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Parallel War #1
Ryan's Run
You just locked eyes on your soul mate. There’s only one problem: She lives in a parallel universe ruled by killer aliens.
Ryan’s Run, a science fiction adventure novel for young adults, tells the story of Ryan Whitaker, a sixteen-year old Chicago native whose life seems normal in all ways. He loves art and comic books and watching horror movies. He does all he can to keep his best friend Speckler from making a fool out of himself while he chases after the girl of his dreams. But Ryan’s life isn’t perfect. He’s had to learn to cope with the recent death of an older brother who died while fighting in Afghanistan, a death that has left his family shattered while each struggles with how best to move on.
But those are the least of Ryan’s problems.
While on a school field trip to Chicago’s famed Millennium Park, Ryan discovers that a parallel universe exists—one that’s an exact duplicate of the world he knows with one exception: it’s been ruled by ruthless aliens for the past twelve years. Soon after, Ryan crosses over into this parallel world with no idea how or why. Now he must not only avoid being captured by vicious aliens, but he must contend with the human survivors as well when he clashes with Resistance fighters, Scavengers, Collaborators, and the suspicions of an entire group of refugees. But with the help of a fierce Resistance fighter named Violet—a girl who will do all she can to help him survive this dangerous new world—Ryan may discover the secret that causes him to cross over from one world to another, and ultimately learn to become a Resistance fighter himself to help Violet and a world left devastated by untold cruelty.
Ryan’s Run, a science fiction adventure novel for young adults, tells the story of Ryan Whitaker, a sixteen-year old Chicago native whose life seems normal in all ways. He loves art and comic books and watching horror movies. He does all he can to keep his best friend Speckler from making a fool out of himself while he chases after the girl of his dreams. But Ryan’s life isn’t perfect. He’s had to learn to cope with the recent death of an older brother who died while fighting in Afghanistan, a death that has left his family shattered while each struggles with how best to move on.
But those are the least of Ryan’s problems.
While on a school field trip to Chicago’s famed Millennium Park, Ryan discovers that a parallel universe exists—one that’s an exact duplicate of the world he knows with one exception: it’s been ruled by ruthless aliens for the past twelve years. Soon after, Ryan crosses over into this parallel world with no idea how or why. Now he must not only avoid being captured by vicious aliens, but he must contend with the human survivors as well when he clashes with Resistance fighters, Scavengers, Collaborators, and the suspicions of an entire group of refugees. But with the help of a fierce Resistance fighter named Violet—a girl who will do all she can to help him survive this dangerous new world—Ryan may discover the secret that causes him to cross over from one world to another, and ultimately learn to become a Resistance fighter himself to help Violet and a world left devastated by untold cruelty.
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2012
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November 16, 2018
Same place, same year, same people, but different lives- a Parallel world and Ryan has a mission.
Ryan, a sixteen year old Chicagoan took a field trip with his art class to Millenium Park in the Loop and who knew that his life would change after that. It all began with him sitting in front of the Bean drawing a girl with a scar on her face and she can only be seen by her reflection and Ryan is the only one able to see her. Speckler, Ryan's best friend, believes that Ryan is just making it all up but it all stops when Ryan sees her getting shocked by a giant, yellow, bald, monster and when Ryan suffers from a head splitting headache Speckler worries for his best friend. After that event, no one but Speckler knows what actually happened and Ryan needs to know if that girl is still alive or if she's even real.
Ryan and Speckler made it their mission to find out more and to prove it to themselves that it wasn't just an illusion. That meant finding the right people to trust and help them out. That's when their adventure takes off when they receive help from their favorite comic book store owner, Mungo. Mungo is a comic book expert and once Ryan's showed him his drawing of the girl and the events of that day, Mungo described Ryan's story as a typical superhero story but he found similarities between his story and another person story, Charlie. Charlie had seen the same yellow, giant, monsters just a decade ago but Charlie was still waiting to cross again or find someone with the same experience. He never thought that day may come until Ryan and Speckler went to him.
At the back of Ryan's mind, he wanted to see the beautiful girl with the scar again even it meant for him to cross to this unknown world. Finally, after some time Ryan crosses to the other parallel world and he finally sees her again, his soulmate from another universe, Violet. Ryan learns so much about the other world and the one thing that affects him the most is that the people are dying by the hands of evil aliens. A war between aliens, Zoktari, and Resistance. Resistance are those who refuse to be beaten by the aliens and let them win. After Ryan crosses over the second time, he then discovers the secrets behind the true meaning of why it had to be him and why he is able to cross over. As the hideous truth is revealed, Ryan didn't hesitate to help Violet and her people to be free from this war and to keep them out of his. But who knew saving the world requires a lot of running, hiding, and trusting. However, Ryan is willing to sacrifices it all and finally become someone with a life's purpose. So, it is up to Ryan and his group to save both worlds. The question is how would they?
