Kenyon applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Day One, and reported the following:Day One is about the day machines become sentient and take over New York--and the young journalist and father who must escape the city to save his wife and young son. It has a lot of action, but there's also a lot of clever surveillance that feeds the plot and the sense of paranoia and dread.Learn more about the book and author at Nate Kenyon's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.
On page 69, the city has experienced what appears to be some kind of terrorist attack. John Hawke, who was on an upper floor of a building when the attack occurred, has made his way to the lobby with a number of others. They have just fought their way down a nearly pitch-black stairwell without power, people are terrified and panicking, and nobody knows exactly what is going on.
Page 69 is a nice representation of the overall novel--there's a clear sense of panic as people try to get through the front doors, which are inexplicably locked, and at the same time, Hawke notices the surveillance camera mounted near the ceiling appears to be tracking him:
The alarms were relentless, drilling into Hawke's head. Young pulled herself away and he let her go, noticing something else strange; the security cameras mounted in the corners of the lobby that normally panned slowly back and forth were now moving deliberately, as if someone was controlling them.Then everything else is overwhelmed as a man picks up an office chair and hurls it through the glass doors and people surge out into the street:
He watched one of them swing around in his direction and stop, the camera's unblinking eye fixed on his location.It was like a dam had broken. The crowd surged forward, knocking away the rest of the glass that still hung to the frame, pushing and shoving each other to get through the opening.What happens next? You'll have to read Day One to find out!
My Book, The Movie: Day One.
--Marshal Zeringue
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