REVIEW: The Data Runner by Sam Patel

I’m running. I’m running. And I can’t stop. As an ex-track athlete who spent most of his time doing the exact same thing in high school and college, I can appreciate a good run. I was a hurdler. Leaping over a 42 inch barrier, running full speed, with multiple adversaries in the adjacent lanes next to you is no small feat. It takes a great degree of focus and energy. More than that, there is an unwritten importance of keeping your eyes ahead of you on the next obstacle while toppling the current one.

Much like Patel’s story of wall climbing, curb skipping and fire-escape grappling Jack Nill, life in the future can be a dance of adaptation and tight-roping. Sam Patel set out to create a new series that captures the essence of these elements with his stunning debut in Data Runner. The story takes place I the future, where corrupt corporations run the ship and the government has all but been decimated by the widening gap between poor and wealthy stretching to almost limitless proportions. The economic tide is washed in technology and Geek warfare, with the internet being the battleground. Data running –odd jobs that require a person to download information into their arm and transport it from point A to B for money – has come to the forefront as a lucrative business, with multiple companies investing big bucks on trainer personnel with the skills to get things done. Jack Nill possesses the talent of parkouring, which allows him to travel city blocks sort of like a certain web-slinger who runs New York, just minus the web-fluid in his wrists. He bypasses school and joins a faction of Data Runners to make ends meet.

Behind the basic plot of a young man struggling to earn another buck until the best new gig comes along, is a story that addresses the importance of friends and family, of which Jack is short on. His mother went missing years ago and his father is a living enigma who keeps his work private. Before too long, Jack finds out that running data from here to there isn’t as easy as it seems. He gets caught up in and unravels the seams of a corporate conspiracy to bring down the entire city, with the spoils going to the last company standing. And of course, he carries the data that holds the key to thwarting the evil plans.

The story moves at an expected rapid pace, with Patel providing an adequate amount of detail that fleshes out the scenery of tomorrow, without slowing down the storyline. Mix in a cute budding romance for Jack to play around in, and you have the start of a story that I anticipate watching grow as the series runs along. Anyone into young adult, cyberpunk and sci-fi is in for a treat. The showdown at the end was a little anti-climactic, but I’m hopeful that Jack will find his light at the end of the Closter phobic tunnel in time. I give Data Runner an exhilarating, parkour twisting, 4 out of 5 stars.

Data Runner comes out June 25th and will be available on ebook, at Amazon and Barnes and noble.