The Long Run

by Daniel Keys Moran

Book Overview

Few of the telepaths survived the massacre by the United Nations Peaceforce. Seven years later, the last telepaths, Denice and Trent, are marked by the Peaceforce, and will die unless Trent can carry... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553281445
• ISBN13: 9780553281446
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Novel - corrected version though

Daniel Keys Moran (DKM) launches straight into the story, which I love. And once the story gets going there are very few breaks in the action. The book is set in the Manhattan of the future (about 200 years out) but DKM writes as if it's modern day. What I mean by that is he doesn't explain the technology he invents for the future. A modern day author wouldn't write "The phone rang [a phone is a device that one holds to their ear so they can speak with a person any distance away]." DKM doesn't either, as the story continues you understand what these items are from context. Some readers might find this frustrating. Personally I felt like it made the world more real and that DKM thought his readers had the intelligence needed to figure it out. IE he didn't talk down to us. I found the world very realistic. I like Star Trek and all that, but most future stories the world is either a post apocalyptic cesspool or a sterile everything is solved utopia. In TLR the world is exactly as it is today - corrupt politicians, good politicians, well intentioned government institutions gone awry etc. It might feel a little more apocalyptic because the main character is a thief who just moved away from the slums but the whole world isn't like that. It is a classic anti-hero story: a guy who didn't plan to take a stand but wound up doing so anyway. He is a very principled bad guy, a pacifist who crusades against drug dealers, a sort of Robin Hood thief. The book isn't about any of those things, that's just a snapshot of what the main character is like. I found it to be wildly entertaining, riveting, and witty. It is the second of 3 books. I would read this one first however. The first book, Emerald Eyes, is much harder to read (not as well written) when you go into it cold. If you read TLR first then you already understand the world and you are interested in the lives of the characters, so it's easier to get immersed in and care about the plot of EE. The Last Dancer is the third book. I personally thought it was the most boring of the three, but I am in love with the character Trent and he is barely mentioned in TLD, so that may be why. I find all three to be a worthwhile read and would wholeheartedly endorse them. I hope you love them as much as I did. On a related note, the author planned 26 (I believe) books in this series and references those other tales. He knows the birth dates, death dates, and major life events of all the characters he introduces and I believe his books benefit greatly from this. He has a real world and real characters in his head. Sadly of the 26 books he has, to my knowledge, only written these 3. Equally sadly about 20 years after writing The Long Run he went back and "improved" it on it's re-release. I did not find any of his changes to be improvements and indeed there are many typos in the new version. Presumably he started changing sentences and didn't finish or changed his mind. This is his corrected v

I'd give it more that five stars if I could.

Not only is Trent one of the best characters but Moran's writing is superb and his world is all encompassing and immersive. Great book and great writer. I have two copies. I cannot wait for another book.

One of the best Cyberpunk novels around

This novel quickly sucks you in with its richly imagined, plausible but ever-so-slightly off kilter alternate "future history". This is the second novel in the "Tales of the Continuing Time" and follows a young, gene-modified thief named Trent as he emerges from a comfortable coccoon of technology and close friendships to the bigger, badder world around him. The sweep and vista of the novel grow with the character as you begin to discover that he's not just a VERY smart near-future hacker, but one of two remaining genetically engineered humans that are quite simply homo superior.The back-story for this novel is what really makes it unique. It helps if you've read the previous novel (Emerald Eyes) but it's not required since Moran fills in more than enough detail to keep you up to speed. The alternate future where a reorganized United Nations overcomes and occupies America (think the West Bank writ really, really large) and has to contend with a dozen different species of American "terrorists" rings very true, especially considering how the real world has turned out (think 9/11)...It's fast paced and eventful, and all in all, it leaves you breathless and wanting more...luckily the author has written one more book in this series -- The Last Dancer. Read Emerald Eyes and then RUN out and buy the next novel.

Incredible

This book blew me away. Daniel Keys Moran had been recommended to me by a friend, who had only read The Last Dancer because the the rarity of the books. I had also seen his books pop up on "The top 100 SciFi" lists on the Internet. So I tried looking for his books with no luck. Then I found them on an Internet auction site. I paid top dollar for used paperback editions, and lost a few auctions because the price got too high.I read Armageddon Blues, and was disappointed. The writing style was a little rough. It started out good, but either the book went down the tube, or I started to lose interest. Because of my disappointment, I didn't read any of his other books for a while. Then I decided to read Emerald Eyes. The writing was again a little rough for about 100 pages, and then it started to get good. Now that was a good book. I thought to myself, "he can't top that." I went ahead and read The Long Run. Wow. Again, the first part of the book was a little slow, but it was a better beginning than Emerald Eyes. Many of the characters that were briefly introduced in Emerald Eyes were full blown and developed in The Long Run. I've read books before that were hard to put down, but this one was the hardest. I don't think I've ever read a book that got my heart beating in anticipation like this one did. This is one of the best books I've ever read.I'm looking forward to reading The Last Dancer, and anxiously await any books that follow. I don't know why the author or publisher are taking so long for the other books to come out, but once they're out there where people can buy them, they'll start making a lot of money.

what a find!

I found this lying around in the break room where i work. 24 hours later i'd finished it. What a detailed and deliteful tale! Aside from some minor stumbling plot points the text read itself. the information was densely packed yet immediatly readable. Its been a long time since i've enjoyed a sci-fi book this much. So i came online to find other books. only to find that they are out of print...if you can find copies of this book, read them..then hunger for the others as i do.