Review: Will be enjoyed by people who like dystopian or young adult stories
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2014
‘The Runner’ written by J. M. Johnson is first book in her dystopian Avi Bloom series that speaks about kind of not desired future for Earth, but many times been the subject of various science fiction movies and books.Because of global warming reaching tipping point, there is no electricity on this future Earth - it was shut down in order to save what can still be saved of humanity. Because of lack of power, the news are no longer possible to be send electronically, therefore they are carried by teenage boys and girls, one from each family in any remaining settlement.Being a news carrier is dangerous job and though runners need to fulfill norm of 185 runs, most will not be able to do that and stay alive. Main character, girl named Avi Bloom whose mother died and father disappeared some time ago, was not only good enough to fulfill her norm, but was even so good that she was able to double it.While she was on one of her runs, Avi will meet a group of terrified children who were hiding after their settlement was attacked and almost all were killed or taken away. Together with her new friends, after realizing many older people are vanishing without any explanation, she will embark on journey to find out what is happening and maybe even resolve her own family drama…Though the story in various forms was many times seen, the author managed to create good characters and believable plot. The only problem is that sometimes it seems like book was written with a certain time that has passed in the meantime therefore it seems that parts of the story just does not always fit perfectly.Still, the story will be enjoyed by people who like dystopian or young adult stories, though there are place to improvement in sequels to come.