The puzzler's war

Eyal Kless

Book - 2020

The intriguing futuristic dystopian story begun with The Lost Puzzler continues in this expansive speculative science fiction adventure.

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Subjects
Genres
Apocalyptic fiction
Science fiction
Published
New York, NY : Harper Voyager, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Eyal Kless (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Sequel to The Lost Puzzler.
Physical Description
548 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780062792501
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

The second book in the Tarakan Chronicles begins five years after the conclusion of The Lost Puzzler (2019). Key characters like Twinkle Eyes and Galinak from the previous book return, and are competing with a revived specialist, who names herself Peach, to locate Vincha and Emilija, Vincha's puzzler daughter. While The Lost Puzzler introduced this postapocalyptic world, The Puzzler's War explains its origins, including how the marked, not the least of which are the puzzlers, evolved in the several hundred years since the disaster. Spurring this adventure is Mannes, a computer scientist who survived the apocalypse and fought his way back to the Star Tower. Mannes uses his knowledge of the ancient technologies for his own survival, replacing body parts as needed, with the alleged goal of saving humanity from Adam, the artificial intelligence behind the Tarakan power. Before the apocalypse, Mannes and his allies created a competing AI, Cain, which precipitated the nuclear strikes that destroyed the world. Kless continues to hold readers' attention with this riveting story.--Frances Moritz Copyright 2020 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Kless's futuristic second Tarakan novel (after The Lost Puzzler) takes a revelatory trek across a postapocalyptic world. Mannes Holtz, the man responsible for the catastrophe that destroyed Tarakan, a high-tech corporate utopia, and started a world war, may also be the only person able to save it using the last working remnant of Tarakan tech: a space elevator in Mexico. On his way to retrieve the tech, his ship crash lands in central Asia, leaving Holtz to battle his way across continents, opposed by an artificial intelligence with a grudge, and "Twinkle Eyes," the unnamed narrator of book one, who is also hoping to unlock more forgotten Tarakan facilities and believes Holtz to be a traitor. A good amount of humor balances the more violent scenes. Kless tantalizingly reveals much of the backstory that was teased in The Lost Puzzler through flashbacks and prophetic dreams, and maintains a taut moral tension over which side readers should root for, epitomized in the mercenary Galinak's refrain "And here I was thinking I was on the good guys' team." The result is an expansive, entertaining far-future adventure. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Literary. (Feb.)

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