The Rising by Heather Graham and Jon Land

The Rising by Heather Graham and Jon Land is an ambitious sci-fi thriller featuring two young protagonists, a world-threatening mystery and lots of action. Alex Chin is captain of the football team and one of the most popular kids in school and on track to a college scholarship. Samantha Dixon is his tutor and left her own athletic career behind to pursue academics. She has a highly coveted NASA internship that places her on her own path to success. A freak football accident lands Alex in the hospital. Alex’s doctor discovers a medical anomaly and is murdered and so are Alex’s adoptive parents, who die trying to preserve secrets about Alex that even he is unaware of. When he flees for his life, Samantha refuses to leave his side. They end up on the run and unsure of who to trust. To survive, they must unravel the secrets of Alex’s past and prevent a disaster that could bring about the end of the world as we know it.

Graham’s skill with suspense and romance blend well with Land’s strength in action sequences. The action centers around Alex and Samantha’s efforts to discover the truth and prevent disaster from happening, all while on the run up and down the California coast. It soon becomes apparent that more than one group is after Alex and Samantha, some of whom want to help, some who don’t. The action scenes are well done and interesting. The mystery of who Alex is and why he is there is a little convoluted and ultimately unsatisfying. The main characters are believable and have some depth to them, but aren’t terribly interesting. The other characters are a bit thinly drawn so it’s hard to know what to make of them.

The audio version of the book is narrated by Luke Daniels. Daniels does an effective job distinguishing among the characters in the book. Each voice is quite distinct. He also complements the pace of the story with the pace and emotion of his reading. This is sometimes hampered by the structure of the book which is broken up into small chapters with some of the breaks coming in mid-conversation for reasons that are unclear. Some of the choices he makes for character voices are a little over the top and verge on distracting.

The Rising is a solid sci-fi thriller that concludes its story arc and sets itself up for a sequel. The mystery is a little underwhelming and characterization, particularly of the antagonists, could be stronger but an entertaining read.

I received an advance copy of this book.

Description: Twenty-four hours. That's all it takes for the lives of two young people to be changed forever.

Alex Chin has the world on a plate. A football hero and homecoming king with plenty of scholarship offers, his future looks bright. His tutor, Samantha Dixon, is preparing to graduate high school at the top of her class. She plans to turn her NASA internship into a career.

When a football accident lands Alex in the hospital, his world is turned upside down. His doctor is murdered. Then, his parents. Death seems to follow him wherever he goes, and now it's after him.

Alex flees. He tells Samantha not to follow, but she became involved the moment she walked through his door and found Mr. and Mrs. Chin as they lay dying in their home. She cannot abandon the young man she loves. The two race desperately to stay ahead of Alex's attackers long enough to figure out why they are hunting him in the first place. The answer lies with a secret buried deep in his past, a secret his parents died to protect. Alex always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the real reason his birth parents abandoned him. He never knew where he truly came from. Until now.