The book Ryan’s Run: The Parallel War Begins by Hunter Parker Price is truly a page turner. The story has a good pace, not too slow, but not too fast. As the author is a high school English teacher, he was really able to put himself as a sixteen year old teenager and made the text easy enough to be understood by all ages. The more you read, the more you want to know. The book has it all- from science fiction, romance, comedy, and a bit of real life. For example in chapter two, page nineteen, the author states, “but I know personally that life is like that. Here one moment, gone the next in the blink of an eye.” This line can mean differently to different people. Like for some, it can mean life or death or for others you never know how happy you can be one day and miserable the next.
I would definitely recommend this book because not only was it written by my English teacher but because as the person I am, I would rather read anything but science fiction. Except this book, it made me feel like one day we might get attack by aliens. That’s how much I got into it, it took me to another universe that I have never been interested up until now. I finally began to understand the meaning of what they all say, “you never know you might enjoy something until you try it.” Honestly, aliens are not as capturing as a romance novel but when I say this was an exception, I'm not lying. Once you get into the pace of reading, you won't be able to stop and that's the best part of this novel. You would never know how much you will like this book until you read it, so go on and read it, you won't regret it!
Ryan, a sixteen year old Chicagoan took a field trip with his art class to Millenium Park in the Loop and who knew that his life would change after that. It all began with him sitting in front of the Bean drawing a girl with a scar on her face and she can only be seen by her reflection and Ryan is the only one able to see her. Speckler, Ryan's best friend, believes that Ryan is just making it all up but it all stops when Ryan sees her getting shocked by a giant, yellow, bald, monster and when Ryan suffers from a head splitting headache Speckler worries for his best friend. After that event, no one but Speckler knows what actually happened and Ryan needs to know if that girl is still alive or if she's even real.
Ryan and Speckler made it their mission to find out more and to prove it to themselves that it wasn't just an illusion. That meant finding the right people to trust and help them out. That's when their adventure takes off when they receive help from their favorite comic book store owner, Mungo. Mungo is a comic book expert and once Ryan's showed him his drawing of the girl and the events of that day, Mungo described Ryan's story as a typical superhero story but he found similarities between his story and another person story, Charlie. Charlie had seen the same yellow, giant, monsters just a decade ago but Charlie was still waiting to cross again or find someone with the same experience. He never thought that day may come until Ryan and Speckler went to him.
At the back of Ryan's mind, he wanted to see the beautiful girl with the scar again even it meant for him to cross to this unknown world. Finally, after some time Ryan crosses to the other parallel world and he finally sees her again, his soulmate from another universe, Violet. Ryan learns so much about the other world and the one thing that affects him the most is that the people are dying by the hands of evil aliens. A war between aliens, Zoktari, and Resistance. Resistance are those who refuse to be beaten by the aliens and let them win. After Ryan crosses over the second time, he then discovers the secrets behind the true meaning of why it had to be him and why he is able to cross over. As the hideous truth is revealed, Ryan didn't hesitate to help Violet and her people to be free from this war and to keep them out of his. But who knew saving the world requires a lot of running, hiding, and trusting. However, Ryan is willing to sacrifices it all and finally become someone with a life's purpose. So, it is up to Ryan and his group to save both worlds. The question is how would they?
The book Ryan’s Run: The Parallel War Begins by Hunter Parker Price is truly a page turner. The story has a good pace, not too slow, but not too fast. As the author is a high school English teacher, he was really able to put himself as a sixteen year old teenager and made the text easy enough to be understood by all ages. The more you read, the more you want to know. The book has it all- from science fiction, romance, comedy, and a bit of real life. For example in chapter two, page nineteen, the author states, “but I know personally that life is like that. Here one moment, gone the next in the blink of an eye.” This line can mean differently to different people. Like for some, it can mean life or death or for others you never know how happy you can be one day and miserable the next.
I would definitely recommend this book because not only was it written by my English teacher but because as the person I am, I would rather read anything but science fiction. Except this book, it made me feel like one day we might get attack by aliens. That’s how much I got into it, it took me to another universe that I have never been interested up until now. I finally began to understand the meaning of what they all say, “you never know you might enjoy something until you try it.” Honestly, aliens are not as capturing as a romance novel but when I say this was an exception, I'm not lying. Once you get into the pace of reading, you won't be able to stop and that's the best part of this novel. You would never know how much you will like this book until you read it, so go on and read it, you won't regret it!
Displaying 1 of 1 review