiners take passengers to various times in history, although no further back than 1850. The trip can be personal—one may see one’s late mother as a child, for instance, or watch one’s first kiss; alternatively, some wish to see a particular historical moment unfold live, such as a notorious criminal’s shootout. For some people, the nostalgia quickly wears off, as visits to the past tend to put its worst elements into sharp relief, such as racism and sexism. For others, though, the past offers a place to hide. Purple-haired stand-up comedian Casey Clement, for instance, has dealt with her share of turmoil in her life, and, in order to avoid her ex-husband, she escapes into yesteryear. Around the same time, Guy McGee, after learning a secret about his parents, goes on a quest to 1955. Much of Blaisdell’s story has a tongue-in-cheek tone, as when time-travelers experience turbulence when passing through “turbulent years.” However, the ensemble cast is seriously engaging; it includes Casey’s physicist mother, who searches for her missing daughter; fans who literally chase after such celebrities as Albert Einstein; and the Timemaster, the creator of the time-travel tech, who has a personality and social-media presence that the public generally despises. Many readers will appreciate when characters reluctantly acknowledge that memories don’t always accurately represent the past. The author aims to simplify the story’s time travel elements, essentially disregarding the famed butterfly effect to allow for mass, worry-free travel. “Disruptions,” however, remain possible, which raises questions than aren’t satisfactorily answered. A plot turn in the final act, although predictable, begets a fantastic ending.
A time-hopping dramedy that’s often fun and insightful.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2025
ISBN: 9798307134436
Page Count: 402
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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