Customer Reviews

Runner

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Runner (2005) is the first SF novel in this series. It takes place at least a million years in the future, at a time when technology is slowly failing. The Techno Society has been trying to reestablish the star gate system to replace the failing AI starships, but are finding little support for their efforts.

In this novel, Jak Rebo is an interstellar runner, riding the starships between planets to deliver messages and other items. He has just delivered a package to its addressee on Anafa and is resting between missions. Then another potential client asks him to visit that evening.

Tra Lee is a ten year old boy. The Red Hat monks believe him to be the reincarnation of Nom Maa, a famous teacher who is destined to lead a great revival of their religion. Since he was two years old, Lee has been raised in the Red Hat monastery in Seros.

Lanni Norr is a sensitive, a genetically altered variant of humanity who has psionic talents. She can see and hear spirits of the dead and can channel them to communicate with the living. However, channeling means being possessed by the spirit.

Jevan Kane is an operative of the Techno Society. He was a favorite of Milos Lysander, a deceased scientist and former head of the Techno Society. Now the society is being run by Omar Tepho, a normal human who had been born with a spinal deformity and other defects. Kane is not one of his favorite people.

Bo Hoggles is a heavy, a variant genetically modified for living in heavy-gravity. He is running from something, but keeps his secrets.

In this story, the Red Hat Monastery in Seros needs to send Lee to CaCanth on Thara to be tested as the reincarnation of Nom Maa and to possibly to become the leader of their religion. The Black Hat sect has also sent a candidate to CaCanth. Unfortunately, the Black Hat monks contend that Lee is an impostor and are willing to kill him to prevent his arrival at CaCanth.

The Red Hat monks want to hire Rebo to deliver Lee to CaCanth. Rebo meets the boy that evening and learns about the mission. Since he himself was born on Thara, Rebo is pleased that the mission would take him to his home planet. However, he has had bad experiences with delivering humans and is leery of repeating such occurrences.

After talking to Lee, explaining his rules and listening to the boy's responses, Rebo agrees to take the mission. He asks the monks provide a double for the boy to cover his departure. He also asks the monks to deliver him to the local runner headquarters in an unobtrusive way.

Norr needs money to hide herself for a while. So she risks a public demonstration of her talents, charging a small fee. Unfortunately, she is possessed by the spirit of Lysander, who introduces himself and tries to recruit people into the society. When he manifests himself, a robot in the audience notes his identity and follows Norr after the performance.

Kane leads an assault on the hostel previously entered by Norr, killing the landlord and others, but the sensitive is not there. She had a bad feeling and went elsewhere to spend the night. After learning of the killings, Norr decides to leave the planet and waits in disguise for the shuttle to land.

This story brings Rebo, Lee and Norr together on the starship. Of course, their enemies also have agents on the ship. A Black Hat monk tries to kill Lee and two robots try to abduct Norr.

After a while, Rebo and Norr become romantically inclined. The Black Hat monks are still trying to kill Lee. Kane follows the party, but is repeatedly unsuccessful in abducting Norr. Lysander eventually changes sides and begins to protect the sensitive from Kane.

The plot is a form of quest to take Lee to his destination. Rebo has been hired to accompany Lee and Norr goes along in lieu of any other goal. Hoggles also becomes one of the party on the second starship.

The tale is full of adventure and escapes. Of course, the party finally reaches CaCanth, but not without close calls. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Dietz fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of adventurous quests, religious wisdom, and on/off romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

In the distant future humans have traveled throughout the star systems using interstellar portals, but over time the technology became lost. Antiquated ships deliver cargo and passengers between planets, but are slow and no major inter-galaxy travel exists anymore. Runner Jak Rebo delivers a package that he carried for two years to a customer's wealthy brother on planet Anafa, colonized over 10,000 years ago. Not long afterward, Brother Sua Qwa hires him to deliver a special golden child Tra Lee to the holy city of CaCanth on planet Thara where the lad will be proclaimed as the Norm Maa. Qwa warns the runner that a rival black hat sect has their own candidate and will try to assassinate the boy.

