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Patriarch Run
Billy discovers that his father might be a traitor, that he was deployed to safeguard the United States from a cyberattack on its military networks. After that mission, his father disappeared along with the Chinese technology he was ordered to steal–a weapon powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of the modern age and force the human population into collapse.
PATRIARCH RUN is a thoughtful and character-driven, coming-of-age story. Against a backdrop of suspense, the novel explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, rites of passage and self-acceptance.
PATRIARCH RUN is a thoughtful and character-driven, coming-of-age story. Against a backdrop of suspense, the novel explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, rites of passage and self-acceptance.
312 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2014
About the author
Benjamin Dancer
3 books32 followersBenjamin is the author of the literary thriller PATRIARCH RUN, the first book in a series that will include FIDELITY and THE STORY OF THE BOY. He also writes about parenting, education, sustainability and national security.
He is the Director of Public Relations for the Colorado EMP Task Force On National and Homeland Security, which is the Colorado branch of a Congressional Advisory Board.
Benjamin also works as an Advisor at a Colorado high school where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. His work with adolescents has informed his stories, which are typically themed around fatherhood and coming-of-age.
He is the Director of Public Relations for the Colorado EMP Task Force On National and Homeland Security, which is the Colorado branch of a Congressional Advisory Board.
Benjamin also works as an Advisor at a Colorado high school where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. His work with adolescents has informed his stories, which are typically themed around fatherhood and coming-of-age.
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July 12, 2018
Jack had come of age on the battlefield. After Vietnam he had been taken in by the Colonel and had spent his adult life moving through the darkest corners of the world. He had seen the mechanics of power. He had seen power in its criminal form, and he had seen it in the form of government. But now he understood that there was little difference between the two.Jack Erikson cannot remember who he is, but as he stumbles away from an explosion in Washington DC, he learns that the stranger he sees reflected in a window knows things, has instincts of a combat-ready sort. And those instincts tell him to get the hell away. Jack will struggle to regain his memory for the rest of the book. Of course, there are those who want the knowledge that remains hidden inside Jack’s brain, and other players would happily see him terminated with extreme prejudice. Jack had been sent by the government to steal from our good pal, China, a cyber-weapon capable of bringing the USA or any other nation to its knees in short order. The consensus is that that Jack has made off with it, that he has turned traitor. Jack’s instincts lead him back to the home he hasn’t seen in many years, and the wife and son he’d left there.
Jack’s son, Billy, is about to graduate from high school. He is an uber-responsible young man, with an appreciation for farming, family and munitions. He would love to become a Navy Seal. But the girl of his dreams has enrolled in college, and he has decided to put off his special ops dreams for a bit, while he follows her there. Of course, sometimes life makes choices for us, and when all sorts of unpleasantness follow Jack back home, Billy is drawn into the action, and gets a real-world chance to try out his combat skills, and to confront some very difficult and adult decisions. He also gets to bond again with the father he lost as a kid. But what if his dad really is a traitor? Is that even possible?
Rachel has not seen her husband for nine years. We get a look back at their start together, but she has been moving on for quite a while now. The tough-as-nails widder-lady, trying to run her farm and raise her kid in the cowboys and bad guys scenario. She is also an artist. Some players in this game treat her as a pawn, but she has moves of her own. Think mama bear.
The author
There is a lot here about parent and child issues, a definite strength. This is not surprising, given that Patriarch Run is the third in Dancer’s Father Trilogy. Not only is there a primary example in the relationship between Jack and Billy, there are several other echoes, such as the relationship between Billy and his mother’s beau, the very white-hatted Sheriff. Rachel’s relationship with her parents comes in for a look as well. The town rich-guy has father-child issues of his own. Illegal immigrants contend with family concerns as well. And relationships of a non-family-based sort enter, in Jack’s relationship with a paternal work superior. This is all good material.
I expect there will be some who might dismiss Patriarch Run as Jason Bourne light. Yes, it focuses on a spook with memory issues, sundry well-armed baddies of all sorts, chasing, shooting, kidnapping, big-time state secrets, and a hefty body count. The ingredients are all there. But one must consider that what writers write is based on what writers have written. Was West Side Story a knock-off because it was based on Romeo and Juliet? I would hardly argue that Robert Ludlum compares well with Shakespeare, but the point is that writers stand on the shoulders, and in this case maybe shoulder holsters, of those who have come before. West Side Story succeeds in being what it was intended to be and Patriarch Run succeeds in being what it intends to be, a fast-paced, engaging thriller that will keep you flipping the pages, and maybe checking the safety on your personal weapon of choice, while adding a layer of emotional content that will keep your heart as well as your fight-or-flight responses engaged, and intellectual seriousness that will keep your brain on high alert as well. The externalities of Bourne-world offer form, not content, in the same way that following the structure of a sonnet tells you nothing about what the words used might communicate.
Hard choices abound. Dancer’s characters are changed by the decisions they are forced to make. And their almost knee-jerk patriotism is tested in light of new understandings, of new facts.
Jack serves as a bit of a Zelig character, showing up in scenes of US foreign entanglements and historic moments, including Vietnam, Iran-Contra, the fall of the Berlin wall, and is given the sort of prescience usually fueled by 20-20 hindsight. But we do get a nice run-through of some American history that is, or should be, important for us all to know, and which is significant in informing Jack’s motivations.
Dancer did considerable research trying to get his spook tradecraft just right. He mentions Hunting the Jackal as a particularly useful source. There are many other historical accounts he has looked into that flesh out the images portrayed here. You can find some of these on his site. Definitely worth a look.
ART DIRECTION
Weaponry comes in for considerable attention, and the weapons used help identity the sorts of people who wield them. Ditto the automobile. Black SUVs carry a certain sinister aura. Other vehicles reflect well their drivers. Jeep Wranglers, F-150s, Town Cars, Mercedes, a Plymouth Voyager, and Mustangs of the four-wheeled and four-footed variety inform us about the folks behind the wheel (or reins).
The palette in which Billy sees the world is worth a notice.
A strong-willed bison alpha named Moses seems determined to lead his herd to a promised land somewhere outside the confines of the Erikson property. (“Let my people graze?”) What respectable western doesn’t include bison?
A tattered flag is taken down and burned, no longer worthy of display. Gotta be something there, ya think?
GRIPES
I have a some gripes with Patriarch Run. There is a spot very early on in which it looked like the editor had gone for coffee. The word “glass,” as in looking through binoculars, is used nine times in two pages. A character might use it once or twice but an omniscient narrator might scan his or her surroundings for a handy thesaurus. Thankfully, that was the sole such faux pas of that sort I encountered.
A willing suspension of disbelief is part of the armor one brings to an action-adventure read, but when Dancer asks us believe that his hero, Jack, on encountering Chinese text, actually thinks in Mandarin, a bit of eye-rolling is inevitable. A stretch too far, Grasshopper. It was not necessary to the scene to go there.
There is a tendency to use acronyms and other terminology without always explaining what they mean. OGA is tossed off on page 6, and is presumably not the Online Gaming Alliance, or an Orthogonal Greedy Algorithm. Another time, a character says, in relation to some combat players “no one knows where their orders are coming from but they’re blue.” Huh? If you do not mind using the google machine to ferret out such things, it is of no matter. I actually enjoy doing that, but we can’t all be blessed with the dubious joys of mild OCD. And SCADA would be what? (Go ahead. Look it up.)
It turns out that Jack, at least the Jack who still has a memory, has an agenda and a very specific world view. That perspective is held closely until the very end, but I thought the bread crumb trail that leads one there might have been a bit more direct.
There is a cartoonish, comic-relief potshot taken at a coastal moneyed sort who bungles up the neighbor’s farm. Yes, the inept city slicker, as well as hoofed mammals, is a part of the western genre, so I accept it in that spirit, but I did think it was taken a bit too far.
Telling not showing. There are some instances in which he author lays some things out for us. (See the introductory quote at the top of this review) It is not a capital crime, and I can see why it might have been useful in keeping the novel to a reasonable length, but one wishes another way had been found.
SUM
The best thrillers are those with something going on beneath the discharge of weapons, the subsequent impact of projectiles, the bleeding, the billowing smoke, and the squealing tires. Dancer has written such a novel. While the form may seem familiar, do not be deceived. This is a novel that has order to its ordnance, content on which to target its Colt, importance to back up its MP5, and some magnificence to balance its magnums. It is a tale not only of parents and progeny, fathers and sons, but of core values, life decisions, dark understanding of how the real world operates, and a concern for what lies ahead. And while I believe a bit of polishing is in order before a second printing, hopefully one thing that lies ahead is many more novels just this good from Mister Dancer.
Review first posted – 7/4/14
Publication date – 4/8/14
The author, a GR friend, provided a copy of his book in return for an honest review.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Google+ and FB pages
Within his site, check out his blog for some of the research that went into the writing of PR
Dancer’s day job is as an advisor and English teacher at Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado. You’d want your kid to be in his class. He talks about his education work in a guest post here, on Susan Russo Anderson’s site. He also writes about teaching and education. You might want to check out his e-book, Bow Making in English Class
August 29, 2014
”About three thousand years ago there was a Chinese artificer named Yan Shi who made a robot that looked like a person. It could walk, sing and dance. And it had an eye for women.”
It was clear from Billy’s expression that he was skeptical about such things.
“One day Yan Shi brought is robot to the king. Nobody had ever seen anything like it. The exhibition went perfectly until the robot started being lewd with the women. That incensed the king.
Yan Shi knew he would lose his life if he couldn’t get the king to excuse the robot’s behavior. So he dismantled it.
When the king saw all the parts, he was amazed. The robot had muscles over the bones. Tendons and ligaments. It had hair and teeth.”
Billy had stopped eating. His eyes were but slits, and he was looking at the Colonel sideways. “How did he make it?”
“I don’t know.”
“How come the Chinese can’t make one like that today?”
“Maybe they can.”
Yan Shi, the artificer. Photo kindly supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
The book begins with Billy searching for the family owned herd of Bison that has busted through the fence on their way to greener pastures. I can remember many times, first thing after school, hopping in the pickup with my Dad to go put some cattle escapees back in where they are supposed to be. We owned a couple of horses, but generally we used dirt bikes and pickups to chase cattle. My brother and I had some spectacular wrecks on those dirt bikes because ground is usually put to grass because it is too rough and unsuitable for farming. Trying to keep an eye on the cattle and an eye on the ground may have prepared our peripheral vision for playing basketball, but with obstacles such as grass masked holes, hollers, and chunks of rock it wasn’t infrequent for an OOHHHH SHIIITTT to be heard coming from one of us...usually putting a grin on the other. When four wheelers came along they were a lot safer alternative to negotiating abrupt changes in terrain. (Kansas by the way is not as flat as it has been made out to be.)
Billy is old school. He and his horse Maiden go out, and certainly more gently, convince errant livestock back into the proper pasture. (The instigator of the break outs is a bull named Moses...let my bison go.) Billy even rides his horse to school, a hundred year old flashback in time. His mom is dating the Sheriff. A man that Billy respects. Billy doesn’t fully understand his girlfriend, but then that is just par for the course for any teenage boy or middle aged man or a man in his twilight years. Life is feeling pretty stable for Billy.
That is until his Dad shows up.
Jack worked for the government. He did whatever they needed him to do to keep the world or at least the United States safe. He was a true believer in the inherent goodness of America and for a while he could justify anything to himself...until he turned. A friend of his father tries to explain it to Billy.
”Each betrayal takes another piece of you. Chips you down. Decades go by. The change is slow. Then one day you wake up and see her entirely differently.”
“See who?”
“America. You realize the woman you fell in love with as a young man has always been a whore.”
On his last mission in China Jack disappears and takes with him the very technology that he was supposed to steal for his government. It is a weapon, aptly named Yan Shi, powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of civilization, basically, this weapon if deployed takes us all back to the stone age, overnight. Now you might think that Jack is planning to have the big pay day by selling the technology to the Russians or to North Korea or maybe to Pakistan, but Jack is not interested in money.. He isn’t a traitor not in that sense. He is interested in the future of humanity. He is a man obsessed with growing human population numbers and now he has the power of a god in his hands.
”The growth of the human population as I write is estimated to be 1.3% per year. At the current rate of growth the population will double every fifty-three years. Six to twelve, twelve to twenty-four billion human beings in a century. To put those twenty-four billion people in perspective, the world’s population a hundred years ago was one point six billion.
