The Park Service: Book One of The Park Service Trilogy Author: Visit Amazon's Ryan Winfield Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0988348209 | Format: EPUB
The Park Service: Book One of The Park Service Trilogy Description
About the Author
Ryan Winfield is the New York Times bestselling author of Jane's Melody, South of Bixby Bridge, and The Park Service trilogy. He lives in Seattle. To connect with Ryan, visit him at Facebook.com/RyanWinfield. - Series: The Park Service Trilogy
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Birch Paper Press (October 11, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0988348209
- ISBN-13: 978-0988348202
- Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Having read Ryan Winfield's debut novel, South of Bixby Bridge, I wondered what he'd write about next. I loved Bixby Bridge, but I was surprised that The Park Service was in such a totally different genre. Bixby Bridge is a very adult novel, while The Park Service is geared towards teen readers in the same way Harry Potter and the Hunger Games are for kids. Park Service has young people as its main characters, but the dilemmas the young people face are very adult.
The main character is Aubrey Van Houten, named for his mother who died before Aubrey could know her. Aubrey lives with his father, in a 5 story underground community, miles beneath the ground of what was once New Mexico. Everyone lives underground because of the war that was fought 900 years ago where everything on the surface was destroyed. Mankind now hangs by a thread, existing underground, living in cramped quarters, only reading about the beautiful earth that once was in books.
The story joins Aubrey at age 15, just days before the test he will take to determine what level he'll spend the rest of his life living and working on. Aubrey's father is 35, the cut-off age in Holocene II, and is now ready to join his wife in the Eden promised everyone when they die. Eden is a virtual world where you can live out eternity doing anything you wish and with with your loved ones who've passed on before you.
I can't say any more about the plot, other than to say it's very exciting, and unexpected. Park Service gives us a chance to examine who were are as a species, and whether the world really would be a better place without us. Like the Hunger Games, Winfield challenges our sacred beliefs about ourselves.
You don't get many YA books that are written from the by a man and from a male first person POV, and I love that about this book. I think that it was a refreshing change from so many YA books being told from the female POV.
The world that Mr. Winfield creates here is very well thought out and perfectly captured down to the last detail. This story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world nearly 900 years from present day. Aubrey is a young man on the verge of truly becoming a man. Little does he know how much his life is going to change. He is faced with challenges that will shape him into the man who will hopefully be able to change the world he knows for the better. Early on he meets Jimmy and forges a friendship with him that is stronger than any other relationship he has had previously. Then Hannah enters the picture rounding them out to a trio on a mission to save their world and hopefully humankind along with it.
It's so hard to do this review without posting spoilers so I am going to have to keep my comments to a minimum as far as the plot is concerned. Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed the book. The character development is very well done and really I think the plot moved along a really nice pace all through the story. Mr. Winfield is excellent with description and didn't let us down with this book.
The only thing I had a problem with, and it's really tiny, is that suddenly about 1/2 way through the book Jimmy starts cursing and he only does it a couple of times, but it seemed unnecessary and kind of out of the blue. Other than those couple of words, one use of the F word, this is a really clean YA book.
The Park Service: Book One of The Park Service Trilogy Preview
Link
Please Wait...