The Light: Houston, Texas

By: Joe M. Solomon

Narrated by: Randy Fuller

March Madness has begun and college basketball playoffs are heating up, not that Robert Walker - a graduate student from Texas - particularly cares. He has decided to skip classes for the day, sleep in, and get some rest. Unfortunately, a brief spat on the phone with his fiancée makes that impossible. Hoping to take his mind off of it, he scans through TV channels in search of entertainment and instead finds one news report after another that warns of violence erupting in the streets.

People are randomly and savagely attacking one another all along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Some speculate it may be related to strange lights that have appeared in the sky above the outbreaks. Before any solid conclusions can be drawn, however, the brutality spreads, sweeping across the country until it hits Houston, then proceeds on to the West Coast. Robert, a handful of classmates, and a few others manage to survive the first wave and find themselves in the midst of civilization’s blackest hour, surrounded by pandemonium, bloodshed, and masses of people who have been stripped of their humanity. Hours later, as those strange lights continue to dominate the sky, the vicious horde undergoes a new transformation.

There is no escaping the horror. Unable to reach his fiancée by phone, Robert sets out to find her, joined by a small ensemble of fellow survivors. The thirty-five miles they must cover are fraught with danger, and their terror grows with each step they take as they witness the genesis of a new Earth. Can they find a way to stop it? Will they even survive it?

©2018 Joe M. Solomon (P)2019 Joe M. Solomon

This was ok

I don’t know why, but this didn’t “grab me” like I thought it would. I found myself zoning out at times. Maybe it’s the narrator??? And then it all seems to wrap up nice and neatly. I needed more detail on Why this happened.

What If We Bum Rush Those Crazy Bastards

Just a sample of the dialogue. I got about half way through and I had to quit. The characters still had no clue what was going on. I’m not really sure if the author knew what was going on. Something is changing people into crazy killing machines—not zombies, but ? The characters are a mixed group of friends and family. They are strictly stereotypical, one dimensional characters that have the basest traits. They are into mama jokes and spouting off racial epitaphs. I guess all southern country people are stupid, racist, deplorables. That’s how they are portrayed in this book and they are supposed college kids in the group. The stupid behaviors of the characters are just over the top and insulting to the reader. I’m not really sure if there is any coherent plot. They really all deserve to die—they shouldn’t have lasted this long. It’s like tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber. The current state of education must be worse than I thought.

The dialogue, as noted, is unrealistic. I really don’t know anyone who talks like they do. The narrator does little to elevate the material. He barely variates his voice with the characters. Everyone kinda sounds the same.

This must have been a homework assignment for one of their kids in elementary school. I hate to crap on someone’s writing, but it’s just that bad. HARD PASS.

KK

Did not answer question of how and why. I kept waiting for explanation and none was given. Hard to keep up with characters.