Push

The Beat Series, Volume 2

By: Jared Garrett

Narrated by: Jared Garrett

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Two months after the attack on New Frisko, Nik returns to camp to discover that Prime Administrator Holland's assassins have killed or captured most of their group - including Nik's parents. Barely escaping with their lives, Nik and his friends race to save their loved ones. Chasing clues and legends, they discover people and a world they only knew through distorted propaganda.

Desperate to free their families and stop Holland, Nik and his friends travel through what's left of America's west coast, unearthing an old, dead city that might hold the key to humanity's survival. But with brain-modified assassins on their heels, unimaginable technology being thrown against them, and what seems like an entire world out to kill them, can Nik and his friends make it in time to save what's left of humanity?

Push is the cyberpunk meets Maze Runner sequel to Amazon best seller Beat.

©2017 Jared Nathan Garrett (P)2017 Jared Nathan Garrett

Great Sequel

I loved this book! It was a great follow up to the first book Beat. I enjoyed the pacing of the story, it was written in a way that made you want to keep going! (I hate those books where you want to skip chapters to get to the meat of the story. This one didn't do that at all.) I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed the various relationships between the various characters; that is usually one of my big critiques when it comes to books told from a teenage perspective. In this case though the interactions between characters felt like a natural progression of the way relationships evolve in real life.
It ended in such a way where I'm satisfied with where the story has gone (most of my questions have been answered). Though Jared Garrett left enough open that I wouldn't mind reading another book with the same characters.
The Narration was really well done (I love listening to books where the author is the narrator) it was a really good listen. :D

Futuristic Dystopian Adventure

Push marries swashbuckling with science fiction as the protagonist overcomes layer upon layer of ever-more-impossible odds. Overall, this book is more family friendly too, which I really appreciate.

I stopped reading other books to focus on "Push"!

Recently I decided I hadn't been reading enough books. My late mother, who was a library director, would've been appalled at how few books I'd been reading. So, I put out an alert to friends to ask for suggestions in the science fiction genre. I got many recommendations and started loading up my various audiobook apps.

I began reading three books at once, alternating between them. But "Push" just kept "pushing" (sorry) its way into the forefront. I couldn't focus on the others because I wanted to know what happened next in "Push".

I'd read a paperback of "Beat", the first book, to my son. We both really enjoyed it. I'd been left wanting to know what happened to Nik and his friends. Now I was picking up where I'd left off and I was not disappointed.

So, I stopped reading James S.A. Corey's "Cibola Burn" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and just kept going with Jared Garrett's book. The action drives the story in a way that keeps you going, wanting to figure out, with Nik, how this world he's figuring out has come to be and how he can defeat Prime Administrator Holland.

And, it's easy to insert yourself into the narrative and try to see the world through Nik's eyes. As I write this review, it's an interesting time to be reading a book about a global pandemic that, among other numerous manmade and natural disasters, created a universal dystopia where a madman rules over the few humans remaining. It makes you think about how similar our situation could be as a prequel to "Beat" and "Push", complete with all the technological, privacy, and freedom implications. Another reviewer said Garrett's series is "the apocalypse of Fitbits", and that's a pretty brilliant way to put it.

I really want to say more, but I know if I do I'll probably commit the sin of revealing spoilers. Just read "Beat" if you haven't read it yet, then move on to "Push" because, like Nik in his fateful coming of age event in the first book, you won't want to stop until you know how it ends.

Don't let Zuckerberg buy FitBit

As far as dystopias go, this post-big-population tech story takes a fresh tack by peeling back the layers on our own world to show us an ugly tyranny deep within it. I appreciated the heroism, clean content, and lively performance by the author.