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The Revenants
Bradley Johnson is dying and he knows it, dying from an unexplained illness in a lonely hospital bed. He is a teenage boy with the gift of prophecy, able to see the future, a boy with power, a boy who has been betrayed and abandoned. And Bradley wants revenge.
Unable to move from his bed, as his body weakens his powers grow and his mind reaches out to affect the lives of others, to make them claim the revenge he cannot.
In his dreams he sees a woman murdered, leaving her son to pick up the pieces. His mother’s death, moving to live with his aunt, having to start a new school and getting bullied means life is hard for the boy. It isn’t made any easier when he is chosen by Bradley to inherit his gift and be the instrument for his revenge.
But bullies aren’t so much of a problem when you find you have unusual powers and unlikely friends. The things that crawl out of the graves on the other hand are most definitely a problem.
The ability to see the future might be a great gift, but all gifts come with a price and sometimes the future you dream of can be a world away.
Unable to move from his bed, as his body weakens his powers grow and his mind reaches out to affect the lives of others, to make them claim the revenge he cannot.
In his dreams he sees a woman murdered, leaving her son to pick up the pieces. His mother’s death, moving to live with his aunt, having to start a new school and getting bullied means life is hard for the boy. It isn’t made any easier when he is chosen by Bradley to inherit his gift and be the instrument for his revenge.
But bullies aren’t so much of a problem when you find you have unusual powers and unlikely friends. The things that crawl out of the graves on the other hand are most definitely a problem.
The ability to see the future might be a great gift, but all gifts come with a price and sometimes the future you dream of can be a world away.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 13, 2012
14 people want to read
About the author
Alec Dunn
3 books3 followersBorn in North Wales sometime during the 1970s, Alec Dunn spent his early years attending a state comprehensive and living in a happy family home along with his father, mother, brother and shaky legged, vomiting, travel-sick dog.
Attending Salford University with the financial support of a government grant and parents, Alec achieved an honours degree and a questionable balance between the knowledge he gained and the brain cells he lost.
Returning to North Wales to follow his dream of working in a variety of low paid menial jobs, he rejected any possibility of a career in favour of temporary and agency work, including working as a hotel porter, sanding car bumpers, hand stacking cheese slices and completing questionnaires on the mean streets of Mold. He once walked some miles home after being bussed to a chicken factory, smelling it (fowl) and refusing to work. Things reached an all time low when he was offered a permanent contract by a well known insurance company after temping in their office, filing. Having failed to reject enough claims and managing to give away a free fridge to a nice old lady he chatted to for half an hour, the insurance company closed the office.
Alec moved to Nottingham to live above a butcher’s shop in wonderful Dickensian squalor. He failed to shoot any rats with an air pistol and found temporary work for a tobacco company. After realising that he needed to make amends for his support of evil corporations, he successfully completed a PGCE in 2000, before beginning work in the Mansfield area, trying to teach the English language.
It was around this time he met his wife, also a teacher, and they married in 2005, having their first child in 2006. They moved to the beautiful country of New Zealand shortly after and greatly enjoyed living in the wonderful city of Wanganui (it’s not pronounced like that) in the North Island. They enjoyed it so much that their second child was born a little time later.
Returning to the UK in 2009 to allow their children to experience their rightful national heritage of twenty three hour a day cloud cover and miserable pale face, they settled briefly in the Peak District. Alec particularly enjoyed visiting the National Stone Centre on a regular basis. Still living in too pleasant an area of the world, he moved away from the Peak District to continue a career in teaching, using the opportunity of moving house to squeeze in having a third child.
Currently, Alec is juggling the time demands of a full time teaching job, three children and writing. Life is busy.
Attending Salford University with the financial support of a government grant and parents, Alec achieved an honours degree and a questionable balance between the knowledge he gained and the brain cells he lost.
Returning to North Wales to follow his dream of working in a variety of low paid menial jobs, he rejected any possibility of a career in favour of temporary and agency work, including working as a hotel porter, sanding car bumpers, hand stacking cheese slices and completing questionnaires on the mean streets of Mold. He once walked some miles home after being bussed to a chicken factory, smelling it (fowl) and refusing to work. Things reached an all time low when he was offered a permanent contract by a well known insurance company after temping in their office, filing. Having failed to reject enough claims and managing to give away a free fridge to a nice old lady he chatted to for half an hour, the insurance company closed the office.
Alec moved to Nottingham to live above a butcher’s shop in wonderful Dickensian squalor. He failed to shoot any rats with an air pistol and found temporary work for a tobacco company. After realising that he needed to make amends for his support of evil corporations, he successfully completed a PGCE in 2000, before beginning work in the Mansfield area, trying to teach the English language.
It was around this time he met his wife, also a teacher, and they married in 2005, having their first child in 2006. They moved to the beautiful country of New Zealand shortly after and greatly enjoyed living in the wonderful city of Wanganui (it’s not pronounced like that) in the North Island. They enjoyed it so much that their second child was born a little time later.
Returning to the UK in 2009 to allow their children to experience their rightful national heritage of twenty three hour a day cloud cover and miserable pale face, they settled briefly in the Peak District. Alec particularly enjoyed visiting the National Stone Centre on a regular basis. Still living in too pleasant an area of the world, he moved away from the Peak District to continue a career in teaching, using the opportunity of moving house to squeeze in having a third child.
Currently, Alec is juggling the time demands of a full time teaching job, three children and writing. Life is busy.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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April 22, 2014Like a bastard lovechild, born from my love of the horror and fantasy genres, this was the first book I completed writing.
Including some gritty themes and descriptions which those of a squeamish disposition may not enjoy, in some ways it's just a good old supernatural tale of monster hunting (obviously, there's more to it than that, but spoilers...)
I still think of it fondly, but I'm not going to review it. That would be ridiculous; I'm far too partisan. I will say though that I enjoyed writing it and, without wanting to sound too conceited, when I read it back recently, I enjoyed reading it. When writing, I particularly enjoyed the scale, the freedom of imagination to create and populate worlds. Call me twisted, but I quite enjoyed thinking up the various ways of how to kill characters off as well.
To be critical of myself, I'm not sure the scale quite comes through in 'The Revenants' - the killing is there aplenty, but not the size. That's only hinted at; it's partly because the book is the first in a series and it's trying to do a number of things: introduce important characters and a story which extends beyond the book, establish ideas to be built on in the sequel while at the same time having a satisfying narrative in its own right.
'The Revenants' has a lot to do and, unsurprisingly in a relatively short book (about 260 pages) that proclaims itself the first in a series, it leaves some questions to be answered. On the plus side, the narrative is pacey, cracking along at a fair old lick and now I've written the sequel, some characters are developed further and some of those questions are answered.
Some. But not all. Not in only two books. Where's the fun in that? Nobody saves the girl, the world, and themself that easily.
Including some gritty themes and descriptions which those of a squeamish disposition may not enjoy, in some ways it's just a good old supernatural tale of monster hunting (obviously, there's more to it than that, but spoilers...)
I still think of it fondly, but I'm not going to review it. That would be ridiculous; I'm far too partisan. I will say though that I enjoyed writing it and, without wanting to sound too conceited, when I read it back recently, I enjoyed reading it. When writing, I particularly enjoyed the scale, the freedom of imagination to create and populate worlds. Call me twisted, but I quite enjoyed thinking up the various ways of how to kill characters off as well.
To be critical of myself, I'm not sure the scale quite comes through in 'The Revenants' - the killing is there aplenty, but not the size. That's only hinted at; it's partly because the book is the first in a series and it's trying to do a number of things: introduce important characters and a story which extends beyond the book, establish ideas to be built on in the sequel while at the same time having a satisfying narrative in its own right.
'The Revenants' has a lot to do and, unsurprisingly in a relatively short book (about 260 pages) that proclaims itself the first in a series, it leaves some questions to be answered. On the plus side, the narrative is pacey, cracking along at a fair old lick and now I've written the sequel, some characters are developed further and some of those questions are answered.
Some. But not all. Not in only two books. Where's the fun in that? Nobody saves the girl, the world, and themself that easily.
January 24, 2013
This was ok to pass the time but it didn't draw me in. The short sentences meant I was easily distracted as the style meant you could look away every few minutes without feeling you would lose your place. It wasn't what about I would normally read but I took a chance to increase my reading repertoire, it wasn't really for me but it wasn't a difficult read. I don't think the characters were well developed either, apart from Tristan we didn't really find out anything which made sure rest quite pantomime and one dimensional
August 25, 2012
Really enjoyed this book. Loved the way the characters were developed, thought there were some really interesting ways of creating the ideas in the story and connecting the characters even the ones who never knew each other... An imaginative and original spin on a traditional supernatural theme. Couldn't put it down. Can't wait for the next book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews