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Pilgrimage, Vol. 2
The Charters Duology begun in Brave Men Run concludes as the Sovereign Era continues!
April, 1986 - On the eve of the first anniversary of the Donner Declaration, as tensions rise between humanity and the metahuman, super-powered Sovereigns, fathers and sons face desperate choices.
Nate Charters (Brave Men Run -- A Novel of the Sovereign Era) struggles with his increasingly tenuous control over his temper and his powers... while Andrew Charters hopes to suppress his own bestial nature to help his distant son.
Sovereign Byron Teslowski trains to join the Sovereign defense force, but a fiery new friend forces him to question his loyalties... and Marc Teslowski, desperate to bring his family back together, falls in with the charismatic leader of an anti-Sovereign militant group.
As Sovereigns the world over converge on the Donner Institute for Sovereign Studies, Nate, Andrew, Byron, and Marc find their paths lead there as well. Will the machinations of enemies and allies tear them violently apart on Declaration Day?
97,000 words
April, 1986 - On the eve of the first anniversary of the Donner Declaration, as tensions rise between humanity and the metahuman, super-powered Sovereigns, fathers and sons face desperate choices.
Nate Charters (Brave Men Run -- A Novel of the Sovereign Era) struggles with his increasingly tenuous control over his temper and his powers... while Andrew Charters hopes to suppress his own bestial nature to help his distant son.
Sovereign Byron Teslowski trains to join the Sovereign defense force, but a fiery new friend forces him to question his loyalties... and Marc Teslowski, desperate to bring his family back together, falls in with the charismatic leader of an anti-Sovereign militant group.
As Sovereigns the world over converge on the Donner Institute for Sovereign Studies, Nate, Andrew, Byron, and Marc find their paths lead there as well. Will the machinations of enemies and allies tear them violently apart on Declaration Day?
97,000 words
- GenresScience Fiction
464 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2013
7 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Wayne Selznick
22 books83 followersMatthew Wayne Selznick is a fiction and non-fiction author, editor, creator, and consultant living in Huntington Beach, California. Best known for his award-nominated first novel BRAVE MEN RUN, he writes in a variety of genres and storyworlds.
Find him at https://www.mattselznick.com, where he can be hired to help bring your creative endeavor to the world, and where you can find articles and podcast episodes proving opinion, advice, and recommendations on staying human while creating a successful and healthy writing life, as well as personal insights, reflections, and observations.
Find him at https://www.mattselznick.com, where he can be hired to help bring your creative endeavor to the world, and where you can find articles and podcast episodes proving opinion, advice, and recommendations on staying human while creating a successful and healthy writing life, as well as personal insights, reflections, and observations.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 11, 2014
Fair warning for those who enjoyed Brave Men Run - A Novel of the Sovereign Era: This sequel is darker, more tragic, and contains a lot more swearing. I'm not a particular fan of any of those three things, personally, but I recognise that plenty of other people are, and also that the book as a novel is well done.
What is particularly well done is the way in which the author sets the tragedy in motion. There are people and groups on a slow, inevitable collision course, and we, the readers, can see it (because we get multiple viewpoints), but the characters can't. It reminded me of Ben Rovik's The Mask And The Master, which does something very similar.
One of those characters is, of course, Nate Charters, the main character of the first book. In that book, he was a sympathetic character, bullied for being different, finally having something good happen to him, but he did have a tendency to make stupid decisions that led to tragic violence. In this book, it's the stupid decisions leading to tragic violence that are the prominent aspect of his character, the decisions are more stupid and the violence is more tragic, and he ends up less sympathetic as a result.
Other reviewers have commented that Nate is not necessarily the most interesting character any more, either. I'd agree with that in the first part of the book, in which his big issue is that his girlfriend won't have sex with him, while the other characters are concerned with larger problems. As the book progresses, though, and he too becomes entangled in the larger problems, his story becomes more significant.
Just as important, though, are the stories of Byron Teslowski and his father Marc. I was surprised (and pleased) to see that Marc, who started out in the previous book as a harsh, punitive father and a bit of a troglodyte, got a whole character arc, and a very good one too. Alongside the powerful conflicts he sets up, the author's great strength is in developing rounded characters, and by the end of this book Marc is one.
Apart from some proofing issues which I've passed on to the author, my only problem with this one (that wasn't a matter of taste) was the convenient discovery of some notes by one character that told him where other characters were going and how he could connect up with them. It seemed a bit like a written version of the Convenient Eavesdrop trope, which is always a bit of an eye-roller for me. I can't really see how he could have got round it, though.
I'd say that technically, and in terms of craft, this is a better and stronger book than its predecessor. It deserves at least a 6, perhaps a 7, on my 0-to-9 subscale of 4-star books (where 0 is "barely above mediocre" and 9 is "just short of amazing"). It wasn't the best book for my personal taste, though, as I mentioned earlier, so subjectively I'd score it lower.
What is particularly well done is the way in which the author sets the tragedy in motion. There are people and groups on a slow, inevitable collision course, and we, the readers, can see it (because we get multiple viewpoints), but the characters can't. It reminded me of Ben Rovik's The Mask And The Master, which does something very similar.
