Daylight Runner Oisin McGann

Daylight Runner by Oisin McGann. Thanks to an extreme Ice Age the old world has ended. Ash Harbor is born. It's formed inside a hollowed out mountain and located in what was South Pacific. The element is too harsh to survive outside of Ash Harbor.
16 yr old Solomon (Sol) father Gregor is missing. On the third day he receives a note and gun from his father and is picked up by the cops for questioning. Gregor is wanted for murder. Sol's father is a daylighter. There job is to clear the ice of the dome to allow in some natural sunlight.
Daylight Runner ask the question what is more important a lot of action or good dialogue? For me its the latter. Since it was reading like a good action film I was almost ready to give it a pass on the dialogue because all the best action films have a few cheesy lines. Then there were too many to ignore. I will share two examples

The following is a police officer talking to Ana Kiroa, Sol's teacher. Sol went undergound and the police are desperate to catch him

"There'll be a lot of people without lights tonight, water and electricity too. All because of a walkway collapse. The mayor is not happy and neither am I. Anybody who messes with my city, Ms. Kiroa will end up dealing with me. I'll find the cancers that did this and when I do I am going to enjoy the surgery."

The following is after an apartment fire that left many people homeless. Cleo one of Sol's classmates is talking with their teacher, Ms Kiroa.

"Somebody did this to us," Cleo rasped from smoked choked lungs. I want to find out who it was. And why they did it. "If somebody is responsible for this," she told her student, we need to find out who benefited. Somebody, somewhere is going to make money out of this. Lets find out who."

Now that I shared some of the dialogue its only fair that I share some of the action.
The following is Cleo being chased after seeing something she shouldn't have.

"There was a bar crossing between them. It was strong enough to hold her. With painstaking care she silently lifted herself onto the bar, getting her stomach up and over it. The man was getting closer."

The following is at the hospital, Sol and Cleo have just visited their teacher Ms. Kiroa

"Sol, turned in time to face a punch curling toward his head. With no time to block it he met the fist with his forehead, the pale man's knuckles cracking against it was a satisfying crunch."

Daylight Runner has more going for it besides the action. The author does a great job of explaining Ash Harbor, how it became to be and who has the power. There is also the mystery of what happened to Sol's father and what is becoming of Ash Harbor. The dialogue kept me from enjoying this as much as I could have but Daylight Runner would be great for someone looking for an action packed read with lots of close escapes.

Daylight Runner's U.S. release date is September 23