Sensitive Lanni Norr reads individual energy fields that enable her to speak with the dead. During a performance, deceased scientist Milos Lysander using a metal man as his source tries to take over Lanni's body. She manages to escape, but has to flee. Lanni and Jak meet when separate people try to harm them; they unite while people chase after them and his cargo Tra Lee.

Runner is an exciting thriller that sort of places Tibetan Buddhism in outer space at a time when civilization is imploding. The background comes alive as readers will believe they are at a time when earth is so distant a memory that the planet is considered by most as the mythos home world. Jak and Lanni are an interesting duo as they escort Tra Lee while another sect provides not only another heir contender, but attempts to kill the trio because they feel so strongly that they have the next Norma Maa. William Dietz is at his best with this strong science fiction tale.

Harriet Klausner

This is the first Dietz book i have read. I enjoyed the book very much. in reading some of the other reviews i can see the author writes another style of book that is a lot more "bang,bang,bang" style. I do not like that style.

This story featured a very unique setting and i have learned that in Sci fi "Setting" is everything. often the world the story is set in is the most interesting element of the story. For example the world and music of "blade runner" is far more interesting than the story line.

In the world of "Runner", technology has decayed to the point that man cannot even repair the ageing technology it uses ,much less invent new tech. as a result only a few planets have electricity and transportation is on foot or animal. High rise buildings are vacant except the first five floors because that is how high it is acceptable to climb stairs.

A Runner ,Jak Rebo is employed to deliver a young monk to a nearby planet to see if he is the reincarnated leader of "The Way". That is the whole premise and the rest of the book takes them on an adventure in this world of specially bred humans. of course there are bad guys trying to stop them.

Jak encounters sentient AI space ships,"heavys"(hoggles), "sensitives"(noor),star gate seeds,bad guys(Kane), ghosts(lysander)and a rude AI master computer named Logos. Funny thing is that logos is in the form of a ratty old overcoat.

Now that combination of characters and events make for an entertaining read. If you are prepared to entertianed by a brave new world and interesting characters, you will enjoy "Runner".

I was ultimately dissappointed with Runner, many of the reasons of which have been mentioned in previous reviews. One of the review quotes on the book claim that Rebo is one of Dietz's most fully realized characters. This is misleading, as mentioned in a previous review, the characters in this book are rather cliche. They are all reminiscent of characters we've seen in a dozen previous science fiction movies and novels and thus fail to set themselves apart. I could substitute Rebo with Hans Solo and essentially have exactly the same novel. The same can be said for all the other characters.

The cliches arent just reserved for the characters, but the settings as well. One of the first planets we are introduced to in the novel is a desert planet full of arabesque characters run by villainous royalty. Apparently deserts can only be occupied by arabian people, and if so, they must be corrupt. I suggest that future writers read (Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People) so that they can start avoiding this cliche.

Lastly, if you are a fan of hard science fiction as I am, you shouldn't expect anything from this book. There is nothing particularly thought provoking and nothing to satiate our political, scientific, or cultural brain cells in its pages.

A very entertaining read. This is the first book I've read by the author, but just finished it and ordered the sequel. It's a sci fi book that feels more like a fantasy quest novel. Likeable charactors to root for and lots of action. No complaints here, pure escapist fare. Will look forward to reading more by this author.

This is the first Dietz I've read. It feels like a mechanical effort. Everything from names to dialog feel too contrived or constructed. There are very few real surprises or really creative ideas. On the other hand, there is a sense of humor that the author could have used more often. Unlike Heinlein, the texture of the worlds seems very flat and oddly unvarying across the worlds they travel through. It also feels like it needs an editor who would encourage less verbiage but, paradoxically, more texture. Much of the action seems unconvincing because of the lack of sufficient hand waving to explain things. For instance the loss of knowledge and solar power to name a couple.

