Outlier: Rebellion by Daryl Banner REVIEW

Outlier: Rebellion

(Outlier, #1)

by

Daryl Banner

book links

synopsis

“Those in power will do whatever they can to get away with everything they can.”

Every citizen in Atlas, the last city on the planet, is born with a unique, special ability, and no one sleeps past the age of two.

Except for Wick Lesser who, at seventeen, still sleeps. Hiding this rare ability from the world, his father, who can calculate futures, trains him in self-defense and combat while his healing-gifted mother works an unglamorous job in the muds and keeps his secret safe with the help of Wick’s older brothers. The Lesser family of the ninth ward slums manages to keep afloat, suffering under the corrupt, greed-driven Kingship of the Lifted City.

But not for long.

In the first installment of the Outlier series, Wick’s unassuming slumborn life soon explodes into a full-speed adventure of danger, betrayal, and self-discovery when he secretly joins an underground rebel movement working to take down the oppressive ruling power. But the task is far from easy, and there are more adversaries than Wick can count. Not to mention the complication of an intense, unplanned attraction ... to someone on the wrong side of the rebellion.

Powerful forces are gathering to put an end to the uprising, including the city’s elite crew of law-enforcers called Guardian, of which Wick’s own two eldest brothers are sworn members, and all corners of the slums grow ever restless: a lustful boy with blackened eyes leads a violent street gang, with Wick’s younger brother as his newest recruit. A cunning orphaned girl whose ability is to be unseen, sees everything. And high up in the Lifted City, a privileged and wealthy boy yearns for an exciting new life in the slums.

Their world is at a precipice of great change. No one is safe. The rebellion has begun.

*** Contains adult themes, M/F and M/M sexuality, and violence.

about the author

Daryl Banner is a writer and composer who graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Theatre and Psychology. After writing several plays and a musical in college, he started composing for short films and websites, one of which is the Vamplets "Baby Vampyre Dolls" website: (www.vamplets.com)

Follow him on Facebook here!
http://www.facebook.com/DarylBannerWr...

Interesting tidbits: Daryl is also an obsessive piano player, video game enthusiast, and occasional actor. He's been remixing video game music for over fifteen years, and is a passionate Final Fantasy fan. You can feed your ears with many of his remixes (as well as his original music) on his YouTube page "www.youtube.com/DarylBanner". Also, he personally answers all emails he receives, so if you have some strange desire to write him, he may enjoy it. He currently resides in Texas.

author links

review

Outlier: Rebellion by Daryl Banner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first story I ever read by Daryl Banner was The Slum Queen a prequel to this story which is featured in Moments in Time an anthology.  I enjoyed it enough that I went on to read The Beautiful Dead which is one of my all time favorites.

I don't know the official classification of the Outlier series, but I would categorize it as dystopian sic-fi.  It begins sometime in the future.  Most of the world hasn't survived as far as we know.  What's left has been divided into sections of slums (much like a third world country) and a raised city (sort of royal palace for the high born).  People now have something called a Legacy; we would call it a super power.  These abilities range all over every part of functioning from the mundane to the amazing.  

The book follows the story from several characters POV.  It helps you to be able to understand everyone's position and reasoning.  Most of the story centers around the Lesser family—father, mother and five sons.  Each family member has a different path they are on.  And each has different players in their lives shaping and molding their futures.

This will be the very last time they see all their sons under this roof...according to the math.  Their sons will, after this meal, be on their very separate ways.  But he cannot tell them this; they will panic, think the worst, and ask questions his math cannot answer.  Maybe I am wrong, he hopes.  My futures have been wrong before.

This book is filled with so many roles and connections:  mother, father, wife, husband, son, friend, lover, boss, enemy etc.  I must say though that my favorite was the relationship between Anwick and Athan.  Although this book is not inherently erotic, there are a few hot scenes mixed in.  Some are between a man and woman, some between two men.

Athan is clutching Wick so tightly, their swollen cocks pressed unapologetically against one another and their bodies bearing no more secrets.  Wick whispers into his ear:  "You'd be my first."

The main theme that in my opinion continued to pop up was the life-changing decisions.  Every action and inaction they made caused a reaction.

The Two Answers, he named his tattoos, because whenever he'd ask dad for advice, he'd be left with two answers and a tough choice to make.

