Customer Reviews

Relentless (Dominion Trilogy #1)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

With high expectations, but very little advance knowledge of the plot, I opened "Relentless"--and held on for the ride.

The world of young man is completely Shifted when he stands on one side of the street and sees himself walking along the other. He has switched identities, or jumped bodies, or entered a parallel universe...He's not sure which. Soon after, he discovers his new name is Grant Borrows, he is wearing a ring which cannot be removed, and he is running for his life while trying to make sense of the mayhem swirling around him.

While wholly original, "Relentless" starts with a Phillip K. Dick type opening, then draws inspiration from "X-Men" and "The Lord of the Rings." These elements are both strengths and weaknesses. The setting starts in the real streets of L.A., then moves into a realm of swordmen, villains, and superhuman skills. Sometimes, it seems the story is trying to accomplish too much--hurried romances and belief-stretching escapes from speeding cars. Throughout, I kept thinking this would make a fantastic graphic novel.

Parrish is a skilled writer, using strong verbs and prose to convey his tale. Although some of the relational aspects seemed to need more depth, he unfolds the story with great mastery and presents more than one surprise, while unveiling a uniquely spiritual premise. At its core, the story is one an identity crisis: Who am I? Deep down, in my soul, who am I really? And what is my purpose?

This is one of the better amalgams I've seen of suspense and fantasy. And it's only the first in a trilogy, which means we have more great stories to come.

The concept of a synchronized "shift" of two peoples' consciousness is fascinating. The initial third of the book details the resulting confusion well. Then . . . ? The book "shifts" into a reluctant superhero story. The third act finally heats things up, but the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying. While this is the first book of a trilogy, there is too little explaination for the appearance and motivation of the "bad guy".

I wish I could rate this higher, but based on the description I expected more of thriller than a fantasy.

This is the most mixed review I have ever written. Mixed because part of me loved Relentless. It is fast paced, tight, and builds to its conclusion (or cliffhanger, well, relentlessly.

But then again, there is much I didn't like. There is so little original about this story under the skin. Parish throws in everything from a Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker plot with Grant Borrows and his longed presumed dead father to as another reviewer has mentioned, a X-Men type mansion.

As much as I like Parish's writing (and his mentor, Ted Dekker), Parish does little to develop character. The one thought I kept having as I read this book was, "Wow - this would make a great movie." But I wanted it to be a great book first and in my opinion it is not.

Is it a good read? Oh yeah! And, I will read the sequels. But is this a great book? Not really.

Poor writing at best: disjointed jumps between action, illogical reveals of "secrets", terribly cliched plot devices, poorly developed characters. What else can I say? The only thing I can say is that I finished the book, mostly in the hope that it would get better as I read. That didn't happen, unfortunately.

Collin Boyd's life is unremarkable--his job, his apartment, even his clothes. But everything changes when he switches bodies with Grant Borrows. In one terrifying moment his entire identity vanishes, and he has no idea how or when it happened. All Collin knows is that when he stepped off the LA Metro bus, he became a new man. Now his name is Grant Borrows, a man with an entirely different physique, lifestyle, and bank account. And someone is trying to kill him and those he loves.

Running for his life, Grant rescues his sister, Julie, but she doesn't recognize him. When he finally convinces her he really is her brother, together they begin a quest for answers. Just who is Grant Borrows? How is he able, when provoked, to manipulate objects with his mind? And why won't the strange gold ring he's wearing come off?

It's only when Grant and Julie discover others who've experienced the same "Shift" that Grant experienced, that the puzzle pieces start dropping into place. Those Shifted have several things in common. They all wear rings like Grant's, and they all have unique abilities. From photographic memories, mathematical prowess, to the ability to convince others they're seeing things. But the real question for Grant is: why has this happened to any of them? And could Grant really be the one called the Bringer, prophesied about some 7,000 years ago?

Robin Parrish has been compared to Ted Dekker, and I can see the similarities. They both know how to create vivid and imaginative plots. Both can hook readers on page one and never release them until the last paragraph. But frankly, I enjoyed Parrish's writing style even better than Dekker's. Where Dekker often seems to thrive on shock value and how far he can push the envelope of violence, Parrish shows a little more restraint, which I appreciated. There's just enough backstory woven in that we understand and care for the characters, but not so much that it bogs anything down. Grant Borrows is the type of guy you want to root for, and his villains you want to hate. But then again, looks can be deceiving as to who's a villain after all...

