Trial Run ~ Review

Trial Run 
Fault Lines 1
By Thomas Locke

Time and space as we know it are about to be redefined. No longer will we be limited by our bodies instead we will only be limited by our minds and our beliefs.  So starts an exciting and thought provoking new series.

What would you do if you could enter any building anywhere in the world and yet never leave the place you are currently at?  What would you do to acquire such power?  And who would pay the costs?

Gabriella Speciale has developed such technology with the goal of helping humanity.  But she and her team have hidden themselves away in Europe hoping that their experiments will go unnoticed. But someone else, someone dangerous, Resse Clawson, has access to similar technology and she is determined to keep everyone else from this discovery - this technology.  And they are willing to kill anyone who is a threat to their goals.

But something has gone wrong.  Several of those who have attempted these trips have not come back. The question is why and how can they rescue those who are trapped in a world that is virtually unknown.

Two UCSB students suddenly find themselves at the center of attention of these two groups.  Shane Schearer and Trent Major never imagined how their lives would change because of an algorithm and a dream.

Trial Run is an exciting and intense story.  The first couple chapters help establish both the story and the main characters and then the reader is drawn into a story that has non-stop twists and turns that leave wondering what comes next.

It is also interesting to examine the two competing groups and what drives them.  Gabriella and Reese are definite contrasts and it shows in their programs.

There is a definite thread of science running throughout the entire book - it is the backbone of the story.  But don't let this scare you off if you have an aversion to science as this book is some much more than just a science story.  This a story of life and death.  Of mind over matter.  Of love and friendship.  Of human nature and its vices and virtues.

I admit it I'm anticipating book 2 and can't wait to see what comes next!

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher through their blogger program in exchange for my honest review.

About the Book:
Cutting-edge research requiring controversial experiments. Startling dreams delivering cryptic communication from the dreamer's future self. Ruthless rivals determined to control mind-bending new technology. When you're balancing on the edge of what's possible, trouble awaits, ready to push you into the abyss.

This daring psychological journey into the very nature of causation and consciousness will leave you turning the pages and grasping for solid ground--especially when it becomes clear just how much fact lies within the fiction.

Dr. Gabriella Speciale has assembled an international team of elite scientists with one goal in mind--to create and control out-of-body experiences that transcend the limits of time and space. Reese Clawson's mind-bending experiments aim to explode the boundaries of human consciousness--and annihilate the opposition in the process.

When a terrifying discovery and a string of failed tests threaten to dismantle both programs, the key to survival may reside in the mind of a gifted grad student whose unsettling dreams have thrust him into the center of a dangerous battle for control.

As the threads of perception and reality become tangled and time itself twists in unexpected directions, one warning remains clear: what you don't know can kill you.


Thomas Locke is a pseudonym for Davis Bunn, the award-winning novelist with total worldwide sales of seven million copies. His work has been published in twenty languages, and critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. Davis divides his time between Oxford and Florida and holds a lifelong passion for speculative stories. As Thomas Locke, Davis is also the author of Emissary. Learn more at www.tlocke.com.