Unfortunately, the resources required to sustain our civilization are not growing at the same rate as the human population. The United Nations estimates that 15% of the population goes hungry today. That’s nearly a billion people. The balance is off.”
Benjamin Dancer, truthsayer.
As Benjamin Dancer points out the American Farmer has increased production fifty-fold. Technology has kept enough food arriving at your local grocery store (for most of us), but if something happens; if the grid shuts down; if catastrophic things happen one after another; it will be like a row of dominoes that can not be set back up. That grocery store brimming with food is now out of food in three days... maybe less. Trucks are not moving, nothing is being produced. We only have what we have on Day ZERO. Two hundred million people would be dead after the first year.
Hunger is our predator.”
So only a madman would press the button that would spell doom for so many, right?
Jack has faced the reality of numbers that most of us are reluctant to even contemplate. If he ends the world now the cost will be considerable less than if he lets “nature” take it’s course. Two hundred million dead are only a drop in the bucket of how many would die in the first year of chaos in say fifty years. If you can convince yourself that humans are a plague on this earth it becomes a lot easier to press that button, but for Jack it is much more practical than that. He sees this as a chance to save humanity not destroy it.
Billy, his mom, and the sheriff find themselves thrust into the whirlwind of Jack’s life. Various government agencies are after him. With so much at stake, Billy and the people he cares about are mere chaff in the wind.
”Bullets ripped through the patrol car ringing the sheet metal; safety glass sprayed through the cabin; stuffing oozed from the sheriff’s seat; the rear window wasn’t there anymore; beams of sunlight pierced two long holes in the roof liner.”
This is just a small taste of a larger picture Dancer paints of bullets, fear, and determination as Billy finds himself pitted against a father he never knew and a world he is just beginning to understand. This book will send a shiver of fear down many of your backs. Even though I have been aware of the population math for some time, the way Dancer presents it made me have to take a long walk between a few chapters. I believe, because I am the eternal optimist, that we will make the necessary changes not only with technology, but with education.
Maybe if we get lucky/unlucky something will scare us enough to start thinking about the future and not just the present. Hopefully that won’t be something catastrophic, but just something that will give us a good knock in the head. Dancer kept my attention throughout the book. A team of wild bison couldn’t have kept me from turning the pages of this story.
Besides Yan Shi, Dancer sprinkles a couple of other real life people into his story.
”This is an image of Ed Wilson who represented the CIA through a front company (Consultants International). In my story (p148), Ed Wilson tries to get Jack to help in the Iran-Contra struggle.” Photo text and picture supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
”Howard Hart, the CIA station chief in Iran during the time Jack was there (p134). Hart actually filed the report Jack refers to in the story.” Text and picture supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
On his Amazon profile Benjamin has a great movie trailer about the book that you really should take a couple of minutes to see. http://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Dancer...
I also asked Benjamin for a couple of free stories that I hope will give you some idea of his writing chops.
Stories by Benjamin Available for Free:
http://caralopezlee.com/blog/2014/02/...
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bow-m...
It was clear from Billy’s expression that he was skeptical about such things.
“One day Yan Shi brought is robot to the king. Nobody had ever seen anything like it. The exhibition went perfectly until the robot started being lewd with the women. That incensed the king.
Yan Shi knew he would lose his life if he couldn’t get the king to excuse the robot’s behavior. So he dismantled it.
When the king saw all the parts, he was amazed. The robot had muscles over the bones. Tendons and ligaments. It had hair and teeth.”
Billy had stopped eating. His eyes were but slits, and he was looking at the Colonel sideways. “How did he make it?”
“I don’t know.”
“How come the Chinese can’t make one like that today?”
“Maybe they can.”
Yan Shi, the artificer. Photo kindly supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
The book begins with Billy searching for the family owned herd of Bison that has busted through the fence on their way to greener pastures. I can remember many times, first thing after school, hopping in the pickup with my Dad to go put some cattle escapees back in where they are supposed to be. We owned a couple of horses, but generally we used dirt bikes and pickups to chase cattle. My brother and I had some spectacular wrecks on those dirt bikes because ground is usually put to grass because it is too rough and unsuitable for farming. Trying to keep an eye on the cattle and an eye on the ground may have prepared our peripheral vision for playing basketball, but with obstacles such as grass masked holes, hollers, and chunks of rock it wasn’t infrequent for an OOHHHH SHIIITTT to be heard coming from one of us...usually putting a grin on the other. When four wheelers came along they were a lot safer alternative to negotiating abrupt changes in terrain. (Kansas by the way is not as flat as it has been made out to be.)
Billy is old school. He and his horse Maiden go out, and certainly more gently, convince errant livestock back into the proper pasture. (The instigator of the break outs is a bull named Moses...let my bison go.) Billy even rides his horse to school, a hundred year old flashback in time. His mom is dating the Sheriff. A man that Billy respects. Billy doesn’t fully understand his girlfriend, but then that is just par for the course for any teenage boy or middle aged man or a man in his twilight years. Life is feeling pretty stable for Billy.
That is until his Dad shows up.
Jack worked for the government. He did whatever they needed him to do to keep the world or at least the United States safe. He was a true believer in the inherent goodness of America and for a while he could justify anything to himself...until he turned. A friend of his father tries to explain it to Billy.
”Each betrayal takes another piece of you. Chips you down. Decades go by. The change is slow. Then one day you wake up and see her entirely differently.”
“See who?”
“America. You realize the woman you fell in love with as a young man has always been a whore.”
On his last mission in China Jack disappears and takes with him the very technology that he was supposed to steal for his government. It is a weapon, aptly named Yan Shi, powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of civilization, basically, this weapon if deployed takes us all back to the stone age, overnight. Now you might think that Jack is planning to have the big pay day by selling the technology to the Russians or to North Korea or maybe to Pakistan, but Jack is not interested in money.. He isn’t a traitor not in that sense. He is interested in the future of humanity. He is a man obsessed with growing human population numbers and now he has the power of a god in his hands.
”The growth of the human population as I write is estimated to be 1.3% per year. At the current rate of growth the population will double every fifty-three years. Six to twelve, twelve to twenty-four billion human beings in a century. To put those twenty-four billion people in perspective, the world’s population a hundred years ago was one point six billion.
Unfortunately, the resources required to sustain our civilization are not growing at the same rate as the human population. The United Nations estimates that 15% of the population goes hungry today. That’s nearly a billion people. The balance is off.”
Benjamin Dancer, truthsayer.
As Benjamin Dancer points out the American Farmer has increased production fifty-fold. Technology has kept enough food arriving at your local grocery store (for most of us), but if something happens; if the grid shuts down; if catastrophic things happen one after another; it will be like a row of dominoes that can not be set back up. That grocery store brimming with food is now out of food in three days... maybe less. Trucks are not moving, nothing is being produced. We only have what we have on Day ZERO. Two hundred million people would be dead after the first year.
Hunger is our predator.”
So only a madman would press the button that would spell doom for so many, right?
Jack has faced the reality of numbers that most of us are reluctant to even contemplate. If he ends the world now the cost will be considerable less than if he lets “nature” take it’s course. Two hundred million dead are only a drop in the bucket of how many would die in the first year of chaos in say fifty years. If you can convince yourself that humans are a plague on this earth it becomes a lot easier to press that button, but for Jack it is much more practical than that. He sees this as a chance to save humanity not destroy it.
Billy, his mom, and the sheriff find themselves thrust into the whirlwind of Jack’s life. Various government agencies are after him. With so much at stake, Billy and the people he cares about are mere chaff in the wind.
”Bullets ripped through the patrol car ringing the sheet metal; safety glass sprayed through the cabin; stuffing oozed from the sheriff’s seat; the rear window wasn’t there anymore; beams of sunlight pierced two long holes in the roof liner.”
This is just a small taste of a larger picture Dancer paints of bullets, fear, and determination as Billy finds himself pitted against a father he never knew and a world he is just beginning to understand. This book will send a shiver of fear down many of your backs. Even though I have been aware of the population math for some time, the way Dancer presents it made me have to take a long walk between a few chapters. I believe, because I am the eternal optimist, that we will make the necessary changes not only with technology, but with education.
Maybe if we get lucky/unlucky something will scare us enough to start thinking about the future and not just the present. Hopefully that won’t be something catastrophic, but just something that will give us a good knock in the head. Dancer kept my attention throughout the book. A team of wild bison couldn’t have kept me from turning the pages of this story.
Besides Yan Shi, Dancer sprinkles a couple of other real life people into his story.
”This is an image of Ed Wilson who represented the CIA through a front company (Consultants International). In my story (p148), Ed Wilson tries to get Jack to help in the Iran-Contra struggle.” Photo text and picture supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
”Howard Hart, the CIA station chief in Iran during the time Jack was there (p134). Hart actually filed the report Jack refers to in the story.” Text and picture supplied by Benjamin Dancer.
On his Amazon profile Benjamin has a great movie trailer about the book that you really should take a couple of minutes to see. http://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Dancer...
I also asked Benjamin for a couple of free stories that I hope will give you some idea of his writing chops.
Stories by Benjamin Available for Free:
http://caralopezlee.com/blog/2014/02/...
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bow-m...
September 1, 2014
Billy Erikson's life is going pretty well until an amnesiac stranger wanders into his life. This stranger happens to be his father, Jack, who has been missing for the past ten years. Jack is a former secret agent and the only man on earth who knows the whereabouts of a device capable of ruining the United State's electrical infrastructure. Now if he could just remember where he hid it before one of the factions gunning for him figures out where he is...
I almost didn't agree to read Patriarch Run but Benjamin Dancer caught me in a moment of weakness between books. On the surface, it looked like a Bourne Identity knockoff. I'm pleased to say it was a whole lot more than that.
While Patriarch Run is both a thriller and a coming of age tale, it's also a frightening look at what might happen if the technological singularity happens and artificial intelligence not necessary friendly to human life is born.
I have to admit, I felt like I was out in the weeds for the first half of the book, trying to piece together what happened as Jack and Billy did. Once I was able to get an angle on what the hell was actually going on, I really enjoyed it. It was almost exhausting to read it was so action packed. However, I was pleased that Dancer avoided a few things that normally bug me about books of this type. It wasn't overly political, Jack and Rachel didn't get their genitals entangled after being reunited, and there were no three page chapters unlike a lot of thrillers.
Dancer obviously put a lot of thought into what would happen if something could disrupt the United State's electrical grid and the ramifications are pretty horrifying. I know how bored I get when the power goes out but I never really thought about what would happen if the lights were out for a couple months, like disruption of food distribution and things of that nature.
If I had to gripe about something, I'd say that maybe too much time was spent on the horrors of life without electricity and maybe it took a little too long for the backstory to unfold. Really, though, it's as good as any political/spy thriller put out by the Big 6 (or is it the Big 5 now?) these days.
3.5 out of 5 stars. Give the Dancer a chance and he won't let you down!
I almost didn't agree to read Patriarch Run but Benjamin Dancer caught me in a moment of weakness between books. On the surface, it looked like a Bourne Identity knockoff. I'm pleased to say it was a whole lot more than that.
While Patriarch Run is both a thriller and a coming of age tale, it's also a frightening look at what might happen if the technological singularity happens and artificial intelligence not necessary friendly to human life is born.
I have to admit, I felt like I was out in the weeds for the first half of the book, trying to piece together what happened as Jack and Billy did. Once I was able to get an angle on what the hell was actually going on, I really enjoyed it. It was almost exhausting to read it was so action packed. However, I was pleased that Dancer avoided a few things that normally bug me about books of this type. It wasn't overly political, Jack and Rachel didn't get their genitals entangled after being reunited, and there were no three page chapters unlike a lot of thrillers.
Dancer obviously put a lot of thought into what would happen if something could disrupt the United State's electrical grid and the ramifications are pretty horrifying. I know how bored I get when the power goes out but I never really thought about what would happen if the lights were out for a couple months, like disruption of food distribution and things of that nature.
If I had to gripe about something, I'd say that maybe too much time was spent on the horrors of life without electricity and maybe it took a little too long for the backstory to unfold. Really, though, it's as good as any political/spy thriller put out by the Big 6 (or is it the Big 5 now?) these days.
3.5 out of 5 stars. Give the Dancer a chance and he won't let you down!
