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With a captivating debut novel, Jenna Ryan creates an entire world in Book One of her The Continuum Series, “The Channeler: A Future Forewarned,” while leaving the audience with an insane desire for more.
Synopsis:
Caleb Swift knows he’s a complicated guy. He sees the unseeable: winged beings that haunt both his dreams and his waking visions. He knows the unknowable: horrifying visions of countless unspeakable futures he feels powerless to prevent. And if that weren’t bad enough, these potent revelations might be driving him insane.
Who needs that kind of trouble?
Not Caleb. He’s doing his best to live a totally uncomplicated life, to ignore the visions of doom that hound him relentlessly. But no matter what he does, one particular vision still plagues him. The one with the girl. The girl who’s in mortal danger (or will be soon). The girl only he can save.
Now Caleb has a choice. To ignore his gift, to live the ordinary life he so desperately desires, even if it means letting her die…
Or to act. To interfere. To become extraordinary. And let one girl’s future turn his present completely upside-down.
I was stuck. Stuck in an endless dream, watching a terrible future I was powerless to change.
Or was I? What if I could change the future? Could I ignore that kind of power?
And if I did–what would I become?
Review:
As the first installment of a series, Jenna Ryan manages to create a universe in a unique way — where other others build upon action, or require that their audience fill in the gaps as they read, Ryan allows for her audience to get a complete image of the universe she creates.
Instead of creating a world where readers are left to picking up the pieces themselves — instead of a world where the reader is literally just dropped into this universe — Ryan allows for the reader to understand the universe from the perspective of the main character.
And this type of world-building is very much appreciated — as a reader who has been “dropped” into these types of sci-fi worlds, authors who build their worlds up in this manner allow for readers to feel much more appreciated, respected and understood.
I’m not going to live my life in ignorance. And I refuse to live in fear.
Each and every single character in this book feels so well-developed. Considering Caleb feels like an anxiety-ridden guy with tons of thoughts constantly going through his head, Ryan’s writing captures those emotions very well.
Considering no one seems to be truly safe from anything and Caleb’s supernatural abilities seem to both a curse and a blessing — as he states himself, sometimes he just sees things he has no real way of stopping.
With several twists thrown in there, the ending of this book also leaves us a bit shocked. Considering Ryan took a significant portion of her book to build up this world and its characters, the ending was so abrupt and unexpected.
It’s not bad — if anything, this is the exact opposite of how a bad book ends — its just really, really shocking to be left where we were.
Mini spoiler alert: And considering we don’t ever truly get a clear name or image of the force that is the antagonist of this book, there is still so much up in the air for Caleb, Darla and Gavin.
Ready to get yourself a copy of “The Channeler?” Click this link to find it on Amazon.
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