about the book
Young Will West’s parents are a bit different from normal parents of fifteen-year-olds. Get mediocre grades, they tell him; never, ever run as hard or as fast as you can; never, ever stand out in any way!
The problem about all this is that Will is a genius, and he can run supernaturally fast. He was just born that way. So when he accidentally scores off the charts on a national standards exam, suddenly everyone is noticing him. Everyone his parents wanted to keep away….
An exclusive prep school begins pestering Will to come and join them. Black sedans begin following him to and from school. Then his parents go missing, and Will’s only option is to take refuge with the questionably motivated Center for Integrated Learning. Here, in order to find where his parents have gone, he is tested to hone his genius intellect and also to explore just how fast he is able to sprint—which is at superhuman speeds.
Just when he thinks he has some of the school figured out, though, Will learns that he is being trained to become a part of a massive war that has raged for thousands of years.
about the author
Mark Frost was born in Brooklyn, but raised in Los Angeles—which has made him a lifelong Lakers fan—and then in Minneapolis—which has made him a Vikings fan. In Minneapolis he worked and studied at the Guthrie Theater during high school, then went on to study acting, playwriting, and directing at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Shortly after college Mark’s career in television and film began, as he wrote episodes of TV shows like “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Hill Street Blues,” and the now-legendary “Twin Peaks” TV series in 1989. After “Twin Peaks” was canceled, Mark had the opportunity to produce a feature film prequel for the series called “Fire Walk with Me.”
Mark’s novel career started in 1993 with the publication of his first book, The List of Seven, and then its sequel, The Six Messiahs. His non-fiction book, The Greatest Game Ever Played, about golf, was turned into a documentary film in 2006, during which time Mark also helped Fox and Marvel Studios write the Fantastic Four films. Many other films and TV shows followed.
Today Mark lives back in Los Angeles with his wife and son. He loves going to Lakers games, and though they have broken his heart many, many times, he still watches the Vikings when he gets the chance.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Miss Literati
Also by Mark Frost:
Alliance (Paladin Prophecy, Book 2. Random House Books for Young Readers. 2014.
read more!
Alliance (Paladin Prophecy, Book 2) by Mark Frost
After the Knights of Charlemagne attacked Will and his super-powered friends, his family was lost in the fray. Will knows he is part of the Paladin Prophecy and that a war is coming. He needs to be able to harness his friends’ powers to stop the Other Team. But when Will is betrayed, he must decide if he will cooperate with the enemy…and save his friends’ lives and maybe even his own.
The Returners by Gemma Malley
All his life Will has been haunted by dreams of concentration camps and cruelty. Now he finds out he is a Returner, and his dreams are really memories of his past lives of cruelty and inhuman treatment. Other Returners try to contact him to warn him that a new ethnic cleansing is about to take place, and that his own father might be the cause.
The Broken Lands by Kate Milford
It is 1877, and the Brooklyn Bridge is going up over the East River. Evil forces are attempting to use the natural power in the crossroads of the world—and there isn’t a bigger crossroad than the Bridge at this time—for creating their own little hell. Two orphans, card shark Sam and fireworks expert Jin, are all that stand in their way.