June 14, 2014
I get up in the morning. Groggy, I pull the curtains. The sky looks messy; dark angry pregnant clouds drift, promising the delivery of a torrent. Doesn't matter, rather can’t matter; I brush my teeth unwillingly and get ready for another day to the office. In the other room, my nephew, half dozing half awake looks blankly at the effort of an omelet in his plate while turning a deaf ear to his mother’s hurried lips; it’s time for school. My young neighbor might finally go to sleep now having practiced Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the water’ the whole night on his guitar. On the road, hurried umbrellas and rain jackets wade the streets to get to their destinations. And life goes on…
But there are bigger and heavier things going on; somewhere. Wars are being planned, genocides are being sketched out. Maybe the soldier standing there on the border, under inhuman conditions, with his attentive and piercing eyes and armed gun may get a role in this movie of killings, maybe the role of a dead soldier. How much do we know and how much do we care? Spare a thought for the soldiers who follow orders, kill, against their conscience.
Would you believe that a mass extermination of the race is sometimes not as inevitable as much as it is necessary? In ‘Patriarch Run’, Jack, an undercover agent of the US Government is a thinker and an observer and what he discerns scares him as it would scare me and you. He explicates why killings are a requisite for this spiral viral reproductions of the humans, else the people dying of hunger today due to lack of resources would be much greater in number than the people existing and it won’t be very long while we ride the dinosaurs in a different world. As Jack quotes,
“The number of people without enough to eat in the world today is equal to the entire human population of 1810. Where is the pressure, the competition, the predator to check human civilization?”
Aren't the deadly tsunamis, cyclones, forest fires, earthquakes then a worthy attempt, a natural course of Mother Nature to restore the balance? It reminds me of the Pink Floyd song, ‘She will take it back, someday…’
Jack, a mercenary, has stolen a device from the Chinese, that has the power of destroying the world and he is on the run. As he is hunted down, his abandoned wife Rachel and son Billy inadvertently get into the crossfire. And Jack beyond the bombings, remembers nothing. So how does he chance upon his wife, child and ‘Yan Shi', the device? Will the world be saved or do we find ourselves at the crossroad of Armageddon? Read this fast paced novel to find out.
Written with a purpose, the author builds up a lost relationship and longing between father and son; he intricately enumerates the consequences of lying on the altar of sacrifices, of making choices with no getaway to repentance when you have a larger role to play. This one is a page turner. Though at some places I thought the story could be a little tighter, overall it was a very interesting read, especially for the message that it conveys.
But there are bigger and heavier things going on; somewhere. Wars are being planned, genocides are being sketched out. Maybe the soldier standing there on the border, under inhuman conditions, with his attentive and piercing eyes and armed gun may get a role in this movie of killings, maybe the role of a dead soldier. How much do we know and how much do we care? Spare a thought for the soldiers who follow orders, kill, against their conscience.
Would you believe that a mass extermination of the race is sometimes not as inevitable as much as it is necessary? In ‘Patriarch Run’, Jack, an undercover agent of the US Government is a thinker and an observer and what he discerns scares him as it would scare me and you. He explicates why killings are a requisite for this spiral viral reproductions of the humans, else the people dying of hunger today due to lack of resources would be much greater in number than the people existing and it won’t be very long while we ride the dinosaurs in a different world. As Jack quotes,
“The number of people without enough to eat in the world today is equal to the entire human population of 1810. Where is the pressure, the competition, the predator to check human civilization?”
Aren't the deadly tsunamis, cyclones, forest fires, earthquakes then a worthy attempt, a natural course of Mother Nature to restore the balance? It reminds me of the Pink Floyd song, ‘She will take it back, someday…’
Jack, a mercenary, has stolen a device from the Chinese, that has the power of destroying the world and he is on the run. As he is hunted down, his abandoned wife Rachel and son Billy inadvertently get into the crossfire. And Jack beyond the bombings, remembers nothing. So how does he chance upon his wife, child and ‘Yan Shi', the device? Will the world be saved or do we find ourselves at the crossroad of Armageddon? Read this fast paced novel to find out.
Written with a purpose, the author builds up a lost relationship and longing between father and son; he intricately enumerates the consequences of lying on the altar of sacrifices, of making choices with no getaway to repentance when you have a larger role to play. This one is a page turner. Though at some places I thought the story could be a little tighter, overall it was a very interesting read, especially for the message that it conveys.
May 17, 2014
As a teenage boy comes of age, he’s caught in the crossfire of his father’s battle. It’s a battle for a piece of technology that can either save or destroy humanity, yet it’s also a battle over what kind of humanity will be saved or destroyed. Will races be divided or work together? Will women be subjugated or call their own shots? Will single mothers do it all or will fatherhood matter?
In Patriarch Run, overpopulation is taking humankind over a cliff. Instead of using the big city as his stage, author Benjamin Dancer takes us to a small town where buffalo still roam. The perennial desire for home, family, and land becomes a prism for the most pressing environmental issues of our time.
This book’s secret-agent man, Jack, sees overpopulation as a threat to national security. Although the story is definitely a page-turner, I paused to read aloud to my husband the fascinating description of this threat. I found myself wondering whether it’s more reprehensible to take away freedom by enforcing population control or to hold onto freedom at the cost of destroying ourselves.
Dancer explores the theme of fatherhood, and takes that a step farther to encompass stewardship. Is it more important to be a father who protects his child, who prepares his child for life’s cruel realities, or who makes a better world for us all? Dancer suggests that it is not just whether we survive that matters, but how we live. Patriarch Run conveys the hope that our fathers have trained us well, both to survive and to live as stewards of the future.
In Patriarch Run, overpopulation is taking humankind over a cliff. Instead of using the big city as his stage, author Benjamin Dancer takes us to a small town where buffalo still roam. The perennial desire for home, family, and land becomes a prism for the most pressing environmental issues of our time.
This book’s secret-agent man, Jack, sees overpopulation as a threat to national security. Although the story is definitely a page-turner, I paused to read aloud to my husband the fascinating description of this threat. I found myself wondering whether it’s more reprehensible to take away freedom by enforcing population control or to hold onto freedom at the cost of destroying ourselves.
Dancer explores the theme of fatherhood, and takes that a step farther to encompass stewardship. Is it more important to be a father who protects his child, who prepares his child for life’s cruel realities, or who makes a better world for us all? Dancer suggests that it is not just whether we survive that matters, but how we live. Patriarch Run conveys the hope that our fathers have trained us well, both to survive and to live as stewards of the future.
July 20, 2017
Another one I didn't get on with! Spy thriller but it seemed to veer into a western-style thing, I don't know, I just didn't get it to be honest! A lot of repetitive scenes as well!
Won't be reviewing on the blog!
Won't be reviewing on the blog!
July 22, 2014
Yeah, I had a couple of quibbles, but they didn't keep the book from being “Amazing.” I love the Goodreads rating descriptions. They only get hard when I forget them, or I can't figure out if I liked something or not.
It amazes me that the author went the self-publishing route; it does not amaze me to hear that traditional publishing may be in this book's future. It's very well put together and poignant. It's a thriller that delves into the human psyche, with a style and voice that drew me into the characters and their evolutions. I've never read anything quite like this combination, and that's saying something. It also lets me know that, for sure, I want to read more of this author.
Because if you wanted to tear the plot down to its barest bit, it's something of a techno-thriller. That is, it's a thriller, and the core element is technological. But that's so not what this book is, and I just think that's outstanding. It's all about the style and presentation, both of which are almost lyrical. Lovely and flowing. And the setting, which is rural. Rural setting for a technological bit at the core? Oh, hell yes: please, more.
The old man's nightmare, that had him up in the middle of the night---its presentation will keep the imagery with me for a long time. And there were quite a few things in this novel like that.
On a personal note, the fact that Billy rode a horse to school struck a chord in my own coming-of-age story. Because I wanted to do that, at least one day, and my parents told me no because it was “too far.” A friend of mine who graduated a year after me did just that on her last day of school---she had to ride her horse a few miles more than I would have. Mom, a high school teacher at the time, said it was “cool” that she had done that. That would be the same mom who told me no. I learned a lot from that, but this isn't my blog. Back to this novel we go.
I've read novels where the advice “every line should be relevant to the plot” was used to leach all soul from the story. Not so, here. Every line is relevant, and has soul.
There is something I have to mention that I regret, so much, is a spoiler. I'm going to put it behind a cut, and I'm going to say that you should really, really read the book before reading what's behind the cut. If you read it before reading the book, it probably won't even sound like a spoiler, but it would have undermined my experience of this element. Before I do this cut, I will tell you this much about it: it's something I always hope to see, and so rarely do.
If you've read the book and want to discuss that, send me a message via Goodreads (or via email, if know my email address). I'm all for it.
In that spoiler bit, I mentioned how a certain thing was put together, but I have to expand my thoughts to the way the whole thing was put together. The progression. I don't believe the story could have been put together in any other order, and that's amazing to me. I only realize how often I think, while reading, “Well, I'm not so sure that should have been there,” until I read something where I never think that. I did have times where I'd put this book down to tend to something else, and while away from it, my thoughts were, “Damn, that's a well put together book.”
Something else I noted only when away from the book (because when I was with the book, I was with the book): there were philosophies put forth in artful ways here, but I never once felt like the author was using his novel as a platform for spouting his own philosophies. They belonged to the characters and the story, and that makes all the difference. That makes it gold. That makes it to where, even when I don't agree at all, I'm still listening because I'm learning about the character, the story. I appreciate that sort of thing so very much.
Here's another kicker for me: this story is full of flashbacks. I am not a fan of such things. But they flowed so well here, were so much a part of the progression, that I enjoyed them. I looked forward to them, even.
I remember being pulled out of the story only once, and that was when the first scene was repeated---almost word-for-word---much later in the book. It was a poignant and memorable scene, and having it so very nearly repeated took some of its poignancy away. But on the whole, that was forgivable, because that was the only time I remember being pulled out of the story. I have novels that have been favorites for years that lose me more times than that.
I love that there's a sequel in the works. That tells me something about the ending nothing else could---though I must say this book needs no sequel. And that's the best kind of book, in my experience, to get one. When authors know what they're about, I mean. And having read this book, I trust the author knows what he's about. (That's a big deal, by the way. This whole paragraph was.)
But here is one “negative” thing I do need to say: I had to start this book over. I got to about page thirty or so and put it down, because I knew it was absolutely necessary. Because I knew it was good, that it had the potential of turning out to be a great book, and I had to get my mind right to ignore one particular thing: its need of an edit. I can't tell you how extensively it needs an edit after about page thirty because I spent a day or two turning off my mental editor. It takes me that long, as it's a side effect of being in a peer review writing group. We're not talking about a huge amount of typos, though; we're talking about small technical problems that a lot of average readers wouldn't even notice. Commas where there should be periods leading from short narrative line to dialogue. (That is, treating short narrative lines as dialogue tags when they weren't.) One word that should be two separate words or two words that should have been one. And I did notice some comma splices---more than I should have; because some fit the style, some did not. Almost all were of a sort I might not have noticed before studying writing.
I say this because if you suffer from that kind of personal mental editor like me, you owe it to yourself to turn it off before reading this. And because it's damn noteworthy that I actually started over, instead of just working to turn off that inner obsessive editor as I went.
I'm ridiculously thankful I got to read this and I hope it does get picked up by a traditional publisher that'll promote it like it deserves. I'll buy that version, but I'll always treasure the fact that I got to read this version. I'll always feel like I got in on the ground floor. In any case, and however it comes, I'm definitely buying the sequel.
It amazes me that the author went the self-publishing route; it does not amaze me to hear that traditional publishing may be in this book's future. It's very well put together and poignant. It's a thriller that delves into the human psyche, with a style and voice that drew me into the characters and their evolutions. I've never read anything quite like this combination, and that's saying something. It also lets me know that, for sure, I want to read more of this author.
Because if you wanted to tear the plot down to its barest bit, it's something of a techno-thriller. That is, it's a thriller, and the core element is technological. But that's so not what this book is, and I just think that's outstanding. It's all about the style and presentation, both of which are almost lyrical. Lovely and flowing. And the setting, which is rural. Rural setting for a technological bit at the core? Oh, hell yes: please, more.
The old man's nightmare, that had him up in the middle of the night---its presentation will keep the imagery with me for a long time. And there were quite a few things in this novel like that.