I tried hard to like this book, and for the first 100 or so pages it was quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, after that it became repetitive and formulaic: travel to a new town/planet, encounter bad guys, beat bad guys, rinse, repeat. It felt as though Dietz was trying to rewrite Jack Vance's Big Planet or Tales of the Dying Earth, but instead of fresh and strange, each new location was merely a variation on a theme. In the end, the book came across as a personal inner journey for the author which didn't translate well to novel form. My recommendation is that if you like the sound of this book try Vance instead or as well.

This book reminds me of the Firefly miniseries. The setting was unique, including sentient starships and multi-layered cities across multiple planets. The characters were enjoyable, especially Lanni and her "abilities". At same time they were credible and even fallible. Unlike your typical action hero, Jack wore "spectacles" and was self-doubting, not cynical as others have mentioned. Lanni was pleasant but not a gorgeous supermodel as you Hollywood would have written it, and even the arch villain Kane was believable, being cold hearted yet manifesting fear and other emotions in his efforts to redeem himself and climb the Techno Society's corporate ladder. I thought the encounters, while recurring, were not cliché at all. The silver snake choker, attacking shuttle, Lanni's attack on the "intended location", the simulacrum, etc. kept the reader entertained and guessing. Yes I knew they would survive, but so what? I'm tired of the more popular dark novels where everyone the protagonist is attached to get's butchered, ending up in a revenge novel with no redeeming value. Finally, I loved the ending where Lee got his chance to take on the true imposter, although I would have enjoyed a more elaborate Q&A process and more of a theological debate. I already bought the follow-up Logos Run on the popular auction site, picked up the first Legion of the Dammed book at my local half-priced books store, and finally ordered Prison Planet and Body Guard as well - all by Dietz.

In the far future, mankind has spread throughout the galaxy, via a system of portals between star systems. Now their location has been forgotten, so mankind is reverting back to a state where magic becomes very important, and each star system is on its own. The little interstellar travel that is left is handled by a rapidly diminishing fleet of aging ships. Only the brave, the foolhardy or professional couriers called runners make such journeys.

Jak Rebo's mission is to deliver a young boy to a faraway planet, to find out for sure if he is a legitimate religious apostle (based on present-day Buddhism). This religion has two sects, and members of the other sect have plenty of reason for wanting to make sure that Rebo and his human cargo never reach their destination.

Things get more complicated when a female "sensitive," (a clairvoyant and channeler) named Lanni Norr joins the group. With the reverting of mankind away from interstellar travel, science has been reduced to the level of a religious cult. Milos Lysander, the long-dead founder of the Techno Society, seems to have chosen Norr as his way to communicate with this world. The present-day members of the Society want Norr very much, because they think that Lysander has the secret to the location of the long-lost interstellar travel portals. If necessary, they are more than willing to kill anyone who gets in their way.

First of a series, this one is very good. The author has written a number of military/action SF novels in the past, so he very much knows what he is doing. This novel does a fine job of keeping the reader's interest.

Before reading Runner I had a great deal of respect for William Dietz as a "military" Science Fiction author. His Legion of the Damned series was inventive, well thought out, and believable.

Unfortunately, Runner is none of the above. The entire novel is a series of chase scenes populated by characters of exceedingly low intelligence. Generally you can tell what obvious mistake is going to be made by whom a good ten pages beforehand.

And the characters do not ever seem to learn from their mistakes, repeating them in different situations. The true miracle of the book is that the ensemble survives to the last page.

Much is made of Dietz's interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism, and to his credit he has done his homework here and has created a believable religion. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of his post-apocalyptic inter-galactic travel infrastructure. Sentient but manic-depressive starships which can no longer be repaired set the tone for the emotional immaturity of all the characters. A network of "star gates" which only a select few know about should be used by the heros to evade capture by the bad guys -- especially since they have the ear of someone who knows where they are. However, since the heros always take the most obvious route, they have only their own incredible stupidity to blame when they are in imminent danger, which happens about every other chapter.

As to the ending, it was predicted on page one. At no time in the novel do you not know how it is going to turn out. Which is a pity because while Dietz is not known for his strong endings at least you can usually count on a good ride to get there.