Good, bad.  Right, wrong.  Life, death.  Two Answers.

This author really has his own way of telling a story.  It's different from any other author I remember reading, a wonderful difference.  He definitely has a gift, coming up with fresh plots and composing them in a most appealing way.

This installment is definitely just the beginning.  So much information was given, but so much more is still left to the unknown.  I will positively be waiting to read the next book in the Outlier series.  I'm impatient to find out what Wick's true Legacy is and what fate has in store for the rest of this diverse cast.

***Copy given in exchange for an honest review***

toni

FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

View all my reviews

Related Blog Posts

The Beautiful Dead by Daryl Banner

Outlier: Rebellion by Daryl Banner

Moments in Time Charity Anthology

Who We Are by T.J. Klune Review

Who We Are

(Bear, Otter, and the Kid #2)

by

T.J. Klune

Sequel to Bear, Otter, and the Kid

Bear, Otter, and the Kid survived last summer with their hearts and souls intact. They’ve moved into the Green Monstrosity, and Bear is finally able to admit his love for the man who saved him from himself. 

But that's not the end of their story. How could it be? 

The boys find that life doesn’t stop just because they got their happily ever after. There’s still the custody battle for the Kid. The return of Otter’s parents. A first trip to a gay bar. The Kid goes to therapy, and Mrs. Paquinn decides that Bigfoot is real. Anna and Creed do… well, whatever it is Anna and Creed do. There are newfound jealousies, the return of old enemies, bad poetry, and misanthropic seagulls. And through it all, Bear struggles to understand his mother’s abandonment of him and his brother, only to delve deeper into their shared past. What he finds there will alter their lives forever and help him realize what it'll take to become who they're supposed to be. 

Family is not always defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole—those who make us who we are.

When TJ Klune was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid—he didn't think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video game company, much to his chagrin). Now, two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder, wondering why he has to go to work as a claims examiner for an insurance company during the day when he could just stay home and write. 

He lives with a neurotic cat in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. It’s hot there, but he doesn’t mind. He dreams about one day standing at Stonehenge, just so he can say he did.

Who We Are by T.J. Klune

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cannot explain how much I love this story and these people.

Before I even got past the first 20% I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face and neck, my eyes were swollen. As embarrassing as it is, I have to admit, I ending up peeing on myself and then throwing up because I just could not for the life of me stop laughing so hard. I mean just wow.

The coming out dinner discussion was off the charts. It will remain one of my all time favorite scenes. I'll never forget—GayTube, unicorns, rainbows, gay laser beams, porn, plague of locusts, wine, coitus, word play, Jorge the male nurse, the hug—all of it *sigh* good times.

I love how unique this character line-up is, the wide age range, the realness to them all. I love them all for their differences they lend. Bear, being the storyteller of the book, gets my attention the most with all of his neurotic head trips, but it's how they all play off each other that makes this so amazing.

Your family needs you, Bear. You're the one thing that holds them all together, and without you, they're just as lost."

Just looking through all of my book highlights makes me start giggling again.

"So would you call yourself a...hmmm, that doesn't sound appropriate..a 'nasty come hungry bottom dumpster bitch'?"

"Would either of you be going in drag?" the Kid asks. "I was researching gay history and I'm quite taken with drag queens. They have cool hats and stage names. I found a drag queen name generator online, and my drag queen name is Minerva Fox. I would probably sing a lot of Barbra."

"Who's Barbra?" I ask him, glancing at Otter. Otter looks as baffled as I do.

He shrugs. "All the pictures I saw said that drag queens sang Barbara. I don't even know what that means."

And of course I can't forget the sexy.

An hour later, we lay next to each other, spent and gasping, his spunk trickling out of my ass and down my thigh [...]

And the awwww.

I told him that we would grow old together, that I'd be there to make fun of him when he started to get fat and bald, when he'd get spots on his hands. I told him we'd build a little house by the beach, and we'd sit on the porch wrapped up in a blanket and that the world would pass us by and that it was okay. It was okay because we'd have lived it all already.

I'm not leaving out all the tears. Yes, I cried a lot, again.

This book is amazing! T.J. Klune is a wonderful, magnificent, glorious story teller.

toni

FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

View all my reviews