27 used & new from £1.35
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Last Light
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Last Light (Hardcover)

by Alex Scarrow (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


8 new from £3.72 14 used from £1.35 5 collectible from £7.50
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (Reprint) £6.99 £5.46 45 used & new from £0.01
Audio CD (Audiobook) £56.50 £56.50 Order it used
Audio Cassette (Audiobook) £47.95 £47.95 Order it used

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns

by Alex Scarrow
4.4 out of 5 stars (28)  £4.18
October Skies

October Skies

by Alex Scarrow
4.3 out of 5 stars (23)  £4.52
Down to A Sunless Sea

Down to A Sunless Sea

by David Graham
4.8 out of 5 stars (25)  £10.99
One

One

by Conrad Williams
3.9 out of 5 stars (12)  £5.96
The Waking

The Waking

by T. M. Jenkins
4.6 out of 5 stars (13)  £5.49
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Orion; First Edition edition (25 July 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752886142
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752886145
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 206,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Alex Gordon, Peterborough Evening Telegraph

"few books have made my heart race and blood pressure soar like this one... it had me on the edge of my seat."

Review

"few books have made my heart race and blood pressure soar like this one... it had me on the edge of my seat." (Alex Gordon Peterborough Evening Telegraph )

"a terrific thriller... the thriller of the summer. It should be thebnbovel that airport booksellers can't get enough of." (Ben Hunt MaterialWitness.com )

'Alex Scarrow's depiction of Britain as only a few hours away from disintegration is chillingly plausible. This is the perfect book to give to somebody who opposes your plans to build a wind farm.' (Daily Telegraph )

"Scarrow keeps his foot on the acceleratorin this apocalyptic thriller, which is reminiscent of Frederick Forsyth and john Wyndham" (Mike Ripley Birmingham Post )

"...Last Light is sensational." (London Lite )
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Last Light
63% buy the item featured on this page:
Last Light 4.3 out of 5 stars (63)
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
10% buy
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse 4.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£8.06
October Skies
10% buy
October Skies 4.3 out of 5 stars (23)
£4.52
Down to A Sunless Sea
9% buy
Down to A Sunless Sea 4.8 out of 5 stars (25)
£10.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

63 Reviews
5 star:
 (40)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars How much tinned food do you have?, 13 Aug 2007
By Peter Symonds "petersym" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
I love Alex Scarrow's brother's (Simon) Roman novels and I discovered Alex via Simons website while seeing if there was another Macro & Cato coming soo. What I found- a thousand suns- was a pretty good pageturner set in WW2 & the present day. Not a book that made me think by any means but well worth reading.

'Last Light' is different, not least because its set in the present. In a nutshell all the worlds oil supplies are shut down by the simple act of setting off a big car bomb outside the main Sunni shrines in Saudi Arabia. Iraq shows us what happens next.... all out inter-muslim civil war which engulfs the oil producing regions. Add in a bomb or two in Russias oil fields and low and behold Britain has a weeks worth of food, clean water and oil.

The book itself jumps between an oil engineer stranded in Iraq with a depleted platoon of british troops, his daughter stranded in an apocalyptic London ruled by gangs of looters and his estranged wife desperately trying to get from Manchester home to London to reunite the family. This works well and keeps the story flowing fast without interupting any of the characters sub-plots.

The recent floods in England show just how easy it is for essential supplies to be interupted and any idea that we have a 'Blitz Spirit' is nonsense... we panic buy at the drop of a hat. The whole book was far too realistic for comfort and made me realise just how little food and water I have in my house. Its also made me (a self confessed global warming sceptic) realise that we are far too dependent on oil, not because of it enviromental impact but because our very lives are dependent on a few thin pipes running from very unstable countries.

I'd have given this book 5 stars but for two reasons: as with Scarrows previous book there is annoying little errors. The M1 doesn't run past Birmingham, Easyjet don't fly 727's etc. A good editor should have picked these up. The second is the 'shadowy global conspiracy which involves Kennedy's assassination' which I won't describe as it will spoil the plot. This is unneccessary and makes a horribly realistic book just a little too conspiracy theory driven. Frankly the simple explanation is usually the best and unrest in the middle east doesn't need secret western cabals to spark it off.

As some of the other reviewers have said: read this book and think about it. If everything goes wrong a bit of pre-planning as suggested here might just save your life.... and there's not many fictional books make you say that!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, 22 Aug 2007
An excelllent story which maintains a cracking pace throughout. Very exciting and thought provoking - even if you are not a "Peak Oil" fanatic.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping - needs to be read., 14 Aug 2007
By S. Harbord (Aberdeenshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Alex Scarrow's new novel is set in a future that can literally be tomorrow, a future that by next week, could be a nightmare of fear, death and uncertainty.

As this is a novel rather than a non-fiction factual projection of a possible future, there are plot devices (global conspiracy, following the fortunes of key central characters etc) which in some ways impede the central message of how vulnerable we are. So in some ways some of the things I wanted to read about were not included. How people don't turn up for work at the power station when there is anarchy in the streets, how cash machines, and cash itself lose value swiftly. How petrol pumps need electricity to run, how without gas in the pipes electricity can't be restarted, and how without electricity, gas terminals can't run. A few tales of random people, how simply getting trapped in traffic chaos near a big out of town supermarket can prove to be a life-threatening situation. How having food stashed away can be a pointless decision in a world where order is replaced by random chaos. How soldiers might be more worried about getting to their loved ones than manning roadblocks when chaos bites deep and hard.

Perhaps for me the use of the plot device of a global conspiracy took away some of the possible from this, such is our vulnerability, that it would take far less than a global conspiracy to bring on such circumstances.

I thought the descriptions of feral youths uninhibited by moral or consequence was very telling, and adds a truly fearful and threatening nature to the situations the protagonists in the UK find themselves in.

So the book for me was somehow incomplete, didn't quite spell out the run-down in clear terms for the average reader. But kudos to Alex to getting this out there, a gripping tale told against the backdrop of the awesomely possible.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary as it could happen!
I think the best books stay with you long after you have finished them...this did with me. A simple premise in many ways, that is extremely topical. Read more
Published 21 days ago by C. E. MCKEOWN

5.0 out of 5 stars scarey read
I like a lot of people assumed the implications of oil running out to be using a bike more ! This book woke me up to the full implications of life without oil and what an integral... Read more
Published 24 days ago by L. Brett

3.0 out of 5 stars a vehicle for the message

I've just finished reading it, its quite good, certain situations need more attention such as they sleep in the lounge of a house where there's 2 bodies in the kitchen but... Read more
Published 29 days ago by A. D. T

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book - The story will haunt your thoughts at the petrol station


The thriller genre doesn't often give you a book that changes your perception of your daily life. Read more
Published 1 month ago by NJ

4.0 out of 5 stars Scary
A fast read due to being unable to put it down. One night I had to as it was too scary and had to wind down doing something else. Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. Hart

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ideas, but could have been explosive
This is a thought-provoking book, but could have been sensational novel with a bit more care. The pace is good, and it flows reasonably well. Read more
Published 2 months ago by galacticplane

4.0 out of 5 stars Designed to help prevent its own plot ever happening?
Less well-written than John Wyndham's catastrophe books - obvious precursors - but that's a stiff comparison. Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. R. Hudson

5.0 out of 5 stars I am so very, very scared
Since finishing this book, I am having trouble putting it out of my mind. The vision of a world without oil is just too realistic and potentially imminent. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Keith Lawson

1.0 out of 5 stars Interseting topic with a rubbish storyline attached
I found the overall theme of 'peak oil' to be interesting, thought provoking and very topical in the present day. Read more
Published 7 months ago by E. M. Skupinska

4.0 out of 5 stars Jack Bauer should be the main character.
What a story, it reads like an episode of 24, non stop action and a thrilling storyline, the only problem is that this is what is going to happen. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Edward Checketts

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
PEAK OIL - has it arrived now? 3 September 2009
› See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.