Committal

by Irene Cooper

Overview

Luci Sykes, maliciously deprived of oxygen at birth, is subjected to a lobotomy at thirteen by her powerful father. She emerges from her childhood silence to become the supernova genius behind Olympia Navigation, producer of the world’s most intuitive GPS systems.

When her hermetic mother, Maggie, dies, events are set in motion to embroil Luci’s twin brother, Tokker, separated from at birth and long hidden on a subsistence farm in the Midwest, and BEACON, Olympia’s penultimate GPS system, in a plan to foil Luci’s suspected plot to end the human race. Tokker and BEACON embark on a cross-country scavenger hunt spanning Oregon to New York, abetted by the likes of Tilda Swinton and Daniel Day Lewis in this darkly funny, unlikely buddy story of humans and machines and the earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781952055041
Publisher:	Vegetarian Alcoholic Press
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Irene Cooper's poems appear online and in print. She is a freelance copywriter, facilitates creative writing workshops in Central Oregon, and co-edits The Stay Project. Committal, her first novel, is forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press in 2020.

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2020

Cooper’s high-tech debut thriller offers an electrifying premise and a series of wildly imaginative twists, but drowns them in a sea of confounding exposition. Sadistic tycoon Abner Ruggles orders a lobotomy on Luci, his 13-year-old daughter, who suffered brain damage during birth. The procedure turns Luci into a psychopathic engineering genius. As an adult, Luci heads up Olympia Navigation, and, with her loyal assistant Jasper, creates Searchlight, the most advanced global positioning system the world has ever seen. But Luci secretly encodes a virus into the program that will render sterile all human males who use it. Meanwhile, Luci’s long-lost twin brother, Tokker, raised on a farm in Oklahoma by his Aunt Esther, who is really a secret operative, is recruited by Beacon, Searchlight’s precursor, to save mankind by locating and dismantling the three satellites necessary to launch Searchlight. While moments of humor lighten the mood, the bloated, nonchronological exposition and bizarre cameos from real world celebrities Viggo Mortensen and Tilda Swinton, encumber this struggling thriller. The tragic figure of Luci goes underexplored while flashbacks overpower present-day action and dialogue to the point that readers will spend too much time untangling the timeline to be swept away by the many clever twists. Though Cooper shows promise, this first outing disappoints. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

08/28/2020

DEBUT What if surgical intervention enabled extraordinary powers of the human mind? Can the bond between siblings change the future? Deprived of oxygen at birth, Luci Sykes was scarred. Her cruel father thought a lobotomy would fix her, but instead she emerged from the procedure with genius-level brain skills. Using her brilliance, Luci develops the ultratech Searchlight GPS navigation system that humanity will soon depend on for aspects of everyday life. But Luci has also programmed the system to exact revenge on humanity. The only person who might stop her is her twin brother, Tokker, who, separated from Luci at birth, was raised on a farm by a woman known as "Aunt Esther." With help from the intimately intuitive but now outdated Beacon GPS system and family members with secret identities, Tokker navigates through a life-or-death fantasy game based on Luci's riddles and clues. He must track her down and thwart her insidious plan. But then even Luci and Tokker can't be sure of certain powers at play. VERDICT This darkly witty sf-esque debut from poet Cooper explores the bonds between children and parents, siblings, and humans and artificial intelligence. Readers will appreciate the fast-paced action of players trying both to annihilate and save the human race.—K.L. Romo, Duncanville, TX

Library Journal