I enjoyed this book, the debut novel from DC Pierson. It's the story of Darren Bennett, a socially awkward teenager growing up in the greater Phoenix area. Darren spends most of his time working on Time Blaze, a sci-fi movie trilogy, with supplemental books to fill in the gaps. Made me think of James Cameron and the whole Avatar/Pandora thing he's got cooking. Darren's isolation is ultimately broken up when he meets Eric Lederer. I like how the two just sort of fall into being friends. Eric compliments Darren's drawings in math class one day, and the next thing you know, they're collaborating on Time Blaze, spending all their time together. There's a Gary and Wyatt/Weird Science quality that I liked about these two.
Eric is the boy who can't sleep, not a night in his life that he can remember. Darren keeps the secret until Eric steals his girl. Once the cat is out of the bag, there's a mysterious guy trying to bring them in, and they spend the last third of the book eluding capture. This is where Pierson weaves in some sci-fi of his own. The mystery guy appears because Eric can transfer things from the world of his imagination to the real world of metropolitan Phoenix, a byproduct of his sleep deprivation. During the climax, we see some other things form the world of Time Blaze, and I guess that type of sci-fi thing may work for some people. It's not really my cup of tea, so I didn't enjoy the last third of the book as much, but it wasn't enough to ruin it for me. This is a nice little tale of friendship, and I look forward to seeing more from Pierson.
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