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Cover of THE BOOK OF GUILT

THE BOOK OF GUILT

by German conspirators in 1943\u003B since then, British scientists have had access to studies “of immense scientific value” made in “the camps,” as they are called with pointed vagueness. In 1979, this history is taught to 13\u002Dyear\u002Dold triplet brothers—mercurial William, softhearted Lawrence, and thoughtful, watchful Vincent, who narrates most of the book. They live in a group home for boys, part of the Sycamore Homes program established by the government in 1944 to raise parentless children. Doted on by a threesome of Morning, Afternoon, and Night mothers, taught from the encyclopedic Book of Knowledge (an actual publication) and in weekly ethics discussions, the Sycamore boys have had happy if isolated childhoods marred only by incessant sickliness. Those who recuperate from “the Bug” get to move to “the Big House in Margate,” which, according to the brochure, is a wonderful place next to an amusement park. Only the triplets still remain when a new Conservative government decides to discontinue the Sycamore program to cut costs. Soon the Prime Minister puts the well\u002Dmeaning but clueless Minister of Loneliness in charge of rehoming the triplets. But where? That these children have been part of a creepy scientific experiment is obvious early on, but one shocking, horrifying surprise follows another in what is, at its most basic, a cat\u002Dand\u002Dmouse thriller. Meanwhile, Chidgey forces readers to delve into moral questions concerning science (and by extension, technology), pragmatism, personal responsibility, and institutional evil. Then there’s the novel’s unavoidable, disquieting contemplation of just who is given equal right in any given society (including ours). Chidgey, a New Zealander, borrows elements from Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, but the character Vincent most resembles is Pinocchio. Broad themes and issues become deeply personal as his coming\u002Dof\u002Dage becomes a monumental struggle toward self\u002Ddiscovery."⭐ 4.4/5(2,123)

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Cover of THE BOOK OF SEA MONSTERS

THE BOOK OF SEA MONSTERS

by either a maritime reference (fish, boats, sea monsters) or a representation of the featured author. It functions as a sort of Great Books seminar for readers with a short attention span. The book reminds us of how great some of the poems are and where “water, water everywhere / and not a drop to drink” actually comes from. The anthology also prompts musings about erotic and psychological elements pertaining to sea monsters\u003B an example may be a possible feminist critique of mermaids. Just as Thoreau escaped the desperate city for the desperate country, so humankind fled the monsters among us only to succumb to their nautical cousins—escaping the devil, so to speak, for the deep blue sea."⭐ 5.0/5(1)

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Cover of THE BOOK OF SHEEN

THE BOOK OF SHEEN

by his umbilical cord, and goes on to a childhood in and around Los Angeles, where he made home videos with other showbiz kids. Along with his mother and three siblings, he frequently traveled to locations where his father, Martin Sheen, was filming, notably the set of Apocalypse Now. In an account laden with expletives and endearingly weird spelling choices (“dood,” “kool”), some of the actor’s most riveting chapters evoke his own stints on film sets, particularly his brutal experiences during the filming of Oliver Stone’s Platoon, in which the author starred. Though he went on to play parts in many more movies and in TV shows like Two and a Half Men, he turned his attention primarily to booze, drugs, gambling on sports, and encounters with sex workers. Don’t look for the usual redemption narrative here. Though Sheen does spend the last few pages of the book on what he says have been eight recent years of sobriety, undertaken for the sake of his children and grandchildren, he devotes most of the book to an exhaustive and sometimes exhausting survey of life on the edge. Despite many hours at meetings, he doesn’t have the respect for Alcoholics Anonymous—that “medieval gibberish club”—that he has for the many escorts he employed, whose charges he views as “a convenience\u002Dtax for a guaranteed outcome the other dating scenarios couldn’t offer.” Sheen’s three marriages zip in and out of the narrative with dizzying speed, leaving the reader no wiser about the women involved."⭐ 3.7/5(931)

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Cover of THE CALL OF ABADDON

