- School & Library Binding
- Publisher: Topeka Bindery (May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0613212355
- ISBN-13: 978-0613212359
- Product Dimensions: 17.7 x 11.3 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,470,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Despite the success of his colour-coded Easy Rawlins series, Walter Mosley dares with Blue Light, to go where few mystery writers have gone before. The novel is pure (if not simple) science fiction, less evocative of Philip Marlow than Philip K. Dick. It begins during the 1960s, when flashes of extraterrestrial blue light enter the bodies of several Northern Californians. Those struck by the flashes immediately take on superhuman abilities. Mosley's narrator, Chance, is not himself a recipient of the heaven-sent beams, but after a blood transfusion from the leader of the Blues, his consciousness expands. The bi-racial, suicidal Thucydides scholar becomes a supernal historian of his new, blue-inflected peer group. He dreams of a "far-flung future, when science is not estranged from the soul" and where human beings will see the world with the purified vision of his enlightened brethren. Still, he is powerless in the face of the Gray Man--a vicious incarnation of evil who seems intent on wiping out the entire Blue population. Somber and violent, bizarre and oddly reverent, Blue Light marks a promising new direction for Mosley. What's more, the dangling threads at the end intimate a vast epic to come (Mosley has suggested that a trilogy awaits) and a literary challenge that's anything but easy.--Patrick O'Kelley
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In San Francisco in the mid 1960s, a cosmic blue light strikes people in its path, quickening their DNA, and greatly enhancing their strengths and understanding. They become the Blues, powerful yet vulnerable. And Blue Light is their story. Narrated by Chance, a half-black, half-white follower of the Blues, the novel traces their desperate conflict with one of their own, a man who - struck by the light at the moment he died - has become the living embodiment of death. Blue Light refracts questions of identity, race and humanity - hallmarks of Walter Mosley's writing - through a gripping adventure that puts a dazzling new spin on the relationship between past, present and future.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Orde stood atop the flat stone in Garber Park - talking. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Orde stood atop the flat stone in Garber Park - talking. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Walter Mosley, and was looking forward to reading a book that took him away from his usual Crime\Thriller style books.
And to start off this book was excellent. The characters were engaging, especially 'Grey Redstar' the living embodiement of death.
Unfortunately the pace started to wane and what started out as a good book, ran out of ideas long before the end.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
57 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Blue Light - either you see it, or you don't
26 May 1999
Format:Hardcover
I prefer Mosely's departures from the predictable, and in taking the Chance on Blue Light, received something more profound: a spectral analysis of the colors of human nature, magnified by the simple but brilliant artifice of light itself. The writing in this novel is superbly imaginative; not an overbearing mountain of details but an evocation, a description of what matters, not of matter. Reading about the mind of Grey Man and his tormented host was a marvelously hideous exploration, at once repulsive and sympathetic, suggesting a portrait of schizophrenia. Winch Fargo was likewise a fascinating treatment on evil and identity, the danger of one who has superhuman will and strength but without purpose. I marvel at Mosely's use of language and idea to invent such an original work. The story has many switchbacks and some are drawbacks: as the light strikes many in different places, convergence takes some time to occur. This will not sit well with those who like continuous action and strict sequential progress. The characters, by dint of Blue Light, become outcasts, wanderers and drifters, and as such cannot be given the more substantial treatment that say a similar Socrates is given in Always Outnumbered. The beach scenes therein are recalled in the Blues leader Orde's enlightenment. Again this work is more poetic than prosaic, so be prepared. Mosely is not shy about sex (he borders on the voyeuristic) or violence either. The traditional sci-fi genre fans will be annoyed by the fact that the powers exhibited by the Blues are intangible, and that their discovery by the world at large is as difficult to pin down as an alien corpse. This is a tantalizing angle: that "the revolution will not be televised," and as others have said may be going on as we speak. The notion was entertaining in itself that while I was reading a meta-fantasy (in the mind of Chance all along, and Mosely of course). That's one of the chances you take when you take this on. Mosely makes you work for what you get out of this book. Take a transfusion of uncommon perspective and get an increased wonder at the broadband frequencies of human possibility as your receipt.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
An important book
2 Feb 1999
Format:Hardcover
I've never read Mosley's mysteries; I'm normally a science fiction reader. This book will probably annoy SF readers as much as it seems to annoy Mystery genre readers. There are lots of SF books that have dealt with some of the concerns in this book, but there's nothing quite like this one - a real orginal. It doesn't fit any categories. It has to be taken on its own terms. It's powerful, it's beautifully written, and it's so full of thought (if you're looking for it) that it will probably support an industry of students for years. But forget all that - I couldn't put it down. It's wonderful to read something like this. You might notice I'm not saying what it's about. You have to figure that out for yourself! Probably, like the way the blue light affects different people in different ways according to their natures, this will be a different book for anyone who reads it.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A cop-out of an ending.
16 May 1999
Format:Hardcover
Although I have never read a Walter Mosley book, I was intrigued by the premise for "Blue Light" that he described when he was a guest on NPR. Indeed, I was quickly drawn into this hurly-burly world of hippies, blue light, and human super-evolution. The writing is quite good, with apt descriptions, believable dialog and powerful emotional language.
However, as the story progressed, the tight narrative structure began to fall apart. Suddenly, characters appeared out of nowhere, wandering in and out of the story. The narrator, Chance, became a whiny irritant. Eventually, the inconsistencies wore me down. (Did blue light make people stronger or weaker? Did it make children grow or not grow? Were the hybrids closer to the future or simply tainted humans?).
I was fairly disappointed with the giant battle with Gray Man, but the ending really threw me for a loop. How could a writer with Mosley's reputation pull off such a cheap stunt? I can't give it away, but it was a prime example of what writing teachers warn beginning novelists about. I felt betrayed and most likely won't read another Moseley book again.
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