Runner (Sam Dryden series Book 1)

After donating over 200 books--most of which I didn't end up enjoying, I decided to dust off my library card and use it to 'weed out' the books I end up not liking so I only purchase the ones I do enjoy.That being said, my eight year old son came with me one evening and after patiently waiting for me to find 'one more book', he grabbed this off the return cart and offered it to me. I'm not usually a 'Tom Clancy' military type of girl (which is the vibe I got from this) but I didn't want to hurt his feelings, and I also knew it was his polite way of saying he was ready to leave--so I accepted it.I ended up reading this one first as I'll give any book a hundred pages before I decide if it's worth it to continue, and I figured I could quickly 'get it out of the way'. I put every one to sleep and tucked into the couch to begin. Next thing I know, my husbands morning alarm is going off and I'm still out in the living room nose deep in the climax.It's rare a book keeps me up all night with no sign of fatigue, but yeah. This one did it for me. Helped me open up to some more genres as well. Who could've guessed 'ex-military' type books don't always = Tom Clancy ( . . . everyone except me, apparently). It was easily my favorite of the entire group of books I borrowed. I was so fond of his writing style, I bought the next two in the series without going to the library first!This has started a tradition where I let my son pick one book for me each time we go now.

On time. Great condition. What more do you want?

This has a lot of good action. The hero Sam does smart and neat things to evade the bad guys. The bad guy has top U.S. powers behind him. He uses spy satellites, helicopters, and soldiers. The bad guy puts notices on all TV channels saying Sam is a terrorist - asking for help from citizens to find Sam.The problem was each time I stopped reading, I felt kind of empty. I wasn’t emotionally connected. The characters were one dimensional. You need a little bit of good in the bad guy and a little bit of weakness or weirdness in the good guy. Instead everyone had one role and that is all we saw. It felt flat.I was disappointed in the ending. It was not explained. It left a big hole for me. Technically it was a happy ending for the main characters, but the logic didn’t work. I explain this in my comment after this review. It’s too much of a spoiler to put here.One part annoyed me, contrived by the author. Rachel has amnesia for a week due to drugs given to her by the bad guys. When she finds people she used to live with they won’t tell her about her past. She’s running for her life and could use that knowledge. They say it’s better for her to learn through her own memory. They aren’t medical people. It was like we know but we aren’t going to tell you. That was annoying. If the author wants to delay Rachel learning about her past, he should not have her see her friends. In the next Rachel scene, she knew everything so it wouldn’t have hurt the plot.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 376 pages. Swearing language: strong including religious swear words but rarely used. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: about six but very short with not much detail. Scenes include two women together and a man with two women. Setting: current day various U.S. locations. Copyright: 2014. Genre: suspense thriller.

The girl is 12,she remembers nothing about herself but her name only - Rachel.The girl is restrained,drugged and interrogated at the secret site.The girl has only one advantage over her tormentors - she can read people's thoughts and one day she learns that she will be killed in a few hours.And she escapes in the middle of the night chased by armed men with "kill on sight" order.The girl runs into a stranger begging him to help her.The stranger is Sam Dryden,former member of the secret military group,who lives alone after the tragic death of his family.Sam is compassionate and resourceful,and both him and the girl will be trying to unravel the secret of Rachel's memory loss and her unusual mental abilities.But first they need to escape ruthless killers who are after Rachel and go on the run...Runner is the first book in Patrick Lee's series about Sam Dryden and it is as truly amazing as the rest of his books.Patrick Lee has the rare talent to write without any ups and downs,every single book of his is a high-paced thriller with very original plot.I enjoyed reading Runner and strongly recommend this book to all readers.

Graphic violenceFast-paced stand alone that is easy to follow. No editing errors or drag-you-down drama. There is graphic violence. Not all questions are answered.Compelling storyline about mind control and remote reading. Descriptive writing that draws the reader into each scene. Flexible procedures, actions and reactions. Believable characters with distinct personalities. Thought-provoking and memorable dialogue.'He hadn’t tried to explain his side of it. Hadn’t told them that missing someone could feel like a watch you’d been assigned to stand. That it could feel like duty.''SHB, Hager called it. Standard human bs. He’d run into it his whole career, in one form or another. It didn’t matter how lofty your goals, how precise your planning or your actions. Every organization in the world was infested with the mildew of standard human bs.'No desire to re-read this story. I may be interested in other works by this author.

