Daniel Keys Moran's The Long Run, like his later novel The Last Dancer, is a phenomenally entertaining science-fiction novel that is unjustly out of print today. The Long Run is the name attached to the near-mythical flight of Trent Castanaveras from UN troops, an adventure from which Trent earns the name "The Uncatchable." Trent is a genie--a genetically modified super-human--but, unlike the other genies, he is not a telepath. What he lacks in telepathy he more than makes up for with his ingenuity at elaborate heists and ingenious hacks. One day, however, Trent gets on the wrong side of the United Nations, now a powerful world-wide power that exerts an iron control over formerly sovereign nations. As a result, UN troops begin pursuing Trent in an attempt to apprehend him; he flees from the UN on a multi-planetary jaunt that generates headlines and creates an enduring legend.

In order to understand the appeal of Moran's works, one must understand that they are not so much science-fiction novels as boy's adventures or campfire yarns with science-fiction trappings. Moran isn't expounding on some deep theme, or pushing forward a moral; he's having rip-roaring fun, and he wants us to join in too. All of the classic elements are here: an immensely appealing protagonist, Trent, who is fiercely loyal to his friends and his principles, and yet who thinks little of authority; hairs-breadth escapes of ingenuity and derring-do, where Trent confounds his canniest enemies; good-hearted allies fortuitously met; and not a hint of darkness, depression, or despair anywhere. Heck, even Trent's enemies are honorable. For all the setbacks and obstacles that Trent faces, The Long Run is a fundamentally optimistic tale, where the good guy refuses to back down on his principles and still wins, and where the basically upright bad guys end up with a grudging respect for our hero.

This is, of course, a simplification: Mohammed Vance, the UN commander who leads the hunt for Trent, is not quite as good-hearted as the above paragraph would suggest, nor is the story all flowers and sunshine. But what is so appealing about The Long Run is that it is, at heart, nothing more than a good story, a boyhood fantasy (complete with macho posturing and swooning maidens) writ on a galactic scale. And it's an intelligent novel too, in the sense that all the characters are extremely competent, thereby removing the oftentimes frustrating feeling from other novels that the main characters are simply too dumb to like.

Bolstering the exciting yarn is a deep and rich background against which the action plays. Moran has envisioned a future world in which the United Nations, led by the French, has taken over Earth; rather than being the somewhat ineffectual organization it is today, the United Nations is a powerful military and political force, ruthlessly stamping out the few pockets of rebellion that still exist. At the same time, technology has advanced to the point where AI programs have achieved sentience, and mankind has colonized the solar system; it is to these distant regions, with his own AI program, that Trent escapes. What is so fascinating about all this is that Moran has clearly thought long and hard about his future history; as a result, as I felt with The Lord of the Rings, I could sense a deeper, unmentioned background to everything I was reading, a feeling that only enriched the experience.

For those already aware of Trent's story through Moran's other novels, prepare to be disappointed by the complete lack of explanation regarding perhaps the central event of Trent's legend, which I will not spoil here. For all readers, be prepared for a somewhat abrupt deus ex machina near the end of the novel that somewhat dampens Trent's inevitable victory. But aside from these nit-picky flaws, The Long Run is as fine a science-fiction adventure as I've read all year. I look forward to tracking down the rest of Moran's books.

Copyright © 2003 Steven Wu