On a personal note, the fact that Billy rode a horse to school struck a chord in my own coming-of-age story. Because I wanted to do that, at least one day, and my parents told me no because it was “too far.” A friend of mine who graduated a year after me did just that on her last day of school---she had to ride her horse a few miles more than I would have. Mom, a high school teacher at the time, said it was “cool” that she had done that. That would be the same mom who told me no. I learned a lot from that, but this isn't my blog. Back to this novel we go.
I've read novels where the advice “every line should be relevant to the plot” was used to leach all soul from the story. Not so, here. Every line is relevant, and has soul.
There is something I have to mention that I regret, so much, is a spoiler. I'm going to put it behind a cut, and I'm going to say that you should really, really read the book before reading what's behind the cut. If you read it before reading the book, it probably won't even sound like a spoiler, but it would have undermined my experience of this element. Before I do this cut, I will tell you this much about it: it's something I always hope to see, and so rarely do.
If you've read the book and want to discuss that, send me a message via Goodreads (or via email, if know my email address). I'm all for it.
In that spoiler bit, I mentioned how a certain thing was put together, but I have to expand my thoughts to the way the whole thing was put together. The progression. I don't believe the story could have been put together in any other order, and that's amazing to me. I only realize how often I think, while reading, “Well, I'm not so sure that should have been there,” until I read something where I never think that. I did have times where I'd put this book down to tend to something else, and while away from it, my thoughts were, “Damn, that's a well put together book.”
Something else I noted only when away from the book (because when I was with the book, I was with the book): there were philosophies put forth in artful ways here, but I never once felt like the author was using his novel as a platform for spouting his own philosophies. They belonged to the characters and the story, and that makes all the difference. That makes it gold. That makes it to where, even when I don't agree at all, I'm still listening because I'm learning about the character, the story. I appreciate that sort of thing so very much.
Here's another kicker for me: this story is full of flashbacks. I am not a fan of such things. But they flowed so well here, were so much a part of the progression, that I enjoyed them. I looked forward to them, even.
I remember being pulled out of the story only once, and that was when the first scene was repeated---almost word-for-word---much later in the book. It was a poignant and memorable scene, and having it so very nearly repeated took some of its poignancy away. But on the whole, that was forgivable, because that was the only time I remember being pulled out of the story. I have novels that have been favorites for years that lose me more times than that.
I love that there's a sequel in the works. That tells me something about the ending nothing else could---though I must say this book needs no sequel. And that's the best kind of book, in my experience, to get one. When authors know what they're about, I mean. And having read this book, I trust the author knows what he's about. (That's a big deal, by the way. This whole paragraph was.)
But here is one “negative” thing I do need to say: I had to start this book over. I got to about page thirty or so and put it down, because I knew it was absolutely necessary. Because I knew it was good, that it had the potential of turning out to be a great book, and I had to get my mind right to ignore one particular thing: its need of an edit. I can't tell you how extensively it needs an edit after about page thirty because I spent a day or two turning off my mental editor. It takes me that long, as it's a side effect of being in a peer review writing group. We're not talking about a huge amount of typos, though; we're talking about small technical problems that a lot of average readers wouldn't even notice. Commas where there should be periods leading from short narrative line to dialogue. (That is, treating short narrative lines as dialogue tags when they weren't.) One word that should be two separate words or two words that should have been one. And I did notice some comma splices---more than I should have; because some fit the style, some did not. Almost all were of a sort I might not have noticed before studying writing.
I say this because if you suffer from that kind of personal mental editor like me, you owe it to yourself to turn it off before reading this. And because it's damn noteworthy that I actually started over, instead of just working to turn off that inner obsessive editor as I went.
I'm ridiculously thankful I got to read this and I hope it does get picked up by a traditional publisher that'll promote it like it deserves. I'll buy that version, but I'll always treasure the fact that I got to read this version. I'll always feel like I got in on the ground floor. In any case, and however it comes, I'm definitely buying the sequel.
July 10, 2014
4.5 stars
Billy Erickson's life gets turned upside-down when his absentee father miraculously shows up outside his high school toward the end of his senior year. Missing for close to a decade, Jack Erickson has a lot of explaining to do - but he doesn't remember where he's been or who he is. What he does know for a certainty is that he's being hunted by unknown and dangerous entities who want to kill him, and now Billy and his mom Rachel are caught in the middle. Intimate and moving with the quick physical violence evocative of McCarthy's southwestern Americana, there's carnage on a small scale as the area around the Patriarch Run turns into a battle zone between contending forces who want Jack and what he doesn't know he has. But there's more. As Jack gets peeled away in layers and young Billy is built-up by the experience there emerges a complexity of plotting and an international scope that are reminiscent of le Carre and Ludlum. Patriarch Run manages both the personal and global with near masterful finesse. The sheer desire to know WHY things are happening and why Mexican cartels, Chinese intelligence services and the US government are interested in Jack simply compels you to keep reading.
Accompanying the excellent plotting are wonderful characters that you can't help but invest in. They're broken, imperfect and utterly real - grounded in experiences that the vast majority of us can relate to. Young Billy changing his well-laid plans of serving his country in the military for love, Rachel's struggle to find herself and avoid becoming her mother, Sheriff Regan's struggle with shame and identity in the rough and tumble world of small town politics all touch on elements of the human condition so familiar that you feel the humanity and life in each person Dancer brings to the page. The best thing isn't just the realism though. Savvy readers learn to recognize archetypes and form assumptions fairly quickly in the narrative. Dancer has a way of evolving his characters that force you to recontextualize them and recast their previous actions in the light of new information. It's not done merely for shock value either. There's a corresponding evolution of the scope and importance of the personal life-or-death struggle each character goes through to the life-or-death struggle of nations and of species. There's real philosophy here - thought-provoking (and chilling) ideas that you and the characters are forced to confront together. Life and death choices that are simultaneously (again for lack of a better way of saying it) both intimate and global. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Jack himself, who's as complicated a figure as you're likely to find in contemporary literature. He alternates between Jason Bourne and Thomas Malthus as easily as he does between Captain Woodrow Call and Charles Xavier - you love him and despise him with equal gusto and I loved it.
Patriarch Run is incredibly difficult to set neatly into a single genre. The book description nails it best when it describes the tale as a coming of age story. It is that, in more ways than "simply" a young boy finding his way to adulthood without his father. It becomes the story of how a man redefines his loyalties and principles and how humanity learns to become its own keeper. It's about learning responsibility and about making hard choices and living with the consequences - and it's about these things in a way that is layered and nuanced with subtlety and craft that will keep you pondering not just the philosophical and scientific implications of the plot to our own world, but the metaphorical implications and resonances within our own lives. That's some heavy analysis, but I feel like one of the biggest strengths of Dancer's work here is that the tale he tells addresses all comers. If you're looking for a riveting suspense story, you've got it. I finished Patriarch in damn close to a single-sitting. If you want something with layers to peel apart and ideas to explore well beyond the last page, well, you've got that in Patriarch as well.
All-in-all there's a few really minor kinks (I can be really finicky) that will no doubt be sorted out by Mr. Dancer, but even as it stands it deserves much more attention than it's getting. Do yourself a favor and pick it up! Tell your friends!
**Full disclosure: The author sent me a copy in exchange for a fair review and some honest thoughts. The author gave me the strong impression that his main interest is in telling the best story he can. Help him out and give him some more feedback.
Billy Erickson's life gets turned upside-down when his absentee father miraculously shows up outside his high school toward the end of his senior year. Missing for close to a decade, Jack Erickson has a lot of explaining to do - but he doesn't remember where he's been or who he is. What he does know for a certainty is that he's being hunted by unknown and dangerous entities who want to kill him, and now Billy and his mom Rachel are caught in the middle. Intimate and moving with the quick physical violence evocative of McCarthy's southwestern Americana, there's carnage on a small scale as the area around the Patriarch Run turns into a battle zone between contending forces who want Jack and what he doesn't know he has. But there's more. As Jack gets peeled away in layers and young Billy is built-up by the experience there emerges a complexity of plotting and an international scope that are reminiscent of le Carre and Ludlum. Patriarch Run manages both the personal and global with near masterful finesse. The sheer desire to know WHY things are happening and why Mexican cartels, Chinese intelligence services and the US government are interested in Jack simply compels you to keep reading.
Accompanying the excellent plotting are wonderful characters that you can't help but invest in. They're broken, imperfect and utterly real - grounded in experiences that the vast majority of us can relate to. Young Billy changing his well-laid plans of serving his country in the military for love, Rachel's struggle to find herself and avoid becoming her mother, Sheriff Regan's struggle with shame and identity in the rough and tumble world of small town politics all touch on elements of the human condition so familiar that you feel the humanity and life in each person Dancer brings to the page. The best thing isn't just the realism though. Savvy readers learn to recognize archetypes and form assumptions fairly quickly in the narrative. Dancer has a way of evolving his characters that force you to recontextualize them and recast their previous actions in the light of new information. It's not done merely for shock value either. There's a corresponding evolution of the scope and importance of the personal life-or-death struggle each character goes through to the life-or-death struggle of nations and of species. There's real philosophy here - thought-provoking (and chilling) ideas that you and the characters are forced to confront together. Life and death choices that are simultaneously (again for lack of a better way of saying it) both intimate and global. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Jack himself, who's as complicated a figure as you're likely to find in contemporary literature. He alternates between Jason Bourne and Thomas Malthus as easily as he does between Captain Woodrow Call and Charles Xavier - you love him and despise him with equal gusto and I loved it.
Patriarch Run is incredibly difficult to set neatly into a single genre. The book description nails it best when it describes the tale as a coming of age story. It is that, in more ways than "simply" a young boy finding his way to adulthood without his father. It becomes the story of how a man redefines his loyalties and principles and how humanity learns to become its own keeper. It's about learning responsibility and about making hard choices and living with the consequences - and it's about these things in a way that is layered and nuanced with subtlety and craft that will keep you pondering not just the philosophical and scientific implications of the plot to our own world, but the metaphorical implications and resonances within our own lives. That's some heavy analysis, but I feel like one of the biggest strengths of Dancer's work here is that the tale he tells addresses all comers. If you're looking for a riveting suspense story, you've got it. I finished Patriarch in damn close to a single-sitting. If you want something with layers to peel apart and ideas to explore well beyond the last page, well, you've got that in Patriarch as well.
All-in-all there's a few really minor kinks (I can be really finicky) that will no doubt be sorted out by Mr. Dancer, but even as it stands it deserves much more attention than it's getting. Do yourself a favor and pick it up! Tell your friends!
**Full disclosure: The author sent me a copy in exchange for a fair review and some honest thoughts. The author gave me the strong impression that his main interest is in telling the best story he can. Help him out and give him some more feedback.
August 7, 2014
"Patriarch Run" the latest novel from the pen of Benjamin Dancer explodes with action and intrigue when Jack Erikson, an undercover operative returns home to try and recover the memory he lost after a bomb explosion in Washington. Hunted by government agents, and a Mexican cartel he needs to find the device he stole from the Chinese and hid on his ranch at Patriarch Run. What he doesn't expect is that the wife he abandoned years earlier will be kidnapped, and that his son will be on the run from the men who are tracking him.
With skilful dexterity Benjamin Dancer builds a plot that vibrates with mounting tension and emotional intensity; the roller- coaster ride never stopping as events unfold. Jack Erikson an agent who's disillusioned with the atrocities in the world, with man's inhumanity against man, and the corruption in his own government has stolen a Chinese device whose power could undermine modern technology with apocalyptic repercussions. Only in the aftermath as mankind struggles to survive and the problem of overpopulation has been reduced does he honestly believe that nature will regain some sort of equilibrium. Into an atmosphere overflowing with violence, loss and heartache, this author has even introduced secondary themes about fatherhood, the redemptive healing of love, self-discovery and acceptance. With love Sheriff Dowell finds deliverance from alcoholism, a temper and his womanizing while Rachel after being abandoned by her husband finds freedom from drinking, loneliness and self-recrimination.
The narrative is rich in Jack, Rachel and Billy's memories giving insight into their lives before and after the uncover mission that split their family. The momentum of the plot never stops as events unfold with unexpected twists and turns that keep the reader riveted from beginning to end.
