#BookReview: Revolution Empire (History Never Retreats, #1) by Rob Travalino

Synopsis: In a bleak, dystopian future surveillance state, a band of teens rises from society’s lowest classes to incite an eerily familiar revolution.

“I was born here, in this forgotten hole a mile un’er t’Empire streets. They call it t’Sewers. T’is the place where Boss Dog Magistrate dumps his trash. Us…”

Huddled under a narrow slash of light in a dank and debris-strewn alley of Regent Street, seventeen-year-old Donovan Washington Rush quickly scribbled the words across the cracked, yellowed pages of an old hand-bound journal. Barely bigger than his hand, the book overflowed with a lifetime of maps, all surrounded by musings on freedom, tyranny, and rights. It was all that was left of Donovan’s father, Dr. Princeton Rush, a man long since thought dead by the Empire’s hand.

Here in the relative anonymity of the underground maze he called home, Donovan knew he was being watched—not just by the hidden electronic eyes of the Empire, but by the people of the Sewers themselves, compelled to complicity by the Empire’s constant messages of fear and reprisal. The Empire had its eyes everywhere.

For Donovan, possessing such a book as Dr. Rush’s journal was a “Black Flag” offense—an act of subversion punishable by public execution. Yet the Empire was where Donovan and the book were both headed. This made for two forbidden crimes under one cover.

“They call us “Sewer Rats” but these Sewers once made up t’original city, t’very seat of t’Empire. T’is t’seat for sure, right un’er Boss Dog’s ass. T’nite it changes. T’nite I take the first step fo’ my brothers and sisters o’ the sword, fo’ t’Sewers whole…Freedom or death!”



Goodreads | Amazon

Rating: 3 Stars
My Review: For me this book was weird but in a good way.  I fell head first into the story and although at times I felt that I was lost.  I think this one would make a really good movie or tv show.  This one would be one for those who love history and alternative history regardless of your age.  

Review

“Filled with concepts and challenges so increasingly familiar in today’s chaotic world, Revolution Empire presents a thought-provoking and inspiring lesson into the often brutal truth of absolute power and the preciousness of the freedom that can defeat it.” -- April Thome, Director, KATS; Founder of HomeLink Yakima, a leading homeschool curriculum, training, and support program

“Serious though its themes are, Revolution Empire is above all entertaining. Highly readable. It will find a big audience and so its ideas will be deservedly spread wide. Stories like Revolution Empiregive us hope that the young will leave behind a better world than that which previous generations have handed them.” -- Geale Peter Lawrence, Author, Screenwriter, Producer

“Revolution Empire: Book One is an immersive and quite subversive tale…. To pull the reader deep into a web of dystopian oppression and thrilling intrigue, Rob has created a strange new world that will be eerily familiar to careful readers and students of history…. By the conclusion of Book One, readers will be eager to join forces with Donovan the Sewer Rat as they learn one of life’s most important lessons, ‘Freedom is not given. It is taken.’" -- H. Kirk Bozigian, Practitioner Faculty of Marketing, Providence College; Former Vice President of Marketing, Hasbro, Inc.

About the Author

Rob Travalino is a Telly, Effie, Gemini, and Emmy Awards winner. He has been a creator, screenwriter, author, and marketing expert for twenty-plus years and has overseen, or contributed to, the development and realization of some of the world’s most powerful and lasting franchises.

As an independent content developer, Rob co-created and story-edited the Gemini Award–winning Alliance Atlantis TV show Dragon Booster, which aired on Toon Disney, and developed the Emmy Award–winning teen property Growing up Creepie for Mike Young Productions and Discovery TV. As a marketing executive, Rob oversaw the development of fully integrated and multi-platform content and brand initiatives for Lucasfilm, Hasbro, Warner Brothers, and many others. He also helped relaunch both the Transformers and Batman franchises for kids TV.

A member of the Directors Guild of America, Rob continues to consult on narrative content across the media spectrum. He graduated magna cum laude from Iona College in New York, with a focus on broadcasting and journalism.

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Posted in: 3 Stars, Indie Published, Review, Young Adult