বই লাভার'স পোলাপান (Boi lover's polapan) discussion

আজকে প্যাট্রিক লী'র রানার পড়ে শেষ করলাম। অসাধারণ একটা শ্বাসরুদ্ধকর সাসপেন্স একশন থ্রিলার, সাথে কিছু রিয়েলিস্টিক সাইফাই টুইস্ট। ৫ এ ৫ দেয়ার মত। এ-ক্লাস। গুডরিডসের পেজে একটা রিভিউ লিখেছি সেটাই কপি করে দিলামঃ

Book name: Runner
Author name: Patrick Lee
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Sci-Fi, Action
review link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Another surefire winner from the new master of high-concept suspense thrillers Patrick Lee. I picked up this book to immerse myself in a quick-read nonstop action thriller for a few days, and Lee didn't disappoint. I guess that's an understatement, not only did Lee didn't disappoint, he crossed my expectations in leaps and bounds.

The initial plot sounded simple enough. Sam Dryden was an ex-soldier and some ex-deep black if-I-tell-you-I-have-to-kill-you stuff who lost his wife and daughter in an accident and since then was almost a living dead person. One night in an insomniac feat, he went on a midnight run on boardwalk beside the beach, and suddenly got himself collided with a twelve year old little girl who was running for her life. Some bad people were after her and wanted to kill her. They kept her locked inside a facility. She did't know why, her memory was lost. She couldn't remember any thing beside her name: Rachel. In that instant, for the first time in so many years, Sam got someone to care for, to help. Of course he's going to help her. And so began a breathless, edge of seat, thrill-a-minute chase novel that would keep the reader glued to the words and the pages would almost go flyby themselves. But that's only half the story. I know what many readers are thinking right now (even while I was enjoying it greatly, I admit I was thinking the same thing), sure it is suspenseful, but still its nothing new. A dark, brooding lone hero who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to save an innocent kid from some despicable psycho killers? Its predictable, it happened many times before in various novels and movies. Yeah, not so much. One thing Patrick Lee's novels are not, that is being predictable. He has an amazing knack for starting a novel with a seemingly ordinary plot and then completely turn it's head on itself to make it anything but ordinary or normal. This one is no exception. For about the first half of the book, the story is essentially one chase sequence after another where the bad guys kept tracking the duo with ultramodern satellite techs and Dryden kept invading them with increasingly ingenious ways. Run, run, run! While they were running, both of them tried to delve deeper into the forgotten realms of Rachel's memories to make a sense of everything, and this is where the plot took some wild turns to set itself apart from other conventional chase thriller to become something truly unique and extraordinary. You do have to go "Holy shit!" in some revelations, which in less capable hands could have easily been "Holy shit, its awful!", but from Lee it's perfectly became "Holy shit, its awesome!". And all that awesomeness not only lies with great storytelling, but also and much more importantly with some great characterizations to make the main characters seem real with flesh & blood and thoughts and happiness and sadness and everything that make them human, where Patrick Lee excelled in spectacular style as well.

Because even though the book started as an action-thriller, make no mistake: this is a 100% character-driven thoughtful thriller where the main action is going in one's head (in more ways than one). The linchpin of the whole story is the relationship between Sam and Rachel. Both of these characters were painted with so much care and perfect detailing that you can almost touch the sorrow and pain behind Sam's hard exterior for the loss of his family and the love and fatherly affection he felt for Rachel. And in case of Rachel, the hardship and constant fear that went through her for her life, for her forgotten memories and for losing the only kind loving caring feeling from Sam that made her warm instead of the ever present cold, really makes the reader's heart ache for this little kid. The relation and the emotions of both of these two characters were so well drawn and realistic that you completely believe the decisions they made later on which were key to the storyline.

And in case of bad guys, its not as black and white as you think. Even more so that after a certain time you would totally not sure who was the actual good guy here and who's bad. That's another win for Lee, because he made the whole plot took place so completely in morally gray area that reader has to pause and think about the implications, about the ethics and what's right & wrong, and the basic human rights that should not, under any circumstances, be violated. The science-stuff and all the military experiments are truly scary and not as science-fictiony as one would think (The nonfiction book "The Men Who Stare at Goats" came to my mind while reading, for example). After 9/11, we are living in a new, unfamiliar dark world where the human moral values and what should or should not be done regularly get bulldozed by what "needs" to be done by any means possible. I for one won't be much surprised if some of these stuffs really do come to fruition in the near future, or even already has become some form of reality in some dark corner of the world. When you set aside puny things like human-rights or ethical dilemma in the name of "greater good", any thing is possible.

All in all, I couldn't have ask for a better high concept breakneck-speeding shot-like-a-bullet-and-never-let-up thrillride from Patrick Lee. I loved his earlier Breach Trilogy, and since then to me he was one of the new thriller authors to look out for, and after Runner, he certainly became one of my new favorite thriller author. The smooth writing, the brisk pacing, the no-nonsense attitude in storytelling is so refreshing and addictive that each of he novels (as of now I read all of them: The Breach-Ghost Country-Deep Sky-Runner) grabbed me from the very first page and never let go until the very end. And speaking of end, I did have some major dissatisfaction with the ending of his last novel Deep Sky, but here the finishing was immensely satisfying, with some touches of heartfelt sadness. Although I think there are some minor loose ends, as I found out another Sam Dryden novel is due out this year, I'm guessing they will be addressed and resolved in the upcoming sequel or sequels. From today, I'm impatiently waiting for the next Sam Dryden thriller: Signal!

My rating: *****/*****