The characters like the plot are well-developed, realistic and complex with all their flaws, faults and strengths. Billy Erikson an athletic high-school student has a disciplined mind and an accurate shot. Influenced by the fatherly encouragement and support of Sheriff Dowell since age nine he still yearns to discover the truth behind his father's desertion. Rachel Erikson robbed of the love she devoted to her husband, drinks to excess, is self-absorbed and lonely until she blossoms under Regan Dowell's encouragement, a healing that brings her self-acceptance and strength. She's tough, resourceful and brave especially when threatened by her kidnappers. Sheriff Dowell is a man of integrity, honest and fair who will fight to protect those he loves. Jack Erikson is a disciplined warrior who possesses self-assurance, authority and deadly skills. Although he desired the love and life he shared with Rachel, he craves the excitement and thrill of active duty, believing he can save some part of humanity. He doesn't recognize the harm he's done to his son and wife until he tries to undo the danger he's put them in. All these characters and more add passion, drama and power to the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Patriarch Run" the work of a master storyteller.
With skilful dexterity Benjamin Dancer builds a plot that vibrates with mounting tension and emotional intensity; the roller- coaster ride never stopping as events unfold. Jack Erikson an agent who's disillusioned with the atrocities in the world, with man's inhumanity against man, and the corruption in his own government has stolen a Chinese device whose power could undermine modern technology with apocalyptic repercussions. Only in the aftermath as mankind struggles to survive and the problem of overpopulation has been reduced does he honestly believe that nature will regain some sort of equilibrium. Into an atmosphere overflowing with violence, loss and heartache, this author has even introduced secondary themes about fatherhood, the redemptive healing of love, self-discovery and acceptance. With love Sheriff Dowell finds deliverance from alcoholism, a temper and his womanizing while Rachel after being abandoned by her husband finds freedom from drinking, loneliness and self-recrimination.
The narrative is rich in Jack, Rachel and Billy's memories giving insight into their lives before and after the uncover mission that split their family. The momentum of the plot never stops as events unfold with unexpected twists and turns that keep the reader riveted from beginning to end.
The characters like the plot are well-developed, realistic and complex with all their flaws, faults and strengths. Billy Erikson an athletic high-school student has a disciplined mind and an accurate shot. Influenced by the fatherly encouragement and support of Sheriff Dowell since age nine he still yearns to discover the truth behind his father's desertion. Rachel Erikson robbed of the love she devoted to her husband, drinks to excess, is self-absorbed and lonely until she blossoms under Regan Dowell's encouragement, a healing that brings her self-acceptance and strength. She's tough, resourceful and brave especially when threatened by her kidnappers. Sheriff Dowell is a man of integrity, honest and fair who will fight to protect those he loves. Jack Erikson is a disciplined warrior who possesses self-assurance, authority and deadly skills. Although he desired the love and life he shared with Rachel, he craves the excitement and thrill of active duty, believing he can save some part of humanity. He doesn't recognize the harm he's done to his son and wife until he tries to undo the danger he's put them in. All these characters and more add passion, drama and power to the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Patriarch Run" the work of a master storyteller.
July 8, 2014
There is way more to this “thriller” than the typical story of cause and affect. Hired guns, save the world we usually find. True, it is extremely fast paced. Sometimes a bit hard to follow which should make the reader pay closer attention but like a bright green ribbon woven throughout the narrative is the study of the natural balance of nature and the earth. Like an environmentalist is crossed with a Jack Reacher type character. Extremely fascinating. It is book that I am sure I will have to read again to really understand it totally but worthy of re-reading. The main characters are strong and created with a good deal of depth.
The gist of the story is a man named Jack who, when we first “meet”him has no idea of who he is or what he is doing. He is obviously some sort of mercenary and he still has all those skills and has no problem remembering that part of his life. He ends up heading for the midwest, somewhere in Arizona maybe. Driven to and unsure why. Turns out he is looking for his wife and son who he had abandoned ten years ago. Its a long time before he figures this fact out. Billy and his mom, Rachael have survived and flourished after Billy’s dad left them. Rachael doesn’t think about him much now. Her interests are with Sheriff Regan now.
A good man and a great father figure to Billy. Billy is soon to grate High School and head to college when his life turned around and his lost father comes back bringing death and destruction . It is hard to tell the good guys from the bad and even some of them are not exactly sure who or what they are chasing.
It seems to be both a what and a who they are trying to collect. Billy’s father has something priceless that several government agencies are trying to get their hands on and they want Jack dead and they are not concerned about collateral damage . Those being anyone they can bring Jack out in the open with. As Jack doesn’t remember much of anything, that doesn’t work so well.
There are just so many levels to this story. I really, really enjoyed it. I also believe in the main theme running through it on that green shiny ribbon I mentioned. “humanity is governed by the same biological laws as the elk…. we are vulnerable to our own appetite.” Too many humans cause an out of balance planet. So this is a book I highly recommend on the many levels you will find layered in it.
May 27, 2014
The story begins with Jack, who finds himself in the midst of a horrible bombing and no memory of who he is or why he’s there. As Jack’s memories slowly and incompletely return to him, he discovers that he is being pursued by two very dangerous groups, but doesn't know why. His instincts lead him to Patriarch Run, the home he deserted years ago and the family that still lives there.
This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that keeps you turning the pages until the very end. The well developed characters and scenes are full of intrigue, love, loss and sacrifice and much, much more. The ending was not only satisfying, but left the reader thinking about the human race and all its complexities.
This book was provided to me for free for an honest and unbiased review.
This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that keeps you turning the pages until the very end. The well developed characters and scenes are full of intrigue, love, loss and sacrifice and much, much more. The ending was not only satisfying, but left the reader thinking about the human race and all its complexities.
This book was provided to me for free for an honest and unbiased review.
July 11, 2014
Book Info
Kindle Edition, 320 pages
Published 2014 by Old Man Press
original title Patriarch Run
ASIN B00J49L77S
edition language English
setting Colorado, 2010 (United States)
other editions (2)
Source:Digital copy from author
Book Buy Links
Amazon
B&N
Billy discovers that his father might be a traitor, that he was deployed to safeguard the United States from a cyberattack on its military networks. After that mission, his father disappeared along with the Chinese technology he was ordered to steal–a weapon powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of the modern age and force the human population into collapse.
Against a backdrop of suspense, the story explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, coming of age and self-acceptance through a set of characters that will leave you changed.
10 years have passed since Billy Erikson’s father Jack left he and his mother Rachel, sent on a mission for the secret government agency that he had walked away from years before Jack never returns home to Patriarch Run in Colorado.
The aftermath of a bombing is a devastating opening, the carnage of burned wreckage, dead bodies and bloody survivors has an immediate impact on the reader setting the stage for what is to come.
Somehow at the site of the bombing Jack manages to survive with only a few bodily injuries, his mental injuries however are much more severe and he is left not knowing how he was involved, why he was there or even who he is.
Driven by instinct he makes his way towards home, fending off with deadly force those who try to stop him and as he travels a few brutal memories of the past haunt him.
As the story flashes back and forth from past to present we learn that in the years since Jack has been gone that his son Billy and wife Rachel have managed to carve a new life for themselves, one that includes the local sheriff as a friendly substitute father figure and a man that Rachel can count on as well as love.
As the different entities that are searching for Jack, and the powerful weapon that if in the wrong hands could bring the world to it’s knees, seek to gain information of his whereabouts from Rachel their son Billy is in turn searching for his mother.
The race is on to see who finds Jack first, his enemies or his remaining friends and the future of humankind rests on stopping him from activating the technological signal that would cause a chain reaction of horrific consequences for mankind.
This story has several powerful messages embedded in it, not the least of which is that sometimes the hardest decisions we make have the best outcomes and that making those decisions means the difference between living a full life or just existing from one day to the next.
Powerful, moving, appalling in the scenario used by the author to explain Jack's actions and for me an adrenaline packed thrill ride from start to finish.
Kindle Edition, 320 pages
Published 2014 by Old Man Press
original title Patriarch Run
ASIN B00J49L77S
edition language English
setting Colorado, 2010 (United States)
other editions (2)
Source:Digital copy from author
Book Buy Links
Amazon
B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Billy discovers that his father might be a traitor, that he was deployed to safeguard the United States from a cyberattack on its military networks. After that mission, his father disappeared along with the Chinese technology he was ordered to steal–a weapon powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of the modern age and force the human population into collapse.
Against a backdrop of suspense, the story explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, coming of age and self-acceptance through a set of characters that will leave you changed.
My Thoughts
10 years have passed since Billy Erikson’s father Jack left he and his mother Rachel, sent on a mission for the secret government agency that he had walked away from years before Jack never returns home to Patriarch Run in Colorado.
The aftermath of a bombing is a devastating opening, the carnage of burned wreckage, dead bodies and bloody survivors has an immediate impact on the reader setting the stage for what is to come.
Somehow at the site of the bombing Jack manages to survive with only a few bodily injuries, his mental injuries however are much more severe and he is left not knowing how he was involved, why he was there or even who he is.
Driven by instinct he makes his way towards home, fending off with deadly force those who try to stop him and as he travels a few brutal memories of the past haunt him.
As the story flashes back and forth from past to present we learn that in the years since Jack has been gone that his son Billy and wife Rachel have managed to carve a new life for themselves, one that includes the local sheriff as a friendly substitute father figure and a man that Rachel can count on as well as love.
As the different entities that are searching for Jack, and the powerful weapon that if in the wrong hands could bring the world to it’s knees, seek to gain information of his whereabouts from Rachel their son Billy is in turn searching for his mother.
The race is on to see who finds Jack first, his enemies or his remaining friends and the future of humankind rests on stopping him from activating the technological signal that would cause a chain reaction of horrific consequences for mankind.
This story has several powerful messages embedded in it, not the least of which is that sometimes the hardest decisions we make have the best outcomes and that making those decisions means the difference between living a full life or just existing from one day to the next.
Powerful, moving, appalling in the scenario used by the author to explain Jack's actions and for me an adrenaline packed thrill ride from start to finish.
[Digital copy from author in exchange for honest review]
October 10, 2016
Authors are often too passionate about the ideas they discuss. It is refreshing to find a writer who does not fall into the trap of first telling us all about the issues, and then putting characters in to show what they mean.
This story ties together a great number of crucial issues: population expansion, the proliferation of espionage activities, the nature of trust, the role of the parent, and the concept of self. But the philosophy does not interfere with the story. Quite the other way around. The story and the characters always come first. The experiences happening to the main character, an average (well, as it turns out, not so average) 17-year-old American kid named Billy, reveal the ideas in an integral way. It is only after action happens that we start questioning why.
The advantage to the reader is that we don't feel led by the nose. The author lays out the evidence, and we are able to respond as we choose.
Personally, I found it ironic that so many of the testimonials at the front of the book were from people in the military fields. My own interpretation, hyper-sensitized as I am to the prevalence of guns and the results of their misuse in America today, is that the casual presence of weapons in the hands of just about everybody, from the home level and all the way up through the military to the espionage system, is the root cause of all the problems in the story. But the characters, all believers in the system, forge blithely on, unaware of the evil deeds they are condoning.
There are no villains in this story. Everyone thinks he's the good guy. Even the Mexican drug cartel gunman is a logical, thinking human being. But when the system is broken, no amount of effort by even those with the best ideals can do anything but make things worse.
The two competing father figures in Billy's life are active players, each trying his utmost to do the right thing for the boy. You can judge for yourself how successful they are. His mother is a more reactive character, as events she cannot control play out around her and on her. And she is the character to watch, because the only solution to such a situation comes on a personal level. Belief in yourself and what you can be is about the only reaction that will allow the individual to survive such times, and the worse ones that are sure to come. Unfortunately, I am left wondering if the self that Billy has come to believe in isn't just a modern version of the good old American pioneer, whose confidence is heavily bolstered by the gun in his hand.
However dismayed I may be by the themes of the novel, I cannot deny how much I enjoyed the story and the people in it. The action scenes were tense and detailed, the characters were diverse and captivating and the flashback technique was handled seamlessly. If the writing style is slightly objective and removed from the emotions of the characters, the intensity of the situations they are placed in creates great empathy for them in a different way.
Highly recommended for the more aware Young Adult reader, and the thoughtful person interested in great writing
This story ties together a great number of crucial issues: population expansion, the proliferation of espionage activities, the nature of trust, the role of the parent, and the concept of self. But the philosophy does not interfere with the story. Quite the other way around. The story and the characters always come first. The experiences happening to the main character, an average (well, as it turns out, not so average) 17-year-old American kid named Billy, reveal the ideas in an integral way. It is only after action happens that we start questioning why.
The advantage to the reader is that we don't feel led by the nose. The author lays out the evidence, and we are able to respond as we choose.
Personally, I found it ironic that so many of the testimonials at the front of the book were from people in the military fields. My own interpretation, hyper-sensitized as I am to the prevalence of guns and the results of their misuse in America today, is that the casual presence of weapons in the hands of just about everybody, from the home level and all the way up through the military to the espionage system, is the root cause of all the problems in the story. But the characters, all believers in the system, forge blithely on, unaware of the evil deeds they are condoning.
There are no villains in this story. Everyone thinks he's the good guy. Even the Mexican drug cartel gunman is a logical, thinking human being. But when the system is broken, no amount of effort by even those with the best ideals can do anything but make things worse.
The two competing father figures in Billy's life are active players, each trying his utmost to do the right thing for the boy. You can judge for yourself how successful they are. His mother is a more reactive character, as events she cannot control play out around her and on her. And she is the character to watch, because the only solution to such a situation comes on a personal level. Belief in yourself and what you can be is about the only reaction that will allow the individual to survive such times, and the worse ones that are sure to come. Unfortunately, I am left wondering if the self that Billy has come to believe in isn't just a modern version of the good old American pioneer, whose confidence is heavily bolstered by the gun in his hand.
However dismayed I may be by the themes of the novel, I cannot deny how much I enjoyed the story and the people in it. The action scenes were tense and detailed, the characters were diverse and captivating and the flashback technique was handled seamlessly. If the writing style is slightly objective and removed from the emotions of the characters, the intensity of the situations they are placed in creates great empathy for them in a different way.
Highly recommended for the more aware Young Adult reader, and the thoughtful person interested in great writing
June 21, 2014
Fatherhood, rites of passage and self-acceptance,
Colorado author Benjamin Dancer has so much going for him that it only seems fair that the reading public absorb him. Movie star handsome, a one of a kind English teacher, and Advisor at Jefferson County Open School where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. If you visit his website his own words offer a better viewpoint of his position in this universe: it is only fair to quote: I'm unbelievably fortunate to be an English teacher at Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado, one of the last high schools in the country where students still love school. I get up around four to work on these stories. Writing is akin to an addiction. I have a passion for foul weather-and I carry a bag on my weekly trips to the library. When the weather's nice, I garden or lie in the grass in the shade of a maple tree. I'm married, and there are three kids climbing on me when I lie in the shade of that tree. I started writing The Father Trilogy (PATRIARCH RUN, IN SIGHT OF THE SUN and FIDELTITY) in 2000. The original impetus was two fold: to create an old man-the type many of us wish we had in our lives-and to further contextualize-as a means of walking through my own grief-the American Genocide. Truth be told, I sometimes fantasize about a continent without fences'. On the non-fiction level Dancer has also published SEXTING AT SCHOOL: A MUST READ FOR MOTHERS OF TEENAGE DAUGHTERS and BOW MAKING IN ENGLISH CLASS: EDUCATION THAT WORKS- his ongoing concerns for assisting young people step into sound adulthood is commendable.
The core of this story is best summarized by the package insert: `Billy discovers that his father might be a traitor, that he was deployed to safeguard the United States from a cyberattack on its military networks. After that mission, his father disappeared along with the Chinese technology he was ordered to steal-a weapon powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of the modern age and force the human population into collapse. PATRIARCH RUN is a thoughtful and character-driven, coming-of-age story. Against a backdrop of suspense, the novel explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, rites of passage and self-acceptance.' But that very brief outline only tantalizes the reader to explore the very strange and very conceivable trail of events that open as the novel develops.
Benjamin Dancer writes with such skill that he would make an editor feel insecure. Yet what makes his wholly credible incredible tale so rich is his magical use of interplay between his characters - time jumps become memory lapses and reconnections, and the power of his book is not only a fine story but also an homage to fatherhood and the importance of role models hose well spent lives offer guidance by example. This is an achingly beautiful book by an author of considerable talent and substance - a young man on the brink of wide acclaim. Highly recommended reading.
Colorado author Benjamin Dancer has so much going for him that it only seems fair that the reading public absorb him. Movie star handsome, a one of a kind English teacher, and Advisor at Jefferson County Open School where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. If you visit his website his own words offer a better viewpoint of his position in this universe: it is only fair to quote: I'm unbelievably fortunate to be an English teacher at Jefferson County Open School in Lakewood, Colorado, one of the last high schools in the country where students still love school. I get up around four to work on these stories. Writing is akin to an addiction. I have a passion for foul weather-and I carry a bag on my weekly trips to the library. When the weather's nice, I garden or lie in the grass in the shade of a maple tree. I'm married, and there are three kids climbing on me when I lie in the shade of that tree. I started writing The Father Trilogy (PATRIARCH RUN, IN SIGHT OF THE SUN and FIDELTITY) in 2000. The original impetus was two fold: to create an old man-the type many of us wish we had in our lives-and to further contextualize-as a means of walking through my own grief-the American Genocide. Truth be told, I sometimes fantasize about a continent without fences'. On the non-fiction level Dancer has also published SEXTING AT SCHOOL: A MUST READ FOR MOTHERS OF TEENAGE DAUGHTERS and BOW MAKING IN ENGLISH CLASS: EDUCATION THAT WORKS- his ongoing concerns for assisting young people step into sound adulthood is commendable.
The core of this story is best summarized by the package insert: `Billy discovers that his father might be a traitor, that he was deployed to safeguard the United States from a cyberattack on its military networks. After that mission, his father disappeared along with the Chinese technology he was ordered to steal-a weapon powerful enough to sabotage the digital infrastructure of the modern age and force the human population into collapse. PATRIARCH RUN is a thoughtful and character-driven, coming-of-age story. Against a backdrop of suspense, the novel explores the archetypal themes of fatherhood, rites of passage and self-acceptance.' But that very brief outline only tantalizes the reader to explore the very strange and very conceivable trail of events that open as the novel develops.
Benjamin Dancer writes with such skill that he would make an editor feel insecure. Yet what makes his wholly credible incredible tale so rich is his magical use of interplay between his characters - time jumps become memory lapses and reconnections, and the power of his book is not only a fine story but also an homage to fatherhood and the importance of role models hose well spent lives offer guidance by example. This is an achingly beautiful book by an author of considerable talent and substance - a young man on the brink of wide acclaim. Highly recommended reading.
July 17, 2014
It seems like I’ve been reading more thrillers recently than ever before. “Patriarch Run” by Benjamin Dancer is just that: thrilling. It doesn’t have the highly polished, by-the-numbers style of a run of the mill thriller novel. This is something a little different.
Billy is about to graduate from high school. His mom, Rachel, has been raising him alone because his father, Jack, is a former government agent on the run from everyone since he absconded with a dangerous piece of Chinese technology he was sent to appropriate. Suddenly and violently, Jack has resurfaced with amnesia and finds himself back home. This puts Billy and Rachel in imminent danger from all sides, but when the stolen tech is so dangerous that it could spell doom for all civilization, what is the value of a single family by comparison?
“Patriarch Run” has rich and engaging characters, from the main players down to the older woman who picks up a hitchhiking Billy. We get a great sense of who Billy and Rachel are. Jack continues to be enigmatic through the end, but his story is told to us in a completely different manner. The setting and size of the story is excellent and is one I wouldn’t normally associate with a thriller: the mountainous countryside (of Colorado, I believe) with winter descending.
There are just a couple minor issues I had with the book. First, Billy seemed too adult to me, too knowledgeable, too cool under fire, too level-headed. For a story about a fathers and sons, I felt Billy was too mature as a character to need closure from his biological father. And second, when Jack got his complete memory back, the exposition provided in flashbacks was almost overwhelming and too close to the end. And I’m torn on this one because the back story and bombshell revelation come in the right place, but despite giving significant insight into Jack’s motivations and being an intriguing turn, it dragged the pace of the novel a bit when it was going full tilt.
Dancer’s writing is something special. The way he weaves the bigger picture stuff, the global intrigue of the stolen Chinese device and its potential ramifications, with the heartfelt family dynamic reminds me a bit of how Don DeLillo did something similar in “White Noise.” Having big picture events and daily minutia play with and off each other is certainly nothing new, but the ability to present it in a fresh and interesting way is something to take note of. As is this book: take note of “Patriarch Run” and Benjamin Dancer.
Billy is about to graduate from high school. His mom, Rachel, has been raising him alone because his father, Jack, is a former government agent on the run from everyone since he absconded with a dangerous piece of Chinese technology he was sent to appropriate. Suddenly and violently, Jack has resurfaced with amnesia and finds himself back home. This puts Billy and Rachel in imminent danger from all sides, but when the stolen tech is so dangerous that it could spell doom for all civilization, what is the value of a single family by comparison?
“Patriarch Run” has rich and engaging characters, from the main players down to the older woman who picks up a hitchhiking Billy. We get a great sense of who Billy and Rachel are. Jack continues to be enigmatic through the end, but his story is told to us in a completely different manner. The setting and size of the story is excellent and is one I wouldn’t normally associate with a thriller: the mountainous countryside (of Colorado, I believe) with winter descending.
There are just a couple minor issues I had with the book. First, Billy seemed too adult to me, too knowledgeable, too cool under fire, too level-headed. For a story about a fathers and sons, I felt Billy was too mature as a character to need closure from his biological father. And second, when Jack got his complete memory back, the exposition provided in flashbacks was almost overwhelming and too close to the end. And I’m torn on this one because the back story and bombshell revelation come in the right place, but despite giving significant insight into Jack’s motivations and being an intriguing turn, it dragged the pace of the novel a bit when it was going full tilt.
Dancer’s writing is something special. The way he weaves the bigger picture stuff, the global intrigue of the stolen Chinese device and its potential ramifications, with the heartfelt family dynamic reminds me a bit of how Don DeLillo did something similar in “White Noise.” Having big picture events and daily minutia play with and off each other is certainly nothing new, but the ability to present it in a fresh and interesting way is something to take note of. As is this book: take note of “Patriarch Run” and Benjamin Dancer.
July 16, 2014
‘No amount of precaution can alter the fact that life is precarious. When the inevitable happens, you can accept the damage or look for someone to blame.’
The novel opens at the scene of a bombing, where a man bereft of memory is trying to escape. We then move to West Texas where a boy named Billy is looking for his family’s herd of bison. We learn the connections between these people: between Billy and his mother Rachel, and Jack who, with little memory of his past, manages to elude capture from those seeking him.
But why is Jack being sought? What has he done? And why is he drawn back to Rachel and Billy (his wife and son) whom he abandoned years earlier?
It’s the unfolding of the story that provides us with the answers to these questions. Jack is being hunted because he has stolen a device from the Chinese at the behest of the United States government, and this device has the capacity to destroy the world. Does Jack want to use it, or does he want to prevent it from being used?
‘Eighty years ago you couldn’t have brought about the end of the world by simply turning out the lights. You’re right about that. But times have changed.’
This is a beautifully written and moving story. Each of the three main characters – Billy, Jack and Rachel is three dimensional, and we discover with each of them what is happening and its impact on them. Each is heroic. Each chooses (or will choose) a course of action that is difficult. They are united, these three, by a love of country and nature and by a sense of obligation towards the future. They are divided by what they perceive as the best course of action. As a reader, with no knowledge initially of where the story was going and how it might end, I could not stop reading. As pieces of information became available, to increase my understanding of what was happening, I wondered about alternatives – and could not stop reading. And, because I���m sure I’ve more to glean, I think I’ll be rereading.
‘I realize that it is difficult to imagine a reality more threatening than the one I am now presenting.’
Note: I was offered, and accepted, a copy of this novel for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The novel opens at the scene of a bombing, where a man bereft of memory is trying to escape. We then move to West Texas where a boy named Billy is looking for his family’s herd of bison. We learn the connections between these people: between Billy and his mother Rachel, and Jack who, with little memory of his past, manages to elude capture from those seeking him.
But why is Jack being sought? What has he done? And why is he drawn back to Rachel and Billy (his wife and son) whom he abandoned years earlier?
It’s the unfolding of the story that provides us with the answers to these questions. Jack is being hunted because he has stolen a device from the Chinese at the behest of the United States government, and this device has the capacity to destroy the world. Does Jack want to use it, or does he want to prevent it from being used?
‘Eighty years ago you couldn’t have brought about the end of the world by simply turning out the lights. You’re right about that. But times have changed.’