Bending genres, Relentless' speculative, almost sci-fi plotline is reminiscent of The Fantastic Four movie, but it could also be classified a thriller. As many Infuze readers know, the story upon which this book is based originally appeared at Infuze as a serialized novel called Prodigy. The finished product does sometimes have a serialized feel as practically every other chapter ends with a twist, which makes for fun reading indeed. And although it might seem slightly muddy in the middle when Grant tries to grasp the reality of what's happening to him, perhaps this was an intentional way to mirror Grant's uncertainty.

There's a reason why this novel is titled Relentless. With each page I found myself sucked deeper into the vortex of Relentless' F5 tornada pace, never knowing for sure what was around the bend. This is blockbuster movie material, folks. And lucky for us it's also Book I of a trilogy. Laden with adventure and intrigue, you're sure to be begging Robin Parrish for the second installment, due next summer.

--Reviewed by C.J. Darlington for Infuze magazine

I was intrigued by the idea, but the author's one-dimensional characters, overly expository dialogue (who tells their life story to strangers for no good reason?) and meandering plot ruined the premise for me. I will admit that the first few chapters did have a "relentless" feel to them. However, as action scene piled on top of action scene, with little to no explanation, the bad writing and dialogue started to become more apparent. Before long, I stopped caring about any of the characters, and started only noticing the obvious plot holes and painful dialogue. The main character seems to waiver between sullenly confused to anger (teenager angst type of anger), and the love interest seems to have no valid reason to be falling for the him. Sadly, no other characters were developed enough to be memorable.

Fortunately, it was a free book, so I didn't lose any money on this. However, I do firmly believe that the author needs to take some basic fiction writing classes before trying his hand at another book. The premise was good, and his style of writing grabs your attention, but in the end, it was no where close to enough to save this book.

First, I loved the writing style. The story was fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. The characters were well developed. I enjoyed the plot and would highly recommend the series. It was a well written, suspenseful read.

I was, however, disappointed after reading the third book and looking back over where everthing came together. The thing that I was disappointed with was where the theology ended. It seemed a very Old Testament only theology.

The discussion on free will was sound, but just stopped too soon. As Romans tells us we are all sinners and there is not even one who seeks God. We do not use our free will to seek God. The author also clearly showed how even our motivation to do good is grounded in selfish motives, for fame, money, power, appreciation, acceptance or even to gain love. The disappointing factor for me is that it was not once referred to that Messiah came and died to break those bonds that keep us enslaved to sin and set us free to choose righteousness, because of the transforming power of Christ in us. In fact, I thought the ending showed a very non-Christian, humanistic view. Man makes a sacrifice and love triumphs. So my recommendation would be to enjoy the story, but don't think of it as a Christian book in any way.

Mr Parrish needs to go back to school, and learn how to write English! Premise seemed interesting, price was right (zero) and the first couple of chapters were OK. But characters were cardboard cutout, and writing deteriorated. As the book went on, motive for main characters was thin. To sum up, save your time - I wish I had. Very Mills and Boons with a supernatural tarting up, peppered with hyperbole. Is it a self published book?

Horrible, childish, dialogue. It`s as if the author`s entire life experience is based on «made for tv» movies and bad 80s cop shows. Don`t fool yourself into thinking it will get better, or that the plot devices will become any less preposterous, it doesn`t, and they don`t.

The writing is so bad, that I had to grit my teeth in order to get through the first chapter. The main character runs across the street against the light, sees something unexpected and stops. "A blaring horn filled his ears, followed by the metallic screech of brakes ... [unexpected sight] ... the sounds of vehicles, store owners, tourists, businesspeople and even planes flying overhead all fell away". He's almost hit by a bus and our point of view suddenly encompasses a plane 35,000 feet over his head?

As a reward to myself for getting through the first chapter, I deleted the download.

A word about the Kindle download. I use a variety of devices, read very quickly, and have good eyes. To reduce page turns, especially on my smartphone, I read at the smallest font setting. This download is formatted so that the SMALLEST font size is still about 12 point; far too many page turns.