Normally I center my reviews on indie authors or at least new authors. This review post is about neither, but is centered on a book I happened to download (I must have gotten a freebie on it, cuz I sure as hell didn't pay the $9.99 for the eBook version - an outrageous price for any eBook in my humble opinion - buy the hardcover for only $1.23 at Amazon) onto my Kindle and enjoyed.
In Terry Blackstock's Last Light we get a view of an apocalyptic setting without any identifiable apocalyptic event. Yeah, I know, but that's what happens. The refreshing point about this story that kept me intrigued and reading was the fact that it wasn't a story where the main characters wear leather 100+ degree heat, are embroiled in multitudinous fight scenes to the death, carry outlandish weaponry so numerous as to pull the average Joe (or Jane) to the ground with exhaustion, or come across a legion of zombies at every turn. This offering of "what could happen if the lights went out across the globe" centers on an average family in an average town and each person within these pages has average abilities that any one of us could claim right now sitting here reading this post. Yeah, I know, but it was interesting. Seriously. And I'm someone who generally reads only sci-fi/fantasy/horror because I love the action, adventure, deceit, gruesomeness, etc., such a story delivers. Last Light delivers all that and more without being anything other than a straight drama. Really.
From the moment all machinery bites the dust in this tale of technological woe, to the last page where we find what life-lessons the main characters have learned (Yes, in every story the main characters are supposed to learn something they didn't start off the story with - sheesh), Terry Blackstock presents the lives of an ordinary nuclear family who find they have to continue on with their lives without the technological advances we have all come to take for granted for the past century-plus. As you might have guessed, this is not an easy task for any of them especially for those of the younger generation within this family. I know I would have a difficult time coping without my computer, coffee maker, TV, electric water heater (Wait - NO electric water heater? Ok, this story has gone too far), etc. Cars cease working. Planes fall from the sky. Watches cease functioning. Nothing - I repeat - absolutely nothing of technological advancement works in this setting.
The story unfolds for us a real-life encounter with an apocalypse without bombs being detonated or terrorists storming our shores. Everyone the world over is affected in the same way.
If stories of supernatural thrillers and scientific impossibilities and what you are looking for, look elsewhere. Last Light will not give you any of that. But if you want an engaging drama of life on the edge while learning how our ancestors only 150 years back or so coped with daily living, then Last Light by Terry Blackstock is just the story for you.
Sorry, no overt sex or bloodshed - but page after page of interesting storyline galore.
In Terry Blackstock's Last Light we get a view of an apocalyptic setting without any identifiable apocalyptic event. Yeah, I know, but that's what happens. The refreshing point about this story that kept me intrigued and reading was the fact that it wasn't a story where the main characters wear leather 100+ degree heat, are embroiled in multitudinous fight scenes to the death, carry outlandish weaponry so numerous as to pull the average Joe (or Jane) to the ground with exhaustion, or come across a legion of zombies at every turn. This offering of "what could happen if the lights went out across the globe" centers on an average family in an average town and each person within these pages has average abilities that any one of us could claim right now sitting here reading this post. Yeah, I know, but it was interesting. Seriously. And I'm someone who generally reads only sci-fi/fantasy/horror because I love the action, adventure, deceit, gruesomeness, etc., such a story delivers. Last Light delivers all that and more without being anything other than a straight drama. Really.
From the moment all machinery bites the dust in this tale of technological woe, to the last page where we find what life-lessons the main characters have learned (Yes, in every story the main characters are supposed to learn something they didn't start off the story with - sheesh), Terry Blackstock presents the lives of an ordinary nuclear family who find they have to continue on with their lives without the technological advances we have all come to take for granted for the past century-plus. As you might have guessed, this is not an easy task for any of them especially for those of the younger generation within this family. I know I would have a difficult time coping without my computer, coffee maker, TV, electric water heater (Wait - NO electric water heater? Ok, this story has gone too far), etc. Cars cease working. Planes fall from the sky. Watches cease functioning. Nothing - I repeat - absolutely nothing of technological advancement works in this setting.
The story unfolds for us a real-life encounter with an apocalypse without bombs being detonated or terrorists storming our shores. Everyone the world over is affected in the same way.
If stories of supernatural thrillers and scientific impossibilities and what you are looking for, look elsewhere. Last Light will not give you any of that. But if you want an engaging drama of life on the edge while learning how our ancestors only 150 years back or so coped with daily living, then Last Light by Terry Blackstock is just the story for you.
Sorry, no overt sex or bloodshed - but page after page of interesting storyline galore.
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