The Crystal Run

Crystal Run #1

by Sheila O'Flanagan

Frantic to escape from danger, Joe is transported to another world...

...where he is plunged into the training regime of the Runners. Their mission is to protect the shield which keeps the Carcassians safe from their enemy, the Kanabians.

Joe is instantly under suspicion: is he a terrorist, sorcerer or spy?

When he is paired with Kaia of her Run, he realises how much is at stake. A Runner's destiny is death,but he can't let Kaia die.

As they fight to escape, Joe needs to find a way to save them both...

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Friendship

326 pages, Paperback

Published May 4, 2017

About the author

As you can see, a Dubliner all my life. My parents owned a grocery shop in the Iveagh Markets, in the Liberties area of the city and I guess city blood runs through my veins.

As a child I enjoyed reading and telling stories and everyone thought that I end up in a job which had something to do with books and literature. But though I applied for a job in the library all of the job offers I got were in commerce.

I turned down lots of them before my mother accepted one for me (I was on holiday at the time). It was in the Central Bank of Ireland and that’s how my career in financial services began.

I started out in administration and then moved jobs until finally I was working as a dealer in a commercial bank. Eventually I was promoted to Chief Dealer (the first female CD in the country). I traded lots of different things – foreign exchange, swaps, options, bonds…all of the kind of things you read about in the papers and that sound very technical and difficult. Of course once you’re doing it, it’s not half as technical as it sounds.

But I still loved reading and writing (which I did in my spare time) and I desperately wanted to write my own book. I guess I never quite got over the fact that I was never offered the library job! In my thirties I decided that it was now or never and I sat down, stuck Chapter 1 on a page, and started. I wrote the whole thing before sending it off.

I was offered a publishing deal (with no advance) by an Irish company but only if I wrote a different book! So back to the drawing board, I started again. It was another two years before it was published. It wasn’t until I’d written a few books and was offered a contract (this time with an advance!) from another publisher that I felt able to give up my trading job and write full time. So, even though it took a long time, I eventually realised my dream of being a full-time writer.

And now I also write a business column for the Irish Times.

When I’m writing a book I want to do three things:

* Tell a good story
* Make the reader feel like they know the characters
* Make each book better than the last

I don’t write for any particular audience but I suppose I must have people like me in mind – people who have busy lives and who like to escape into someone else’s for a while.

I love writing books. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Reviews

[Maria Guzman]

Pro: As an adult reading this book. I felt it was an easy read great for young adults. I find it started with good action and loved the two main characters Joe and Kai. I also loved the adventure and journey.

Con: The book did lack a little more background on Joe and a little more action for my taste, but understand book for younger reader. I loved the build up to the ending, but felt ending could have been more clean and felt it ended abruptly. However, was glad to know there is a sequel.

[Brooke Kitzhaber]

First book I’ve physically read (and not listened to) in years and it was a good way back to reading! I am not the target audience for this book, so I am unsure how to rate it, but I enjoyed it all the same. It is a cute coming of age story, set in a very creative and unique world. The main character, Joe is so easy to like, endlessly brave and kind.

[Emma-Rose Wilson]

this book was really good

[Michael Long]

In The Crystal Run, a teen boy named Joe is transported into another world. In this world, two countries called Carcassia and Kabania were previously at war. Finally, Carcassia enacted a shield and for generations has kept the shield going to keep away Kabanians. However, three shield generators exist in enemy territory so they send runners to put new power crystals into those to keep the shield going. Joe is caught in Carcassia and sent on a run with a girl Kaia on her run.

I listened to the audiobook and found the narrator to do a super job with all the characters.

This book had a cool premise in that a country's answer to war was to enact a permanent shield. These people have been separated for generations without even communication between sides. There was a ton of potential here for some great story telling (I'd say it didn't quite meet the potential though).

I found the characterizations to be well done... both characters seemed alien to each other and slowly formed a friendship. Both sometimes acted heroically, and at other times, immature and reckless. Both seemed to have a fairly good heart and were easily likeable.

I did have some issues with the book. Having three generator sites so far into enemy territory didn't really make any sense from a location standpoint (it was more just a device to get the characters a destination). It might make sense if they were close to the border but they were not. Also, the book couldn't decide if Kabanians were still war mongering after so many generations or if they were peaceful. If they were indeed peaceful it could have been a good way to show Kaia's prejudice (and racism?) but ultimately the book sent so many mixed messages it is hard to tell. There wasn't enough to really like the Kabanians. And the time spent with the Carcassians was so short (and somewhat negative) that you really can't root for them either (besides Kaia). Perhaps the book was trying to show that both peoples suck, but it is a bit unclear. There was a lot of potential to make these two peoples really diverge over a few generations but the book fell flat in that regard.

It is also never explained how Joe got into Carcassia. It would appear there has always been some type of portal or link between worlds, but the Carcassians (and Kanabians) had never heard of such a thing.

There also was a potential romance between Kaia and Joe but everything just fizzles out before the end and all we get is a friendship. And likewise, the ending was quite disappointing (and somewhat of a cliff-hanger) and makes you question their entire mission. There just isn't a whole lot of payoff for the reader here. Both of these last two items could be redeemed if there was a sequel.

Overall it was quite entertaining and I really enjoyed (and looked forward) to where the story was going. I didn't quite like the way it ended up, but the journey was fun and if there is ever a sequel I will gladly read (listen to it).

NOTE: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Abi]

2.5 ⭐️

I had very low expectations for this book and I was enjoying it more than I expected up until chapter 36. I HATED the ending of this book. Feels like Sheila just wanted to throw in a twist ending rather than actually finishing the story off.
I have no interest in reading the second book. I’d rather just google the plot

[Becca Reho]

In the same vein as many popular YA books lately, this book is set in an alternate world, and I would define it as very much fantasy genre.

The world O'Flanagan has built is an intriguing one, and I found myself drawn into the story somewhat despite my many reservations. The quest the runners are sent on seems unnecessarily dangerous, as other reviewers have commented and the runners seem to be quite brainwashed. Kaia is clearly supposed to be an intelligent girl, yet she accepts what she is told about the run without question, despite the barbaric nature of her quest.

There are many things within the story that don't really make sense - I won't mention them here because, spoilers - which could have been explained better, but as this is the first book of a series, I'm prepared to allow that these things may become clear in future books.

It's an intriguing concept and I'll likely look out for future books in the series as it has the potential to be quite interesting with where it seems to be going.

[Rachael ༊·˚]

I feel that - from the start - the book already had like this extremely sad storyline - with the thought of "death after the run" literally haunting me to the idea that Kaia and Joe may not even survive. 😭

I would have given 5 stars... but I am still haunted from how dark the book is =( Otherwise, this book is quite ok in terms of everything else - like the setting (I find it quite cool the whole idea - although the idea of "putting yourself to sleep" and "never coming back" is still creeping me out a bit). In general, I find that it is also pretty interesting; I found the book pretty scary but could not put it down (I completed nearly 70+ % of the book just today!).

[btw anyone can let me know what is the title of the next book (if it is in a series)? I feel it ended quite abruptly in the last book - "'This time I'm going to save you. Because this time you're running for yourself.'"

[Stella]

I read this book a few years back and reread it just recently because I managed to get the sequel and I would definitely recommend this book... can't say the same for the second one though. The first time I read this book I was in complete love with it, I liked everything about it and I was I love with the characters and they're romance, which was super slow burn and cute but not the main priority of this book which I liked. The ending left me in shock and I was so sad that I had to wait for the second one. The second time I read it I enjoyed it just as much as the first time because I couldn't really remember it but as expected it was a bit more boring to read than the first time around. Overall a really good book but nothing extraordinary.

[Lilian]

Overall, this book was okay but I wouldn't say the best.Mainly on the logic of the plot;so after crossing the shield of Carcassia, they are not allowed to turn back, the shield is charged by a crystal in the enemy territory.I don't really understand how they are suppose to retrieve if they can not take it back to their own territory?? and I don't understand why they would create a shield that requires energy from an object in the enemy territory, it just doesn't make any sense.I wish there was more reason to how Joe actually go to Kaia's world ,it just really bugged me how he was able to get there.

[Karen]

I love Sheila O'Flanagan books and I love sci-fi and although I am older than the targeted audience, this book made me quite excited.
Joe hunter is a self proclaimed nerd and the classic target of the bullies who are chasing him when he enters a porthole to another planet.
Kaia is competing to become a "runner" to save their land Carcassia from the enemies from Kanabia.
They join forces in order to complete the run, with differing hopes and dreams of how the trip will end.
I received this book as part of the Goodreads giveaway

[Faith]

So it's worth saying I won this book thanks to a Goodreads giveaway last year and it sounded good (and like a generic YA, but that's what I like).
I didn't connect with this story or its characters at all. I don't know what it was about it, I just never felt intrigued enough to actually motivate myself to read it. I'm not sure how I finished it (maybe because I ended up skim reading), but I did.
The characters were interesting enough, and the plot had potential, but I didn't feel invested or enthralled by the story. It just felt repetitive and slow to me.

[susan murray]

Won from goodreads
Joe is targeted by 2 boys who bully him and this time want his headphones he runs as fast as he can down an alleyway to get away but this time there is wall of shimmering metal he runs into it and this is the story beginning.
Joe hunter ends up on another planet where he meets Kaia who is being challenged so she can become a runner whose job is to save Carcassia from the enemies from Kanabia.
They think joe is a spy and he has to convince them he is not .
Really good read enjoyed it look forward to sequel

[Laura]

I'm really not sure about this book. The plot seemed to wander just a bit, and I would have liked some more backstory. We barely see anything of Joe's 'normal' world - he's just plunged into some parallel universe au hasard (which I did like, it was interesting).

Two stars for an awesome Kaia Kukura.

[Elle Sapp]

This book initially was difficult to get into. I dnf’ed numerous times but always kept it in my drawer at work for a slow day. Well that day came! The first several chapters were very boring and overall I wished there was more conflict throughout as it dragged as a result. The most action packed part was the last two chapters but they were great. I am excited to read the sequel

[Rene Munro]

It took a while to get into but was quite good overall. I think that it maybe suited to younger readers (13-15 years) as I found it an easy read.

It did drag on a little at the end and get a little confusing hence the rating but it still had a very good story line.

[Naomi Moramarco]

Quando l‘ho iniziato ero sicura fosse autoconclusivo invece alla fine del libro ho scoperto che la storia non era finita. I personaggi sono caratterizzati bene e mi è piaciuto come interagendo con una persona esterna al suo mondo Kaia abbia imparato a mettere in dubbio ciò in cui ha creduto finora. C‘è poi il mistero irrisolto di cosa sia successo davvero agli altri Runners, spero in qualche grossa rivelazione nel sequel! Purtroppo però le basi della storia sono parecchio traballanti. Che senso ha mettere ben tre generatori essenziali per il mantenimento dello scudo di energia in territorio nemico? Addirittura uno è nella capitale nemica! Strategicamente parlando non ha senso e per di più la narrazione non ha neanche provato a fornire una spiegazione logica in merito. O ad esempio perchè mandare dei ragazzini e non degli adulti? In base a quale principio logico in corrispondenza dei generatori il protagonista dovrebbe trovare un passaggio per tornare nel suo mondo visto che non è neanche chiaro come abbia fatto? Molto di questo libro si basa su assunti logici piuttosto scarsi, alcune cose però potrebbero ancora essere risolte se si dessero spiegazioni nel prossimo libro. Speriamo!

[Emily Finn]

I love Sho and Kaia!!!! I do want to know what Sho's parents think of him disappearing or being unconscious or whatever it looks like hes doing when hes in Charra but not until Carcassia AND Kanabia are safe and prospering!!!!🎉🎉🎉

[Amelie]

An exciting and funny story, filled with mystery and adventure! Kept me reading all night!
A definite must-read!

[Megan Stubberfield]

I didnt actually finish the book, it wasn't necessarily bad writing I just found it really dull to the point that I didn't care what happens at the end.

[Angela Armstrong]

A bit different yet to read the sequel shoeld of lies. Did enjoy the book but not one of my favs x

[Aiden! R]

The ending pissed me off & also left me slightly confused.. Safe to say I'm buying the 2nd book..

[Maddie Hale]

I love This book I've not yet read the next book I'm pretty sure that I'm going to love it I finished the book in about 12 days btw i have just started to read so yeah

[Chloe Fortin]

I love this book so much that I read it six times.

[Dorian]

This is not a YA book.

I picked this up on sale because of the lovely cover - the eggs are all iridescent on the paperback, so I was happy to part with a few bucks.

But it's not a YA book. Maybe it's been marketed that way, but it's just not. The writing is so basic and simple that I'd hand it to a 9-10 year old and they might enjoy it, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to anybody over 14 for fear of being smacked in the head with it. It's not YA by any stretch of the imagination. It's written like Middle Grade fiction, and even then, Lower Middle Grade.

This is the opening paragraph of the book, and it sounds exactly like everything else that follows:

"The two boys were at the corner of the street. They were standing close to each other, not talking, just watching. They were both dressed the same, in grey trousers and blue hoodies. The grey trousers were part of the school uniform but the blue hoodies were their own. The boys were tall and broad and muscular. They looked like they played sports, or worked out. They looked older than the boys in Year 9."

The sentences were so simple that the entire thing was just 300 pages of telling. Nothing was left up to interpretation, all the information was just pushed at the reader and clearly meant to be taken at face value. There was no deception or intrigue, things just were as they were and the reader was never invited to challenge anything.

It felt like maybe the author didn't trust the audience to understand unless everything was spelled out. But Percy Jackson and Harry Potter are written with more complex sentences (and more story complexity in general), and those go down a treat with kids and teenagers (and adults!)

Like I said, this doesn't read enough like YA to call itself YA.

Aside from that, the way many characters talked was extremely stilted. "I will not use contractions. I will only speak in almost-robotic sentences because we believe all characters must sound exactly the same. Except for Joe. Joe is permitted to use contractions, because he is from Eng-land."

The worldbuilding was also incredibly weak. Everybody stood around explaining it to Joe, rather than letting him discover it organically. "This is how this thing works." "Okay, seems legit."

There were a lot of made-up words for food, drinks, and objects, but with 2-6 of them appearing on most pages, it meant slogging through a lot of gibberish that was only really there for flavour. It didn't feel like reading about horcruxes or slingBlades. It felt like reading about squeedlydoos and tooshybooshies. (Those aren't terms from this book, but the ones that are used make about as much sense, and look like keysmashes.)

And finally, the events of the plot were largely meaningless. Kaia and Joe came up against very little real difficulty - they'd run into one little problem, solve it, and move on. Like I was reading a novelisation of a video game, but with no weapons and focused entirely on dull sidequests. Free a random kid from a trap. Break into a house to rest and acquire food. Play a carnival game. Get into a fistfight. Paddle at the beach.

I'm definitely not picking this one back up again, but it might suit a much younger reader than it's advertised for. Give it to a 10 year old and they'll probably be happy. But give it to a teenager at your own risk.

[TheCosyDragon]

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

While running from bullies, Joe finds himself thrown into a new world where he is likely to actually be killed. Joe’s hearing isn’t so good normally, and his ability to understand the new language is even worse. What he does work out is that the Carcassians are mislead from top to toe, but there isn’t much he can do about it.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this novel. I wanted something fantasy because I was sick of teenage drama. No fear here – a scrap of ‘isn’t she pretty’, but otherwise fantasy running wild. Very satisfying and light to read.

What I liked about this novel was that the main character was flawed in a way that younger readers are going to be able empathise with. There is nothing like a protagonist that could be a regular person, and really isn’t anything special. It makes people feel like they will be travelling with them.

It has been a while since I read a true teenage or early tween novel and I had forgotten that they are usually plot driven. That being said, I didn’t put this novel down. I was intrigued by the things that were going wrong, and honestly, pretty mad at the Carcassians. Sticking your head in the sand isn’t going to solve anything!

I’m going to compare this to The Dragon of the Month Club, and suggest that the latter has more to offer in terms of character development. However, it no doubt could be difficult to source in Australia.

I’m going to err on the side of niceness here and give it 4 stars, even though I tossed up giving it 3. I don’t want to short change a nice new offering that thinks about power solutions in a way that tweens are going to understand. The environment matters!

[Miriam Atkinson]

Both before I started reading and during, one of the things that made The Crystal Run sound so appealing was the promise of mysteries waiting to be solved – such as what really happens to the Runners at the end of their journey, how was Joe able to enter Carcassia, and what caused the division between the two nations of Carcassia and Kanabia. The novel is the first in a series so I was not expecting O’Flanagan to provide all of the answers at once however frustratingly The Crystal Run does not answer any questions at all. Normally mysteries intrigue me and make me want to read more but in this case, when the characters and ultimately the reader end the novel with more or less the same information they started with, it leaves me feeling annoyed and frustrated rather than excited to find out what happens next. The sequel Shield of Lies was published in 2018. I have not yet read the novel so I do not know if this will conclude the series or if there are more books to follow. The Crystal Run has a lot of potential as a new fantasy world but I believe there is now a lot of pressure on the sequel to deliver at least some of the story’s answers.

[Louise]

Read this alongside my daughter and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Excellent story line, initially starts with bullying which opened up great discussions and following the journey of the 2 main characters you wanted them to succeed! I took my daughter to a book event and had the pleasure of meeting Sheila in Birmingham, an exciting opportunity for my daughter to discuss the book and also ask what's going to happen next as she was hooked!

[Pauline]

Full review upon release

[Trisha]

Might have to process this one for a bit.

[LaSibila]

O terminó abruptamente ... o a mi audiolibro le faltó algo!!!!