We are proud to announce the release of Benjamin Dancer’s Patriarch Run today.

Dancer paints a powerful father-and-son tale through vivid language and a gripping page-turning plot that also deftly touches on topics affecting the world today. Patriarch Run can be purchased through our website, Amazon, and booksellers nationally.

In Patriarch Run, the story’s main character Jack Erikson was deployed to China to protect the United States from a cyberattack. Now suffering from a drug-induced amnesia, he is unable to recognize his own son. What Jack knows for sure is that an elite group of operators is determined to kill him. What he does not yet remember is that he controls a cyber weapon powerful enough to return human civilization to the Stone Age. If Jack lives long enough to piece together his mission and his identity, he will be forced to choose between the fate of humankind and that of his own family.

Lurking beneath this tale are real dangers that could radically alter the course of human history, drawn from extensive research Dancer conducted on overpopulation, sustainability, and the possibility of a manmade or solar electromagnetic pulse (EMP) debilitating our power grid, essentially grinding civilization to a halt.

Through narrative, and never treatise, Dancer describes these realities through the eyes and actions of his characters. As the Director of Public Relations for the Colorado EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, which is the Colorado branch of a Congressional Advisory Board, Dancer has discussed EMP and other global threats with major thought leaders in the field, including Dr. Peter Vincent Pry.

Dr. Pry is executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security and author of the influential Blackout Wars, one of the most authoritative sources on the vulnerability of our power grid infrastructure. Dr. Pry is one of many respected writers, scientists, arms and military experts, government officials, professors, and environmental advocates who have praised Dancer’s writing, storytelling, and ability to fictionalize these themes accurately in Patriarch Run.

Here’s just a sampling of the praise Dancer’s book has received:

“Truly marvelous. Patriarch Run is a breathless thriller disguising a heart of pure poetry; a literary meditation clutching a straight razor behind its back. Bold, beautifully written, and surprising page-by-page, this is one of the most assured debuts I’ve ever read. Benjamin Dancer is the real thing.” - MARCUS SAKEY, bestselling author of The Brilliance Trilogy.

“Patriarch Run accomplishes something few thrillers have achieved: it gets the guns right, and it gets the psychology of the gunfight right. Benjamin Dancer writes the gunfight scenes with a realism seldom seen in fiction.” - LT. COL. DAVE GROSSMAN, author of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society and On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace

“Patriarch Run is a hard-shooting kick of a thriller. The first time through, I read it in a rush, my head on fire. But it’s also a novel shot through with intelligence and humanity. So the second time, I put the fires out and forced myself to read slow and cold, taking in Dancer’s every insightful word. This is a spectacular book, and I can’t recommend it more.” - BENJAMIN WHITMER, author of Pike and Cry Father

“Patriarch Run captures the vulnerability of our nation’s critical infrastructure. In this case the fiction is as frightening as the reality. A seemingly futuristic story about a new way of warfare, played out against a seemingly futuristic background of disillusioned patriotism, divided personal loyalties, and identity crisis-except Dancer understands that the future is now!” – DR. PETER VINCENT PRY.

“Benjamin Dancer has illustrated that our greatest villain is overpopulation. Can the global community confront this most daunting adversary—too many people on a limited planet?” - PAUL R. EHRLICH, Bing Professor of Population Studies Emeritus; President, Center for Conservation Biology

“In Old Testament times, there were only about 30 million people on Earth, yet they were already fighting over wells. With 250 times that number today, as Benjamin Dancer’s thriller notes, we’re literally fighting over everything. Atop that, nature is fighting all of us, for its very life. Overpopulation isn’t just one more environmental problem: if there weren’t so many of us, there wouldn’t even be environmental problems. Fortunately, this one is solvable, humanely and surprisingly cheaply. I hope that once the blood from this dark spy saga dries, Dancer’s readers are inspired to inquire how. They just might find their hopes rekindled.” - ALAN WEISMAN, author of Countdown and The World Without Us

As part of the book’s promotional tour, Dancer is being interviewed by several radio stations in the U.S. He has also created a launch team to assist in the promotion of the book and its ideas. If you are interested in interviewing Dancer or featuring his work, we encourage you to visit his website — benjamindancer.com — for additional information, as well as to download a media kit. The media kit provides contact information, sample question-and-answer topics, and a deeper discussion of the book’s themes and story.

We will announce Dancer’s radio interviews and other press he receives on our Facebook page. If you are a fan of Dancer’s work and Conundrum Press, we encourage you to share this post.

Author Bio:

Benjamin Dancer is the author of the literary thriller Patriarch Run, the first book in a series that will include Fidelity and The Story of the Boy. He also writes about parenting, education, sustainability, and national security. He is the Director of Public Relations for the Colorado EMP Task Force On National and Homeland Security, which is the Colorado branch of a Congressional Advisory Board.

Benjamin also works as an Advisor at a Colorado high school where he has made a career out of mentoring young people as they come of age. His work with adolescents has informed his stories, which are typically themed around fatherhood and coming-of-age. You can connect with Benjamin by signing up for his newsletter or by participating in the conversation on his book and its themes on his blog at benjamindancer.com.

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Article by Stephen J. McConnell, director of marketing and content for Conundrum Press. Golden, Colorado-based Conundrum Press publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, focusing primarily on authors who live in the Rocky Mountain region. We are committed to their success.