Blue Light

Fans of Walter Mosley may be taken aback by this shockingly adult venture into science fiction. This book is both less realistic and more sordid than the Easy Rawlins mysteries. The prose is fine, the action fast, the concerns philosophical. A blue light has hit the earth, altered some to super beings. A comic book? Well, yes and no. Certainly not for children. Richard Ferrone's deep, compelling voice gives force and clarity to a powerful and deeply unsettling experience. Is it literature? I'm not sure. A cross between Dante and Frank Herbert. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

November 2, 1998
You have to admire Mosley: with a gilt-edged brand-name character (Easy Rawlins)in his locker, he still can't resist venturing off in new directions. Sometimes his effort to break new ground works beautifully, as in RL's Dream; sometimes it's an interesting misfire, as in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned.This time, however, it seems plain misguided. Blue Light is an odd mixture of science fiction and inspirational fable about a sort of cosmic ray that enters into a handful of people, giving them superhuman faculties, and the struggle some of these ultra-evolved folk have with the spirit of Death, who has also been granted special powers. Beginning in Berkeley during the hippie love days (well observed, as Mosley's West Coast scenes always are) and eventually migrating into the deep forests of the Sierra, where a group of "blues" create a sort of idyllic pastoral retreat, the story is mostly told from the viewpoint of Chance, a half-breed drifter. One of its more original aspects is that several of the characters, enacting roles similar to those often given by other writers to Native American shamans and seers, are black. There are some jolting scenes of sexuality and violence, and some arresting images, like the vocalizing trees experienced by the "blues"; but the biology is insufficiently imagined, the time sequence is sometimes confusing and a sort of vague poesy that is a far cry from Mosley's typically sinewy prose is the predominant style. Time-Warner audio; author tour.

Mystery writer Walter Mosley makes a departure toward science fiction in this clever story of an ethereal blue light that comes to Earth and transforms several of its inhabitants into beings with perfect awareness of their purpose in life. If only we were all so lucky! But there is a burden with this new vision, and Tucker Smallwood adds fine vocal characterization to the many stories of those touched by the light, as it were. Some listeners might be distracted by the almost constant background music and sound effects. (For example, when a baby is in a scene, we hear gurgling; when someone is outdoors, we hear birds chirping. . . ) Overall, Mosley's story is intriguing enough and Smallwood's professionalism more than apparent. R.A.P. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine