fork this life: Volume One

by Ryan Rutan

A computer savvy teenage boy is uprooted by his parents’ abrupt divorce and forced to relocate from the East Coast to small-town Texas. He traverses his way through high school, relationships and early adulthood in search of his place in a world ensnared by the rise of personal computing, technology and the Internet in the 1990’s.

It’s 2007 and after waking up in the throes of a vicious hangover, he finds himself reliving his life choices and relationships from the past twenty years to help make sense of the present and find a way forward. A series of serendipitous encounters, none more impactful than the owner of the local computer shop, channels his talents and opens his mind to a brighter future full of unique life experiences, pop-culture trivia and a definition of family that he never knew was possible. But ... nothing lasts forever. Life, love and technology all inevitably change and a vicious game of entropy forces him and his friends to use their skills to race the clock and save their jobs, home and family from a looming tidal wave of urban sprawl.This novel is for nerds, by a nerd, and pays tribute to all those who lived at the bleeding edge of technology during the mid-late 1990’s, a pivotal era of technical innovation ushered humanity from the digital dark ages and into a more open and connected and informed world.

406 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2020

About the author

Ryan Rutan is a devout husband, father, technologist and nerd. From an early age, he found joy in math, computers and theater, which emerged as passions in his life fostering exciting and unique career opportunities. His first literary work, The Adventures of the Polar Elf Innovation Squad, is a children’s book derived from an IoT project called PolarPort. Armed with a bevy of life experiences and interesting stories, he chose to write his first fiction novel, fork this life : Volume One, about growing up during the rise of the Internet. Ryan currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, two daughters, dog, cat, turtle, rabbit, ferrets and chickens and is always looking for new things to learn. #nerdhuman #feminist #GirlDad #multipotentialite

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful read. Rutan nailed characterization and narrative flow. It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that spent a lot of time really developing the motivations of supporting characters. The reader has a chance to get to know and care about these people. I cheered their successes and felt genuinely bad for their conflicts and failures. This is a great coming-of-age story in the rise of the internet in the late 90s. There’s enough computer jargon in it for savvy readers, but don’t let the technobabble run you off if that’s not your thing. The meat and potatoes of this story is about people. It was a fun read, and likely one I’ll return to again. It’s got the “comfort” factor of a favorite chair. Well done!

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this and give it five stars. The author is a former colleague of mine and a good guy.

But this book needs a harsh editor. A few misspelled words here, repetitive passive voice there, and a
lot of words that don't move the story along over there... it was just kind of tiring. The first chapter felt especially thrown together, before we even got to know the characters.

On the plus side, it was an interesting story, and many of the characters were well developed. If you can make it past the first chapter, and if you can skim through the slow parts, it's a good read.

Maybe 3.5 stars if I were feeling especially generous, but not today.