Delighted to share my review for Dan Antion and his debut novel Knuckleheads: Dreamer’s Alliance Book 1.
About the book
Zach and Billy didn’t ask for the paranormal powers that were beyond their capacity to understand, or control. Zach, interacting with his lucid dreams, and Billy, “gifted “with shadowy glimpses of the future struggle to make sense of the world around them. Adults in authority in the nineteen sixties have no time for what they consider mental outliers of the baby-boom.
The boys are institutionalized, marginalized, and ignored. Zach’s father learns of the challenges they face as children and knows the dangers they will face as adults. With no way to comprehend how these boys perceive and move within their world, he must find a way to guide them.
If you like speculative fiction with a touch of technology, humanity and a bit of sarcasm shared among men, you will enjoy this book.
My review for the book October 29th 2022
This is not just a coming of age story set in the 60s, with teenagers coming to grips with life, tragedy and the challenges of finding their way in the future. It is an intriguing exploration of the world of those with special gifts.
Zach and Billy are destined to be outsiders. Both have a gift that sets them aside from their peers from early childhood and bring them to the attention of the ‘experts’ who are keen to label them and manipulate them into the accepted normalcy.
It is hard enough to find your place amongst your peers during these early years but even more challenging when you cannot reveal your true nature for fear of rejection and possible institutionalisation.
They do have an ally in Zach’s father who does his best to shield both of them by employing them in his bowling alley and teaching them street smarts to avoid detection. He is a good man who is open-minded and his approach to their gifts enables both the boys to develop them in reasonable safety and for the benefit of others as well as themselves.
The characters are interesting and relatable, as is the time period for those readers brought up in the 60s and 70s, even in other countries. Told from Zach’s perspective and in dialogue with his daughter following his retirement, the story takes the reader to the end of the school years and with a hint of what is to come next for the two boys.
I was engaged from the first page and connected with Zach and Billy and their fascinating abilities. I think most of us might think having lucid dreams where you could visit anywhere you wished or be able to foretell elements of the future, would be exciting and filled with opportunities, but as the story unfolds it becomes clear is not necessarily a gift but sometimes a curse.
It certainly does not make it easier for the boys as they navigate the teenage years or come to terms with loss of friends.
The author has done a great job with this debut novel and I will definitely be reading the next book in the series to discover how the lives of Zach, Billy and family and friends continue to develop.
Dan Antion was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up and attended college in the area around western Pennsylvania. Dan has written and published the popular No Facilities blog since 2011. A lifelong interest in writing became a reality after he retired from a successful 42-year-long career in information management.
Knuckleheads, published in June 2022, is the first book in the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. This story introduces the main characters in this series, in which the next two books will follow in late summer and early winter 2022.
Dan lives in Connecticut with his wife, a few pets and all the wildlife they can feed.
Thanks for dropping in today and it would be much appreciated if you could spread the news about Dan’s book.. Thanks Sally.
Delighted to welcome Dan Antion to the bookshelf with his debut novel Knuckleheads: Dreamer’s Alliance Book 1 with book 2 available shortly.
About the book
Zach and Billy didn’t ask for the paranormal powers that were beyond their capacity to understand, or control. Zach, interacting with his lucid dreams, and Billy, “gifted “with shadowy glimpses of the future struggle to make sense of the world around them. Adults in authority in the nineteen sixties have no time for what they consider mental outliers of the baby-boom.
The boys are institutionalized, marginalized, and ignored. Zach’s father learns of the challenges they face as children and knows the dangers they will face as adults. With no way to comprehend how these boys perceive and move within their world, he must find a way to guide them.
If you like speculative fiction with a touch of technology, humanity and a bit of sarcasm shared among men, you will enjoy this book.
I am delighted to rate this book –five stars. I spent a good part of a Saturday enjoying its well-thought-out chapters from cover to cover. Below are the reasons for my five-star rating.In Knuckleheads, the first in the series: Dreamer’s Alliance, author Dan Antion prepares the reader for the prism through which the light of many other books in this series will gleam. Knuckleheads is a journey through the world of the two boys as they grapple with the challenges of those labels concomitant with their special giftings. Giftings that few around them understand; including the boys themselves.
The book chronicles the boys’ individual struggles from childhood to adulthood with a view to explaining their often rocky friendship. Particular attention was paid to the traumas of the boys’ childhood and to those people, places, and events that shaped their trajectory into adulthood.
The story is told from the beautifully crafted and heartwarming perspective of one of the boys (now an adult) sharing his life story with his daughter over a cup of coffee. The trials the two main characters endured I found to be a relatable and often poignant commentary on society’s influence on its youth, the devastating effects of bullying, and the marginalization of children whose giftings do not comfortably fit society’s crisp labels.
Knuckleheads was successful in its premise, its storytelling, and its character development. Therefore, I believe that his first book sets the reader up comfortably to consume later offerings in the Dreamers’ Alliance series. I look forward to the next book in this series.
Dan Antion was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up and attended college in the area around western Pennsylvania. Dan has written and published the popular No Facilities blog since 2011. A lifelong interest in writing became a reality after he retired from a successful 42-year-long career in information management.
Knuckleheads, published in June 2022, is the first book in the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. This story introduces the main characters in this series, in which the next two books will follow in late summer and early winter 2022.
Dan lives in Connecticut with his wife, a few pets and all the wildlife they can feed.
Thanks for dropping in today and it would be much appreciated if you could spread the news about Dan’s book.. Thanks Sally.
This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
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