Cormac McCarthy new book out this Tuesday. Some early reviews

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The reclusive author's two new interconnected novels — being released on Oct. 25 and Dec. 6, respectively — are hard to categorize.

The first book, The Passenger, opens with a mysterious plane crash at sea that's searched by a neurotic salvage diver who's obsessed with his sister. The entire second book, Stella Maris, consists of erudite conversations between that sister, who happens to be a mathematical genius, and a therapist in the psychiatric hospital where she's committed herself.

By all accounts, McCarthy has been working on them for at least four decades.

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The new paired books are more dense than dark. Notably, they reflect McCarthy's love, and thorough understanding, of theoretical physics and mathematics. He has said, in his few interviews, that he seeks out the company of scientists at the Santa Fe Institute near his home in New Mexico.

Determined McCarthy fanatics have found advanced copies of the books, and they have provoked strong reactions. Some McCarthy aficionados were interviewed in September at a Cormac McCarthy conference in Savannah, Georgia.

"The novels explore all these aspects of human mental behavior. I think they're just marvelous," says Diane Luce, former president of the Cormac McCarthy Society.

And Bryan Giemza, literature professor at Texas Tech University, says: "In some ways, they're flawed. They are likely to be inscrutable to a lot of people. Let's just say they're not my favorite novels."

A third early read, Lydia Cooper, English professor at Creighton University, says: "They are brain teasers, but they're also really compelling. The characters are really rich and fascinating. I think people are going to love them or hate them."

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