Planesrunner

Planesrunner (Everness, 1) by Ian McDonald, December 6, 2011. 274 pages. Published by Pyr. Source: Publisher for review.

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!

First Sentence:

The car was black. 

It has been...months...since I first read Planesrunner, but the writing, setting, and brilliance of the concept is still bright in my memory. Character names are a different story though (am bad with names).

Planesrunner by far surpassed all my expectations, and that was just within the first couple of pages in the book. What really helped to make this one stand out from the crowd would have to be the writing of Ian McDonald paired with his great storytelling and flawed, but believable characters.

You know what is mind-blowing, this book and the way the author pulled the entire book together with the whole planesrunner business. I thought it madly awesome the way he described the Infundibulum, the Heisenberg Gate and how both of them worked.
The inner workings of this book and all the different worlds that were opened up the Everett were just incredible. I loved that there were similarities between the different planes, and yet each one of them remained vastly different from the others. It was just a treat to dive into this book and see where things were going to go and how the Everett would adapt to the changes that he came across.

Everett was an enjoyable character to read about because he did not come across as self absorbed. For one thing he traveled to a different plane to save his father. Besides that, I liked that he thought on his feet. Usually when a character is thrust into the unknown they mentally shutdown, but Everett just adapted to the situation and kept moving forward, which made for some interesting reading.
Now, Captain Sixsmyth was one cool lady. I liked that she was willing to give Everett a chance, but not at the expense of her crew (which was more like her family).

I really liked that the author included a lexicon in the back of the book. It really helped with the slang that Sen used throughout the book, which made it even more enjoyable because you knew what the character meant when they said something that sounded just a little strange. Plus, I just like books that have a need for a lexicon, especially when they include one.

Even though I enjoyed this one, I do have one thing that I found myself not liking while I read it. While I absolutely loved the concept of the book and how the author pulled everything together, I had trouble with how those of the other planes came to know of each other. Now, I am thinking that the problem is with my memory and that it has been some time since I had the chance to read it- and not having it to reference at the moment. I probably actually know (deep in my brain) how they found out about the other planes, but at the moment cannot recall how so...

Final Verdict: Planesrunner now this is science fiction at its best!

Planesrunner earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.