One of those characters is, of course, Nate Charters, the main character of the first book. In that book, he was a sympathetic character, bullied for being different, finally having something good happen to him, but he did have a tendency to make stupid decisions that led to tragic violence. In this book, it's the stupid decisions leading to tragic violence that are the prominent aspect of his character, the decisions are more stupid and the violence is more tragic, and he ends up less sympathetic as a result.
Other reviewers have commented that Nate is not necessarily the most interesting character any more, either. I'd agree with that in the first part of the book, in which his big issue is that his girlfriend won't have sex with him, while the other characters are concerned with larger problems. As the book progresses, though, and he too becomes entangled in the larger problems, his story becomes more significant.
Just as important, though, are the stories of Byron Teslowski and his father Marc. I was surprised (and pleased) to see that Marc, who started out in the previous book as a harsh, punitive father and a bit of a troglodyte, got a whole character arc, and a very good one too. Alongside the powerful conflicts he sets up, the author's great strength is in developing rounded characters, and by the end of this book Marc is one.
Apart from some proofing issues which I've passed on to the author, my only problem with this one (that wasn't a matter of taste) was the convenient discovery of some notes by one character that told him where other characters were going and how he could connect up with them. It seemed a bit like a written version of the Convenient Eavesdrop trope, which is always a bit of an eye-roller for me. I can't really see how he could have got round it, though.
I'd say that technically, and in terms of craft, this is a better and stronger book than its predecessor. It deserves at least a 6, perhaps a 7, on my 0-to-9 subscale of 4-star books (where 0 is "barely above mediocre" and 9 is "just short of amazing"). It wasn't the best book for my personal taste, though, as I mentioned earlier, so subjectively I'd score it lower.
August 2, 2013
I read this and Brave Men Run consecutively. I enjoyed the fast tale and the references to the era I grew up as a teen. The climax was great and all characters were well written. Had a bit of a feel of the x-men about it but from a totally different perspective.
September 27, 2021
Great story
Engaging story with well fleshed-out characters. Locations are very familiar to anyone who grew up in or is familiar with Southern Ca. A fantastic read.
Engaging story with well fleshed-out characters. Locations are very familiar to anyone who grew up in or is familiar with Southern Ca. A fantastic read.
August 13, 2016
Moderately better than the first book, but this also fell flat in the typical places. Nate (protagonist from the first book) is becoming unhinged in the spotlight and general teenage angsty behavior.. This book deals with a slightly larger light of problems with anti-soverign folk, racial tensions, what it means to be different, loss of a loved one, and responsibility. Nate is becoming an increasingly large dick, Byron is actually really nice, people are not who they appear (on both sides), and growing up sucks.
The same issues from the last book pull through with this one with the notable exception that every few chapters the author needs to recap everything that has happened, that people are ANGRY, and people are lost. As if to reaffirm the crucial plot threads that need to be lugged through to the finish line.
This novel splits up the threads and sort of converges them into one at the end.. it becomes very.. trite.. with how situations are dealt and overly pithy.
I finished it but had to push through after the first third of the book.
StoryBundle #13 - Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle
The same issues from the last book pull through with this one with the notable exception that every few chapters the author needs to recap everything that has happened, that people are ANGRY, and people are lost. As if to reaffirm the crucial plot threads that need to be lugged through to the finish line.
This novel splits up the threads and sort of converges them into one at the end.. it becomes very.. trite.. with how situations are dealt and overly pithy.
I finished it but had to push through after the first third of the book.
StoryBundle #13 - Sci-Fi Saturday Night Bundle
July 20, 2014
This is a good follow-on to "Brave Men Run", picking up where the first book left off, and taking the reader into the world almost a year after the Sovereign Declaration Day. I enjoyed "Pilgrimage", but perhaps not as much as "Brave Men Run" (want to give it a 3.5) I liked how some of the characters developed, especially the two fathers, and new character Haze. I liked where Matt seems to be going with the Sovereigns, and how he leaves room for further exposition on the nature of Nate Chambers.
The two things that kept me from really liking it was a bit too much teen angst for my taste, and "device" of Nate's journal vs. just rolling out the chapters (for some reason it broke the flow a bit for me).
Still a good story, and I still want to read some of Matt's other Sovereign Era stories, because I do thing that he has many places that he can go with this world of his.
The two things that kept me from really liking it was a bit too much teen angst for my taste, and "device" of Nate's journal vs. just rolling out the chapters (for some reason it broke the flow a bit for me).
Still a good story, and I still want to read some of Matt's other Sovereign Era stories, because I do thing that he has many places that he can go with this world of his.
June 24, 2013
Pilgrimage is a pretty good sequel to BRAVE MEN RUN. I enjoyed the read for the most part from beginning to end, but I really enjoyed the second half of the book more then the first. Once it got passed the Eric Finn stuff and moved more towards the goings on at the Donner Institute. I really liked the Byron and Marc Tesloswki sections of the book as well (sometimes more then the Nate parts).
Overall good story and it ended well. I wouldn't mind seeing more on Nate Charters and Byron Teslowski in the future.
Overall good story and it ended well. I wouldn't mind seeing more on Nate Charters and Byron Teslowski in the future.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews