Gyration

by B.W. Morris

Months after the Six Pack has fled City 37N104W, Tyler Ward wonders how much longer the Underground Network can wait before making its next move against the Novusordo government. His desire to take action is pushed after five more students disappear from Monroe Secondary School. And when he learns Professor Roger Woods is in trouble, Tyler is convinced the Six Pack must take matters into its own hands, even if it means defying the Network. But actions have consequences, and those that Tyler and his friends take will impact everyone they encounter – including themselves.

Kindle Edition

Published May 21, 2018

About the author

B.W. Morris, a longtime writer for small-town newspapers, is a comic book geek who put his overactive imagination to work through novel writing. His debut novel, Six Pack: Emergence, will be followed by a second book in the series to be released in the coming months. Born in Texas but grew up in Colorado, Morris has also lived in New Mexico and Oklahoma and currently resides in Kingman, Kan. He is a member of the Kansas Writers Association and volunteers his time for the Kingman County Humane Society.

Reviews

[Brett Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read the first book in the Six Pack series, I was pretty excited to find the second book, Gyration. The short of it is that I enjoyed this one even more than the last. As with the previous book, there were some things that had to happen as a superhero story (and this time as a sequel) in order for me to like it. The first is it had to have clear defined action and balance it with some introspection. Comics accomplish this visually, so the book had to have crisp mental imagery with a depth of character development. Since it's book two, I really needed to see that the characters have grown, that an arc is in place.

Six Pack: Gyration met all my criteria. I felt the arcs for Tyler and Jessica were each the strongest and most interesting. It may be through that bias that I felt like they got the lion's share of narrative time (the book switches perspectives across chapters). The other Six Pack members have solid development as well, but for me the series is developing into Tyler and Jessica's story.

There are several new characters introduced in this book and some tragic things that befall ones established in the previous book. Somehow, with such an array of characters, Mr. Morris manages to tell not just a coherent story, but a balanced and compelling one. On occasion some style choices were made that rifled with my personal sensibilities, but it's less pronounced this time than in the first book. It's really a minor frustration amid a lot of enjoyment. To put things in context, I read this book and Stan Lee and Stuart Moore's The Zodiac Legacy right around the same time. They are fairly similar in style (both are multi-book urban fantasy/superhero stories). Having read both I prefer the Six Pack. Both are enjoyable, but it feels like more time is given to growing the characters in Six Pack while also giving each character's unique voice to the story.

After everything that goes down in Gyration, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[Eli Celata · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the first book in the series had an accelerating pace which wrapped you up in a whirlwind of adventure of which Marvel would've been jealous, Gyration meanders in the beginning, reminding its reader with what has happened in a reflective depression reminiscent of Collins' Mockingjay. These psychological touches fleshes out the reality of the group's situation.

There are a few chunky phrases. Morris has a blunt, straightforward narrative voice that creates gritty realism but also stumbles into dry descriptions at times. I'll be interested to see what comes next as I'm a firm believer in third books being the tells of a good author. Seconds, even for the best, often have a sort of stressed responsibility and connectivity to them, and the weight can at times be seen in the dialogue.

All in all, a good book in an interesting serious that I would recommend.