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Spark: A Novel
Author:
Twelve Hawks, John
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3620.W
Print Run: 75000
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ISBN-13: 9780385538671
LCCN: 2013042626
Imprint: Doubleday
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Pub Date: 10/07/2014
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $25.95
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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301 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
H 9.55",
W 6.42",
D 1.17",
1.32 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Booklist Starred Reviews
Library Journal Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Booklist
Library Journal
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TIPS Subjects:
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Suspense/Thriller
Science Fiction
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Thrillers / General
FICTION / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
FICTION / Thrillers / Political
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LC Subjects:
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Assassins, Fiction
Dystopias, Fiction
Suspense fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Assassins, Fiction
Dystopias, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 07/01/2014 |
| The perfect assassin could be the one suffering from Cotard's syndrome, a disorder that convinces hired assassin Jacob Underwood that he is really dead. But Jacob's emotional detachment and lack of moral compass may not be enough to eliminate his latest target as he seeks a missing young associate from the same shadowy department for which he works. 320pp., 75K |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Booklist | 09/01/2014 |
| The author of the Fourth Realm trilogy returns with a thriller about a contract killer who, following a brain injury, suffers from Cotard's syndrome, a (genuine) form of mental illness in which the afflicted person believes he or she is dead. Jacob's injury has totally changed his life; he needs a highly structured, uncluttered environment, and he needs to learn how to simulate all of the forms of human behavior that used to come naturally to him. But his new assignment, which involves locating (and then possibly killing) a missing woman, soon leads him into situations that are exceedingly disorganized and full of human emotion (which, as a dead man, he no longer experiences or understands). It's been several years since the Fourth Realm trilogy ended, and some readers might have wondered if the author had only one story to tell. But guess what? As good as the Fourth Realm books were, this one may be even more appealing: less fantastic, more grounded in a contemporary real world, with a narrator who is deeply scarred and endlessly fascinating. Pitt, David. 320p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Library Journal | 10/03/2014 |
| Twelve Hawks ("Fourth Realm Trilogy") creates an alternative world made oppressive by the ubiquitous tracking of citizens in this story of Jacob Underwood, a contract employee (i.e., hired assassin) for a multinational corporation. A severe brain injury has left Jacob with Cotard's Syndrome, a rare disorder in which the sufferer is certain that he has died. Jacob feels his soul has departed and that he no longer has emotions or morals. His employer, DBG, finds this condition useful in its employment of him as a reliable, highly effective hit man until, for the first time, he questions an assignment he has been given by his immediate supervisor. The protagonist, despite his job as a hit man and his autistic mannerisms (the only nourishment he takes is a liquid protein drink), is a compelling and sympathetic antihero. Jacob doggedly pursues his goals while trying to figure out what is intercepting his usual thought processes and behaviors. Verdict Fans of Twelve Hawks, dystopian literature, and those who delight in original protagonists will thoroughly enjoy this new character and fascinating premise. The novel was optioned for a movie by DreamWorks last year, so expect strong interest.-Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA. 320p. LJ Xpress Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Kirkus Reviews | 10/15/2014 |
| If you suffer from a condition that makes you think you're dead, robbing you of all human feeling, does that make you a better killer for hire? Hawks' latest dystopian adventure explores the possibilities.Since he suffered brain damage as the result of a motorcycle accident, New York facial recognition researcher Jacob Underwood has had Cotard's syndrome, a rare, actual affliction that creates a "living dead" state. Only by imagining his life force as a spark inside the shell of his physical being is he able to handle his "Transformation" and live in a corrupt world--a world in which nubots have replaced huge numbers of young Americans and Europeans in the workplace, leading to the violent mass demonstrations of the Day of Rage. He hates to be touched and subsists solely on a protein drink. Hired by a superpowerful New York conglomerate to eliminate embezzlers and snitches--he does need money to get by--he proves a brilliant and resourceful operative. But as coldly efficient as he is at shooting grown men and women, something tugs at his buried conscience when he's ordered to kill a whole family. The novel, told through his point of view, charts a significant change in his condition as he pursues a plucky young woman he oddly finds he's growing to like. The fascination, however, lies less in the plot than in the intricacies of Underwood's coping system, which the character explains through charts, diagrams and lists. What constitutes life? Doctors keep telling him he's still among the living, even if he lacks the emotion that makes people feel alive. Is he more alive than the nubots? With its fascinating protagonist, Hawks' first book since his Forth Realm trilogy sets itself apart from other futuristic thrillers. 336pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 04/21/2014 |
| Off-the-grid author Twelve Hawks, who's triumphed with New York Times best-selling books like The Traveler, returns with a thriller about an employee of the monster multinational corporation DBG tasked with neutralizing (read: kill) anyone who poses a problem. Jacob finds his job easy enough, as he suffers from the real-life Cotard's syndrome, in which people think they are dead, but he runs into trouble when targeting vanished second-year associate Emily Buchanan. Cult following here. 320p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 08/04/2014 |
| In his first outing since concluding the Four Realms trilogy, bestseller Twelve Hawks returns to the same dystopian milieu in this engaging but predictable thriller, set in a future landscape of paranoid government control, blanket surveillance, and extreme economic disparities. Jacob Underwood, an assassin, works for an enormous New York City multinational that often needs to eliminate a threat. Underwood's strength as a hired killer is the emotionless, robotic nature that allows him to operate with logical, ruthless precision. Doctors have long told him, however, that the condition that makes him so effective could gradually wear off. And that's exactly what happens when he is tasked with killing the fascinatingly offbeat Emily Buchanan, a minor employee who has absconded with financial secrets from her company and is threatening to expose them on a WikiLeaks-type website. Twelve Hawks's prose, cold and clinical at times, yet punctuated with moments of great sensitivity, matches the tone and mood of his setting perfectly. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Oct.). 320p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
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