This is a beautifully written and moving story. Each of the three main characters – Billy, Jack and Rachel is three dimensional, and we discover with each of them what is happening and its impact on them. Each is heroic. Each chooses (or will choose) a course of action that is difficult. They are united, these three, by a love of country and nature and by a sense of obligation towards the future. They are divided by what they perceive as the best course of action. As a reader, with no knowledge initially of where the story was going and how it might end, I could not stop reading. As pieces of information became available, to increase my understanding of what was happening, I wondered about alternatives – and could not stop reading. And, because I���m sure I’ve more to glean, I think I’ll be rereading.
‘I realize that it is difficult to imagine a reality more threatening than the one I am now presenting.’
Note: I was offered, and accepted, a copy of this novel for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
October 27, 2014
Superb, Fast-Paced Character-Driven Technological Thriller
Much to his credit, Benjamin Dancer's "Patriarch Run" is a fast-paced contemporary "New West" thriller that incorporates enough futuristic elements to be viewed as borderline science fiction, replete with the writer's vivid, cinema-like, prose. Dancer's writing and storytelling skills are so good that I am amazed that his novel was not represented successfully by a literary agent to a noted American publisher. He offers readers a tale that is just more than a thriller involving rapid car chases and gun battles; it is a compelling fictional study of characters, starting with an older adolescent, Billy, who comes face to face with some dire decisions and their consequences made years before by his long absent father. A father who stole military technological secrets from the Chinese as an American espionage agent, who may have betrayed his country as an act of revenge, possessing a Chinese cybernetics weapon that could destroy America's digital infrastructure and causing not only a rapid collapse of Western civilization, but also the deaths of countless millions. Billy and his mother must flee from murderous Chinese and American espionage agents and contend with Mexican drug dealers, as they find themselves faced with a mysterious ghost from their past; Billy's enigmatic father, who returns, literally, in the aftermath of a hail of bullets, uncertain of his true identity. While there is much to commend in Dancer's riveting thriller, readers who are acquainted with cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk speculative fiction, may agree with me that more could have been said regarding the secret Chinese cybernetic weapon that could destroy civilization and lead to the deaths of countless millions. But this is merely the sole notable weakness in what is a gripping, quite memorable, tale set almost exclusively in rural, almost wild, Colorado, that is compelling not least because of the ample flaws present in each of its main characters.
Much to his credit, Benjamin Dancer's "Patriarch Run" is a fast-paced contemporary "New West" thriller that incorporates enough futuristic elements to be viewed as borderline science fiction, replete with the writer's vivid, cinema-like, prose. Dancer's writing and storytelling skills are so good that I am amazed that his novel was not represented successfully by a literary agent to a noted American publisher. He offers readers a tale that is just more than a thriller involving rapid car chases and gun battles; it is a compelling fictional study of characters, starting with an older adolescent, Billy, who comes face to face with some dire decisions and their consequences made years before by his long absent father. A father who stole military technological secrets from the Chinese as an American espionage agent, who may have betrayed his country as an act of revenge, possessing a Chinese cybernetics weapon that could destroy America's digital infrastructure and causing not only a rapid collapse of Western civilization, but also the deaths of countless millions. Billy and his mother must flee from murderous Chinese and American espionage agents and contend with Mexican drug dealers, as they find themselves faced with a mysterious ghost from their past; Billy's enigmatic father, who returns, literally, in the aftermath of a hail of bullets, uncertain of his true identity. While there is much to commend in Dancer's riveting thriller, readers who are acquainted with cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk speculative fiction, may agree with me that more could have been said regarding the secret Chinese cybernetic weapon that could destroy civilization and lead to the deaths of countless millions. But this is merely the sole notable weakness in what is a gripping, quite memorable, tale set almost exclusively in rural, almost wild, Colorado, that is compelling not least because of the ample flaws present in each of its main characters.
August 24, 2014
This was a very fast-paced novel that kept me turning "pages" (available via Kindle only, so no actual turning going on). I'm a bit out of my league with this review - I don't have a lot of exposure to thrillers and I don't have a lot of experience with the Kindle-only-$1-a-book collection - so I don't have a lot to compare it to. But I know what I like, and I did enjoy this.
I liked the story because it's very character-driven; about half of the story is told through flashbacks from one or two perspectives. The characters are distinct, three dimensional, and are interesting.
One of the main characters has an ax to grind on a global scale, and you have to wonder if he's crazy or very sane. I vacillated back and forth on that a few times. Great character, well written. Another character is a 19-year-old who surprises himself (and me) with being a fantastic marksman even with the threat of death over his head. He's a week away from high school graduation. Also, it's deep winter enough for there to be a major blizzard going on for the last third of the story. It may be east coast bias on my part (where 19-year-olds aren't in high school and people graduate in the spring), but the incongruity in those details were distracting to me. Also, there were a few misspellings that distracted me, and I *will* chalk that up to me just being nit-picky ol' me.
In all, this was a fun book to read.
Favorite quote from the book: "Caution itself can erode a culture. Once people start believing they can be safe, they start to believe they should be safe."
*********UPDATE********
Benjamin Dancer got in touch with me to thank me for my review. Turns out, dramatic snow storms are normal in Colorado in the Spring - which is now pointed out to future readers. And he corrected the misspelling I remembered (hooray for technology!). I feel so part of the literary process!
I liked the story because it's very character-driven; about half of the story is told through flashbacks from one or two perspectives. The characters are distinct, three dimensional, and are interesting.
One of the main characters has an ax to grind on a global scale, and you have to wonder if he's crazy or very sane. I vacillated back and forth on that a few times. Great character, well written. Another character is a 19-year-old who surprises himself (and me) with being a fantastic marksman even with the threat of death over his head. He's a week away from high school graduation. Also, it's deep winter enough for there to be a major blizzard going on for the last third of the story. It may be east coast bias on my part (where 19-year-olds aren't in high school and people graduate in the spring), but the incongruity in those details were distracting to me. Also, there were a few misspellings that distracted me, and I *will* chalk that up to me just being nit-picky ol' me.
In all, this was a fun book to read.
Favorite quote from the book: "Caution itself can erode a culture. Once people start believing they can be safe, they start to believe they should be safe."
*********UPDATE********
Benjamin Dancer got in touch with me to thank me for my review. Turns out, dramatic snow storms are normal in Colorado in the Spring - which is now pointed out to future readers. And he corrected the misspelling I remembered (hooray for technology!). I feel so part of the literary process!
June 28, 2016
Jack is under attack and so is his estranged family. Rachel, his wife is kidnapped. Billy, his son is part of a shoot out. All of this is because of something Jack has done in the past. He just cannot remember what it is.
Jack has a magnetism which draws the reader in. He is damaged yet, he is strong and protective. He could be a “new book boyfriend”. I love the strong silent type. I love the way he and Rachel interact, before AND after he loses his memory. Rachel is a tough lady and when Jack busts back into her life, she becomes almost vicious. This is her strength coming out to protect her son and herself.
It is choppy in places. However, I feel this is by design. It creates a way for the reader to experience Jack’s amnesia, makes it extremely real life.
This story has so many levels it is hard to realize what is going on till the end. I thought I had it figured out when it shifted on me. The betrayal, the espionage and the action never stop. I was a little disappointed in the ending. The tale could have ended a little differently. Oh well, I will live with it and move on!
This is a good shoot’em up, car chasing, espionage, fast paced thriller which never slows down. This would make a fabulous action/adventure film.
This novel is set for release in October. Place this on preorder status!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
Jack has a magnetism which draws the reader in. He is damaged yet, he is strong and protective. He could be a “new book boyfriend”. I love the strong silent type. I love the way he and Rachel interact, before AND after he loses his memory. Rachel is a tough lady and when Jack busts back into her life, she becomes almost vicious. This is her strength coming out to protect her son and herself.
It is choppy in places. However, I feel this is by design. It creates a way for the reader to experience Jack’s amnesia, makes it extremely real life.
This story has so many levels it is hard to realize what is going on till the end. I thought I had it figured out when it shifted on me. The betrayal, the espionage and the action never stop. I was a little disappointed in the ending. The tale could have ended a little differently. Oh well, I will live with it and move on!
This is a good shoot’em up, car chasing, espionage, fast paced thriller which never slows down. This would make a fabulous action/adventure film.
This novel is set for release in October. Place this on preorder status!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
July 8, 2014
“…reality does not depend on our acknowledgement of it; it won’t deactivate its consequences because we do not recognize them.” Benjamin Dancer, Patriarch Run
Benjamin Dancer writes in a manner that plants a hook in the mind of the reader. Like a skilled fisherman he will allow the imagination to start up this path or that before guiding the reader back to the line that he has designed, and then reels that line in gently to make the reader want to follow. His style can be disjointed at times – or seem disjointed until the story unfolds to reveal the bridge that will join the scattered bits to become a single storyline. Patriarch Run, not unlike some others that will come to mind, is a title that is multi-dimensional in its relationship to the story. As each unfolds, the link between title and story will be anywhere between the obvious and the gentle hint of butter folded slowly into a biscuit as the batter is eased onto the pan. As a reader, you should be familiar with both of these – the “of course” that makes you think that you have plumbed the complete meaning and the “wait” that makes you mark your place and turn back a few pages to re-read a passage. You may even discover more links the morning after you think you have finished. Enjoy
Benjamin Dancer writes in a manner that plants a hook in the mind of the reader. Like a skilled fisherman he will allow the imagination to start up this path or that before guiding the reader back to the line that he has designed, and then reels that line in gently to make the reader want to follow. His style can be disjointed at times – or seem disjointed until the story unfolds to reveal the bridge that will join the scattered bits to become a single storyline. Patriarch Run, not unlike some others that will come to mind, is a title that is multi-dimensional in its relationship to the story. As each unfolds, the link between title and story will be anywhere between the obvious and the gentle hint of butter folded slowly into a biscuit as the batter is eased onto the pan. As a reader, you should be familiar with both of these – the “of course” that makes you think that you have plumbed the complete meaning and the “wait” that makes you mark your place and turn back a few pages to re-read a passage. You may even discover more links the morning after you think you have finished. Enjoy
August 10, 2014
Many reviewers have summed up the plot and sub plots in this book and probably better than I could. So, I will skip that part. Benjamin Dancer has crafted a taut thriller with not so subtle undertones of misery, poverty, hunger on global stages, and abandonment, coming of age and courage on the smaller stage of the Patriarch Run setting. In the main, the prose is spare and masterfully written. At times, it seems the author has lost his sparse, crystal clear voice and lapsed into a more conventional style of narrative. This is very subtle and does not detract from the overall quality of this work. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Read it in two days and found it to be captivating, fast paced yet very thoughtful in the philosophical passages. The scene between Malcolm, the disenchanted journalism student and Jack, the OGA operative biological father, in Somalia was beautifully crafted, well thought out and inserted perfectly into the story line. Almost worth reading the whole book for this and a few other asides that develop Jack's character.
Thank you Benjamin. Do more good work like this!
Thank you Benjamin. Do more good work like this!
May 10, 2014
The clipped, lightning fast tone of this tale reads more like a screenplay than your typical meandering literary fiction, at least in the beginning. That’s not a bad thing though. There’s still incredible depth to the characters. It’s refreshing to see an action tale that’s not afraid to tackle big emotional themes like PTSD, the morality of conflict and broken families. Brings more realism to the book.
Don’t expect to figure this story out ahead of time. Just enjoy the ride. The twists, sometimes dark, are completely unexpected. Been a while since I read an ending that I didn’t see coming! The only weakness, in my opinion, were the deep introspective moments during action sequences near the end. The climax seemed somewhat diluted.
Still, a fun, well-polished tale with more depth than I expected. Definitely worth the read.
As is standard practice in this industry, I received a free review copy.
Don’t expect to figure this story out ahead of time. Just enjoy the ride. The twists, sometimes dark, are completely unexpected. Been a while since I read an ending that I didn’t see coming! The only weakness, in my opinion, were the deep introspective moments during action sequences near the end. The climax seemed somewhat diluted.
Still, a fun, well-polished tale with more depth than I expected. Definitely worth the read.
As is standard practice in this industry, I received a free review copy.
September 16, 2014
I'd read other reviews of this book suggesting, because the protagonist has amnesia, that it's like Robert Ludlum's Bourne series. It's not. Having read Jess Walter's The Zero, in which the protagonist also has amnesia, I suspected it might be like that. It's not.