THE CALL OF ABADDON

by the United Earth Federation, and now Jason and Sam have psychic abilities. Jason, however, can’t control his, and he suppresses them with regular doses of the drug Osmium. Untreated, he hears the voice of the Abaddon Beacon, an alien obelisk that sat in the labs with the three when they were still test subjects. As Jason’s connection to the Beacon hurts him as well as others, the salvagers vow to retrieve the artifact, which promises Jason answers to his “psychic affliction.” That’s just one reason to brave the surface of New Toronto, where they’re classified as “Undocs”\u003B the other is to salvage parts to repair their damaged 14\u002Dfoot robot, the true muscle in the Village’s defense. Meanwhile, the ongoing Solar War may be nearing an end, with the very real possibility that the UEF will surrender to the Solar Empire. Cyborg Anne Oakfield, who has ties to the Village and the government’s experiments, has another idea: She sets out to kill the nefarious EmperorHadrian Mariko of the Solar Empire. All the while, the Nanophage, a plague of corrupted Nanites that infect humans and bots alike, threatens everyone.Searle’s extensive worldbuilding turns this tale into a richly detailed epic\u003B backstories include Anne’s murky past\u003B particulars on Julian Yamamoto, the Village’s governor and founder\u003B and several nods to the Great War from a century ago. The three protagonists—tortured, sympathetic Jason\u003B fiercely loyal David, whose reason for also being in the lab is eventually revealed\u003B and Sam, who’s refined her psionic skills—are superbly rendered. They lead an indelible cast, highlighted by the unshakable Anne, another few notable Oakfields, and the diabolical Emperor and his “augmented” Imperial legionnaires. While there are some solid action sequences, this story relies more on the buildup of tension as various groups of people come into conflict. Perpetual menaces abound as the war continues, the Abaddon Beacon’s voice proves merciless, and the Nanophage\u002Dinfected victims amass in zombie\u002Dlike hordes. Throughout the narrative there are signs of familiar tech, from cybernetic implants and parts (like Anne’s “cyber\u002Deyes”) to a variety of vehicles including an airbus and a Jetbike. While these are fun details, it’s just as entertaining to watch characters get by without fantastical tech at their disposal (Jason, David, and Sam must make a hefty jump sans jetpacks and confront bulky foes in New Toronto with no assistance from their own gigantic robot). It’s hard to imagine where the salvaging trio might go next—which makes a sequel all the more appealing."⭐ 4.7/5(44)

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Cover of The Children of the Children

The Children of the Children

by chance—or perhaps divine intervention, as his new friends, The Fishermen, will insist—Danny winds up in San Francisco, learning the teachings of the charismatic Father Joseph. At first, his small group simply distributes Father Joseph’s letters around Haight Ashbury, trying to convert lonely hippies into new cult members. As their numbers grow and their philosophies and hierarchies evolve, The Fishermen move east to avoid scrutiny, eventually branching out all over Western Europe. Father Joseph begins bending rules of sexual conduct to fit his own personal (and abominable) desires and increase revenue via sex work. Danny finds himself in a love triangle with his wife, Martha (the eventual mother of David), and Deborah, a woman growing uncomfortable with the Fishermen’s increasingly disturbing sexual practices. But breaking out of Father Joseph’s psychic clutches is a tall order. As David comes of age and becomes a victim of physical and sexual abuse himself, he sets off on the path that will eventually lead him to Prague as he starts to question Father Joseph as well: “His instinct told him it was wrong, as his faith told him it was not.”McMillion’s subject and setting are fascinating, and the parallels between the protest energy of the late 1960s and the allure of a cult cut off from mainstream society lend a sharp and smart context to the novel. There are several scary and perfectly succinct explanations of how someone like Danny could get drawn into Father Joseph’s web. (“If deception is the art of convincing someone that what one knows to be false is true, then conversion is convincing him of what neither party can prove one way or the other,” the author writes in a truly standout moment.) However, the novel’s ambitious scope—the narrative spans two decades, a dozen complicated households, and too many countries to even list—overshadows the smaller, more disquieting moments. McMillion tries to pack in as much detail as possible, but this results in large chunks of writing that feel like nonfiction reportage rather than advancements of the engrossing emotional arcs already in place. This is felt most acutely in the various depictions of sexual abuse: Incidents conveyed from the point of view of characters such as Deborah or David are harrowing, while other scenes simply give cold factual accounts of Father Joseph’s horrendous proclivities. After the cult’s complicated history is filled in little by little, readers finally arrive back at the opening framing scene for an emotionally resonant conclusion that nevertheless feels too little and too late following such a dense history lesson."⭐ 3.8/5(6)

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