Unlimited by Davis Bunn

This novel rose out of a vision to produce a movie called Unlimited. (See links to movie information below.) Bunn became involved in the project and crafting a novel tied to the film's release became part of the vision.

The novel opens as Simon Orwell has crossed over into Mexico to deliver his part of a project to his old professor. He is attacked by what appears to be a drug cartel. He manages to hide the scientific device he has with him and escape with his life. He is shocked to find out that his professor is dead. But something is not right. He had been receiving emails from the man recently – after he supposedly died.

Simon realizes his life is in danger and takes refuge in an orphanage. The man who founded the orphanage, Harold Finch, is a man who walked away from a lucrative career with NASA and consulting Fortune 500 companies to serve a higher cause. Harold takes Simon under his care, helping to find out who killed the professor and why. Simon tries to put together the devise the professor was working on – a device that would provide power that could hardly be imagined.

I did not know about the film association when I read this book so read it entirely for its entertainment value. It is a good story about a fellow who made some terrible mistakes in his life, including harming the professor he admired so much. But the professor never gave up on him. He had forgiven Simon and wanted him to succeed. And Simon comes to the point where he realizes his own spiritual need too.

There is some whiz bang physics in this novel after the likes of Tesla. The idea of the machine capturing energy otherwise dissipated is paralleled with the theme of inspiring young people in the orphanage to be all they can be. That “unlimited” theme, the “you can be anything you want to be” encouragement, came across in the movie promos better than I remember in the book.

As someone with a physics degree (though from over forty years ago), the titles of the book and movie bother me. The power the machine might produce is not “unlimited.” There would be lots of energy and it would otherwise be unusable, but the machine would not produce an unlimited supply.

So that brings us to the movie. Go to www.unlimitedthemovie.com to see trailers and find out more about its message. The movie is the idea of Dr. Harold Finch and you can find out more about him and his reason for the movie at www.finchsuccess.com.

David Bunn is a three time Christy Award-winning, best-selling author now serving as writer-in-residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. His books have sold more than seven million copies in sixteen languages. You can find out more about him at www.DavidBunn.com.

B&H Publishing, 306 pages. Publisher's product page.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from a publicity group for the purpose of this review.