Benjamin Dancer's novel is a singular work, all of its characters as troubled in their own ways as the protagonist, all of its plot lines as deft and knowing as pure experience. I was swept away before I even realized it. And I found myself wondering, page after page, how Dancer could know what he knows, see what he sees, make us feel what we feel. Even as his characters are distinctly different, they share the profound disorientation of contemporary life. There is no peace without predictability. There is no predictability without order. And there is no order in a world that changes so profoundly, so quickly, so horribly, and so absolutely.
Read this book. You'll be better off. But you'll never be the same.
Benjamin Dancer's novel is a singular work, all of its characters as troubled in their own ways as the protagonist, all of its plot lines as deft and knowing as pure experience. I was swept away before I even realized it. And I found myself wondering, page after page, how Dancer could know what he knows, see what he sees, make us feel what we feel. Even as his characters are distinctly different, they share the profound disorientation of contemporary life. There is no peace without predictability. There is no predictability without order. And there is no order in a world that changes so profoundly, so quickly, so horribly, and so absolutely.
Read this book. You'll be better off. But you'll never be the same.
January 2, 2015
Closer to Ayn Rand in providing a philosophical masterpiece couched in a Robert Ludlum style adventure, Benjamin Dancer has crafted an excellent story.The style of the story itself is akin to good science fiction, demanding that the reader accept and even flesh out the environment around the story.
Mr. Dancer is an expert at drawing out every bit of the background. One feels the cold and can almost hear the crunch of snow underfoot. This is a story that runs the gamut from outdoor survival to high level technology, yet keeps the reader engaged.
The characters, with few exceptions, feel real. Their struggles are compelling and the ending begs for a sequel. The overall theme, which I will leave for your discovery definitely compels further consideration. Well done!!
I highly recommend this book!
(A digital copy of the book was provided by the author with the request for an honest review)
All the best,
Jay
Mr. Dancer is an expert at drawing out every bit of the background. One feels the cold and can almost hear the crunch of snow underfoot. This is a story that runs the gamut from outdoor survival to high level technology, yet keeps the reader engaged.
The characters, with few exceptions, feel real. Their struggles are compelling and the ending begs for a sequel. The overall theme, which I will leave for your discovery definitely compels further consideration. Well done!!
I highly recommend this book!
(A digital copy of the book was provided by the author with the request for an honest review)
All the best,
Jay
April 26, 2014
Bravo! I’ve always been a fan of Benjamin Dancer’s prose—lean yet lush, detailed yet discerning, with characters that breathe from the first pages--but his new book, Patriarch Run, called a “literary thriller” combines the prose and depth of character that I’ve come to expect from Dancer with honest to god high-energy page-turning tension of a classic thriller! So few authors can straddle masterfully straddle two genres (think Ray Bradbury, Cormac McCarthy) but Dancer pulls it off—with one leg in the literary and one leg in the action, we take a ride that feeds our intellect while it’s pumping our adrenaline.
April 28, 2014
Jack Bauer is Back
A Man wakes up. Dust and darkness around him. Probably an accident, probably blast. He does not remember anything but hear voices and people talking to him and about him. He remembers his name, His name is Jack. With agents of foreign countries he is getting away and chase after his past. He tries to understand his destiny. Is he one of the good guys? Or maybe he is "one of the bad's" The script is written in a very highenergy page and tension that each page the reader "meets" new questions about Jack and his adventures.
The writer made a well writing that provides us a great thriller to read.
Highly recommend.
A Man wakes up. Dust and darkness around him. Probably an accident, probably blast. He does not remember anything but hear voices and people talking to him and about him. He remembers his name, His name is Jack. With agents of foreign countries he is getting away and chase after his past. He tries to understand his destiny. Is he one of the good guys? Or maybe he is "one of the bad's" The script is written in a very highenergy page and tension that each page the reader "meets" new questions about Jack and his adventures.
The writer made a well writing that provides us a great thriller to read.
Highly recommend.
September 7, 2014
For the sake of full disclosure, I read this book after I was contacted by the author and asked for my honest opinion. With that out in the open, I feel very comfortable saying that this book far exceeded my expectations. It feels like a mix of the aspects of fatherhood in The Road and the action/espionage of the Bourne Identity series. Very well written with an engrossing story that keeps you vested until the very end. Can honestly strongly recommend giving this book a shot, you will not regret it.
March 3, 2015
A thriller with heart. This one not only had a page turning plot, the author was also able to give his characters a depth that made you buy-in to what was happening to them. Definitely worth the read.
January 4, 2017
I struggled with this thriller at first. Typically I don't read much of this sort of thing any more. I went through an Andy McNab-Robert Ludlum etc phase years ago and got a bit bored with the cliché, shallow stories and acronyms. It all felt a bit too cheesy. The first thing that really struck me and initially put me off Patriarch Run was the intense pace with which the author gallops through the action. And unfortunately in doing so often stumbles over himself. Descriptions are spared, characters are thrown into the fray with no introduction, and dialogue leaps in so it can be tricky to figure out who exactly is talking.
There's also quite a lot of inconsistency in pace. The first few chapters (they seem like chapters in the ePub version, although not labeled so) attempt to be so intensely fast in order to throw you into the action, that a lot is overlooked and needs filling in later. But then for no real reason everything slows right down and we're fed a bunch of really mundane details. You go from:
I mean how much info is packed in there? So much you can read into. A snapshot of family history and the dates give context as to her current age.
Then a page later this tepid mound gets thrown down:
And it goes on, I'm not kidding. What was wrong with 'she prepared dinner'?!
So I felt a little bit lost for the first 50 pages or so, and was worried that if the rest of the book continued in this way I'd probably have to ditch it.
Throughout there were little hiccups. The sort of thing that another couple of proof reads might have ironed out. As such it all felt a bit rough around the edges, unpolished. Words too often repeated (in an early chapter, the verb 'glass' is used about 15 times in less than 1000 words. And acronyms (OGA, SCALA etc) are never explained. Tom Clancy would like a word! And time was a bit skewed. This had to be compensated for when the characters pick up a newspaper or turn up in a situation that explains how much time has passed. This felt a bit lazy.
OK let's put the negatives aside. Because on that basis we'd be looking at around 2 stars. But after I hit the halfway mark, the score was creeping up. The writing felt better, the characters more well formed, the action scenes were tense and heated. After around 150 words it starts to flow better, and I found it very engaging. The extremely short 'chapters' and the flicking between several viewpoints and entire time shifts were uncomfortable at first, but I quickly realised how well they contributed to the pace of the story—you never got bogged down in one scenario, but really felt like everything was happening in parallel. And it was very fulfilling.
What is Patriarch Run ultimately about? So many things. The relationship between a natural or surrogate father and son, abandonment, the role of a woman and overcoming a lack of personal self-esteem, the starvation and brutality of mankind, genocide and the jingoism that masks it, the disruption of natural ecological systems by humans, the flawed foreign policies of the USA and the clumsy mishaps of her self defence organisations, the hardships of Mexican immigration and ethnographic displacement... I mean there is a surprising array of topics covered in a relatively short book which on the surface reads a bit like the Bourne Identity set in the Wild West (yeah, pretty cool right?).
I would personally, and I mean this with no discredit to the author, consider this an 'airport read'. It was a visceral experience, and played out like an episode of 24 meets Red Dead Redemption in my head, which was thrilling. But I wouldn't consider it a literary masterpiece of any sort. There are messages in there, important messages, from the interpersonal relationships between family groups all the way up to the potential future of mankind. There are critiques of political structures, and US foreign policy, which align themselves very much with my own thoughts. But I felt the way these subjects were brought to light, typically through the various vignettes of Jack's clouded history, jarred with the narrative flow of the main story, and felt quite forced and unnatural in order to construct the mindset he eventually found himself in.
But overall, once I whizzed through the first quarter of the book and started piecing everything together, I was hooked. In fact I completed it in 3 sittings, and each time was looking forward to the next read. It's a real page turner with a nice balance of action, philosophy, ethics and social commentary. There are plenty of holes I can pick in it, some of which I've weeded out above, but ultimately I really, really enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: I was gifted the ePub to read and review by the author. I appreciate this gesture and have above provided a completely honest and unbiased (besides my opinion) review that I hope will at least inform and perhaps encourage future inquisitive readers whether this novel is for them.
There's also quite a lot of inconsistency in pace. The first few chapters (they seem like chapters in the ePub version, although not labeled so) attempt to be so intensely fast in order to throw you into the action, that a lot is overlooked and needs filling in later. But then for no real reason everything slows right down and we're fed a bunch of really mundane details. You go from:
Rachel was eight years old when her father was routed from the house by a fusillade of words. She hadn't had time to unwrap her present: a wooden doll house, empty and about as tall as she was in 1975.
I mean how much info is packed in there? So much you can read into. A snapshot of family history and the dates give context as to her current age.
Then a page later this tepid mound gets thrown down:
She poured the beans she had been soaking into the colander, rinsed the beans, poured them back in the stockpot then filled the pot with cold water. She struck a match, lit two gas burners and set the beans on the nearest of the two. She partially filled a sauce pan with water, lidded it and set it over the other flame. She took a square baking pan and two glass mixing bowls from the oak cabinet. She pulled corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt from the pantry. Then she stacked the mixing bowls inside the baking pan and arrayed the ingredients on the granite countertop.
And it goes on, I'm not kidding. What was wrong with 'she prepared dinner'?!
So I felt a little bit lost for the first 50 pages or so, and was worried that if the rest of the book continued in this way I'd probably have to ditch it.
Throughout there were little hiccups. The sort of thing that another couple of proof reads might have ironed out. As such it all felt a bit rough around the edges, unpolished. Words too often repeated (in an early chapter, the verb 'glass' is used about 15 times in less than 1000 words. And acronyms (OGA, SCALA etc) are never explained. Tom Clancy would like a word! And time was a bit skewed. This had to be compensated for when the characters pick up a newspaper or turn up in a situation that explains how much time has passed. This felt a bit lazy.
OK let's put the negatives aside. Because on that basis we'd be looking at around 2 stars. But after I hit the halfway mark, the score was creeping up. The writing felt better, the characters more well formed, the action scenes were tense and heated. After around 150 words it starts to flow better, and I found it very engaging. The extremely short 'chapters' and the flicking between several viewpoints and entire time shifts were uncomfortable at first, but I quickly realised how well they contributed to the pace of the story—you never got bogged down in one scenario, but really felt like everything was happening in parallel. And it was very fulfilling.
What is Patriarch Run ultimately about? So many things. The relationship between a natural or surrogate father and son, abandonment, the role of a woman and overcoming a lack of personal self-esteem, the starvation and brutality of mankind, genocide and the jingoism that masks it, the disruption of natural ecological systems by humans, the flawed foreign policies of the USA and the clumsy mishaps of her self defence organisations, the hardships of Mexican immigration and ethnographic displacement... I mean there is a surprising array of topics covered in a relatively short book which on the surface reads a bit like the Bourne Identity set in the Wild West (yeah, pretty cool right?).
I would personally, and I mean this with no discredit to the author, consider this an 'airport read'. It was a visceral experience, and played out like an episode of 24 meets Red Dead Redemption in my head, which was thrilling. But I wouldn't consider it a literary masterpiece of any sort. There are messages in there, important messages, from the interpersonal relationships between family groups all the way up to the potential future of mankind. There are critiques of political structures, and US foreign policy, which align themselves very much with my own thoughts. But I felt the way these subjects were brought to light, typically through the various vignettes of Jack's clouded history, jarred with the narrative flow of the main story, and felt quite forced and unnatural in order to construct the mindset he eventually found himself in.
But overall, once I whizzed through the first quarter of the book and started piecing everything together, I was hooked. In fact I completed it in 3 sittings, and each time was looking forward to the next read. It's a real page turner with a nice balance of action, philosophy, ethics and social commentary. There are plenty of holes I can pick in it, some of which I've weeded out above, but ultimately I really, really enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: I was gifted the ePub to read and review by the author. I appreciate this gesture and have above provided a completely honest and unbiased (besides my opinion) review that I hope will at least inform and perhaps encourage future inquisitive readers whether this novel is for them.
February 14, 2021
I enjoyed this book. The story was interesting and kept my attention. The characters were well developed and likable. The only part the I had a problem with was how it skipped around from past to present and sometimes it was hard to follow. Overall I enjoyed the story and would recommend it to others
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway, I apologize that it took so long to get it read.
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway, I apologize that it took so long to get it read.
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