Fair warning, when you pick up this book, you should be prepared to sit for a few hours because the action in this thriller is nonstop. I did not know it at the time that this is one of Blake Crouch's older books but I could tell because it is more action and running for your life if you hadn't seen the lights visible in the sky one night because they will hunt you down and kill you. It is much less science fiction technical but I still enjoyed and and as I said, it was hard to put it down because Jack and his family had to keep fleeing, first but car, then on foot over mountains. I recently traveled over the Rockies and I can tell you that trying to do that on foot would be crazy though I guess I would try it if I had people trying to kill me. So a thrilling ride, and also nicely creepy with people reciting on the radio names and addresses of the families that had not seen the lights, plus not being able to trust anyone because this kind of a situation was shoot first because you couldn't tell if people had been affected or not. So much death but also the strength of family keeping everyone together and safe no matter the cost. It was not as good as, say Recursion, but I still enjoyed reading it and getting the chance to know Jack, Dee, Naomi, and Cole and the lengths they go to to stay alive and together.

We start with a spate of very violent crimes. Brutal. Senseless. Unconnected. Or are they ? School shootings, mass murder, many dead. But why ? And things are escalating... Governments are baffled but plead for peace. To no avail. The violence escalates further and the killers, although initially isolated, start to gather. To prey further on the innocent. To facilitate this, they broadcast names and addresses... and this is where we start... when Jack hears his name and address. He is home with his wife and two children. They are coming for them. To kill them... the only option left to them, as the title of the book suggests, is to RUN! And so begins a cat and mouse chase with Jack and his family trying to evade and outrun the killers, at the same time as sort of also trying to work out what in the heck is going on, and why? Yes it does get a bit samey along the way as all that really happens is that they come across the baddies and take certain steps to evade or fight back. We do get to a crossroads later on where things get a bit more worrying, but it does take a wee while to get there. That said, it never dragged or got boring and the destination was definitely worth the meandering journey. If I have one criticism it is that the focus was mainly towards the action rather than the characters and I would have liked it to be a bit more character driven at times. It is worth noting that this is a re-release of one of the author's early books and I guess it shows that he has come a long way since writing it. But it is also important to note that without it, he also wouldn't be the author he is today...