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. 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. And readers will learn somewhat more about the mysterious, intriguing backdrop-huge spaceship, gods, computers, robots, and what-all-but not enough to decide whether it all adds up.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. After a slow, confusing start-no summary of events to date-Wolfe's blend of exotic characters, intricate plotting, and narrative immediacy exerts a powerful grip. Silk, meanwhile, begins to lose his faith in the gods. But a bloody civil war engulfs Viron, with troops loyal to Lemur battling a new faction determined to install the now famous and revered Silk as the rightful ruler.

Becoming allies, Silk and Crane manage to kill Lemur and escape from his submarine. Here, numerous adventures befall: Silk and Crane are both captured by the powerful robot Lemur, one of the shadowy group now ruling the city Viron in defiance of legality and tradition. Crane, whom they know to be a spy, and follow Crane to the nearby Lake Limna. Pressured by corrupt businessman Blood's associates for the payments he has agreed to make, Silk and Chenille decide to attempt to blackmail Dr. The young priest Patera Silk, whose mission to save his temple has been inspired by a god, the Outsider, receives further revelations when he learns that a young prostitute, Chenille, has been possessed by the goddess Kypris. 190) in which religious-political upheavals are shaking a city located inside a super-colossal spaceship. Second in Wolfe's far-future saga (Nightside the Long Sun, p.

Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe