Blue Light

by Walter Mosley

Book Overview

The human race has just begun. In the Bay Area in the mid-1960s, several people are struck by a cosmic blue light that "quickens" their DNA, causing them instantaneously to evolve far beyond the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316570982
• ISBN13: 9780316570985
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Can't believe no-one else liked this book!

I started reading Mosley years (and years) ago, and wondered for a second when I saw Blue Light on the shelves if it was really by the same author. There is a great science fiction/fantasy story in here (if you hate sf viscerally, maybe you shouldn't read it: if you have an open mind and can risk it, you should) and what seemed to me a delightful wistful remembrance of times past in a hippy-freak california you'd have trouble finding these days... I get one of my favourite emotions from this novel: nostalgia for the future (the future the blue light heralds). Where did it go? I hope another story in this sequence appears almost as much as I'd like another Socrates Fortlow book.

Too profound for the unwilling

I can understand the disappointment of many of Walter Mosley's fans with this book; superficially, it has very little in common with his crime fiction. But, get rid of your preconceptions and your expectations because this is a profound and meditative exploration of what makes us human, of colour, of race, of poverty, of inequality. The writing is magnificent, characterised by bursts of seering linguistic and thematic improvisation. This is literature infused by the free-wheeling but fiercely disciplined spirit of Miles Davis, the transcendentalism of John Coltrane, and the black psychedelic journeys of Sun-Ra and George Clinton. This is pure and expressive journeying too, unencumbered by his own literary past or the expectations of his readers (which is probably why it confuses so many of them). What if ordinary, poor people were able to reach their full potential, that they could tear down the barriers imposed by a racist and unequal world? What if people came together to protect and nurture the earth? What if sociopaths and the insane could become whole people? What if people could really live together without judgmement? These might be unfashionable subjects to the cynical souls of literary critics, but they are profound questions, the really important questions, dealt with through the metaphorical struggle between the Blues, the transformed fully-realised humans, and the Gray Man, the archetypal representation of everything that is bad about humans and human societies. The evocation of atmosphere and mood, which vary from the most brutal and violent to the most tender and compassionately lyrical are unsuspassed in contemporary literature; the scenes in the forest-garden prior to the apocalyptic finale, and the downbeat coda are particularly fine. This is an exquisite, beautiful and ultimately painful allegory, destined to be misunderstood and reviled by the ignorant, the uncaring and those unwilling to suspend their expectations and take a leap into the unknown.

Blue Light - either you see it, or you don't

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.

Mosley captivates and intrigues from beginning to end!

This book is rich with symbolism. When I first started reading the book, I thought Mosley had gone over the deep end. As I continued to read, I realized why he is one of the best.

An important book

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.