I generally dislike books about psychic powers, even though I like the concept of psychic powers, because books are generally too dramatic, the powers too exaggerated, the characters' actions too unbelievable; however, Lee does a better job than most. His protagonist is not bad, but is a little toooooo much in the ways of his skill sets and knowledge. Having said all that, I'll buy the next one in hopes.

Patrick Lee's three previous novels, The Breach, Ghost Country and Deep Sky were all full of intriguing ideas and plenty of action, and his latest, Runner, is no different.Dropping the characters and settings of his previously trilogy, Runner introduces readers to a new central hero, Sam Dryden. Like his previous leading man, Travis Chase, Sam is a super capable but troubled individual and like Chase he finds himself thrown into the middle of a web of intrigue and conspiracy from which he must escape. As in The Breach, et al, those conspiracies and intrigues involve new technologies, dangerous experiments and off-the-record government programs.It all makes for an exciting and on the whole reasonably original sci-fi tinged thriller. As the title suggests, there's action from almost the first page and it barely lets up until the end. Some of it is rather over the top, with an escape from a Chicago skyscraper petty much busting out of the realms of plausibility, but if you can suspend your disbelief long enough you can go along with the ridiculousness of it all.The central conspiracy that Dryden uncovers is also well conceived. Its not entirely original, but Lee grounds it in enough 'reality' to at least make it feel vaguely plausible. Its certainly far less 'out-there' than anything in his earlier novels.So plot-and-action-wise Runner ticks most of the necessary boxes. However, the reason I can't give it more than three stars is that despite its strengths at no point did it ever really grab me as all decent thrillers should. Not once did I become so hooked that I just had to keep reading or was I gripped by an undeniable desire to go back and continue where I left off. Sure, I was entertained but that was about it, and that's really not good enough for a book that, from the title down is meant to be one long adrenalin rush.I struggle to put my finger on precisely why Runner didn't pull me in as it was meant to, but I think it was mostly due to the characters. At no point did I really empathise with Sam or Rachel. They remain resolutely two dimensional creations; more a collection of character traits rather than real people. The rest of the cast by contrast don't even get a second dimension, and feel like they are there only to serve the plot rather than to behave as real, relatable individuals. At one point a whole team of bad guys are killed simultaneously in a spectacular car crash and the violence of their deaths barely register due to them being nothing more than names on the page.The consequence of this is a book which is big on action and intrigue but where its hard to really invest or immerse yourself in the story. That for me means it fails in one of the key tasks of any thriller, and can only ever deserve a maximum of three stars

Such a good read, well constructed!! I enjoyed the plot the nuances and the pace. I look forward to the next plot

I am a big fun of Patrick Lee's Breach trilogy and whilst good, Runner isn't quite in the same league. I think having Breach as a 3-novel series helped build tension and fill out the plot, whereas here everything is wrapped up in one book. A shame, there is a lot of characters it would have been nice to learn more about and to spend more time with Rachel and Sam .An intriguing start to the novel gives way to numerous plot twists, which whilst nice, felt a little predictable. The book reminded me alot of the 80's movie Firestarter, not a bad thing, however the 'big, bad government men' type of story is wearing alittle thin without a new spin on it.Overall a good fast-paced summer read, definitely recommended, but it's more fast-food rather than a gourmet meal.

As a big fan of the Reacher series seeing the authors titles on this book got my inquisitive thoughts going and 30 seconds later had it on my kindle. I am extremely glad I did see this title as alas within the same sitting I managed to finish the book later in the evening, it gets you hooked and keeps you turning the pages to see what's happening next.The book itself does require you to stretch your imagination with some concepts a bit out there, but it does work very well. From the first few chapters the book hits the ground very quick as we have a young girl trying to elude her captors bumping into the protagonist of the story and as one expects a ex special solider type. As one can expect with this type of story and protagonist, plenty of fights and mayhem is to be expected. Having however a kid in the picture adds an element not seen in many other action thrillers which makes it a nice change,If you willing to be a bit forgiving in regards to some of the far out concepts, its a very good read and will quickly whittle away the hours

This is the first Patrick Lee book that I have read and I rapidly got into the story and enjoyed the plots twists and turns.If you accept the premise that the American military contractors have successfully developed these skills then you know for sure they are going to make a complete hash of testing them and covering up what they are doing. Sam takes action to save a young girl against the might of secret military technology and raid reaction task forces.I have quickly decided to get the second book in the Sam Dryden series, Only To Die Again.Other recent purchases I have enjoyed include more all out action in The Wrong Man by Jason Dean, and something completely different the historical detective novel Plague Land by SD Sykes.