Last Light

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 09 Feb 2010, 15:08

Well! Just found Last Light in a charity shop (sorry, three books for €5 and no royalties to the author) and I enjoyed it to quite an extent, though I'm not gone on 'thrillers'. I read it in two sittings, which is probably because it's designed as a fast-paced page-turner: you always want to know what happened next. Well done Alex.

What I liked was the way I could vividly 'see' the various scenes happening around England - obviously AS's words made pictures in my head - and so the scenes became more plausible.

A couple of typos and too many "Shit!"s were the only spoilers, really. The odd profanity is fine but, just as in real life, they get tedious.

The OH is now reading it. I will pass it on to neighbours when she's finished.

AS mentioned upthread that it was too localised for the American market. Well, localise it!

alexscarrow · Post by **alexscarrow** » 11 May 2010, 07:56

Hi there emor'

I'm glad LAST LIGHT did its job with you. Please do pass it on, I don't begrudge not getting sales, just as long as it gets read and PO gets a chance to be discussed.

FYI, there's a sequal coming out in 3 weeks called AFTERLIGHT, which follows the same characters 10 years after the collapse of the oil-world. It was a chance to explore what a non oil-driven exixtence could look like. And it isn't pleasant.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 11 May 2010, 09:40

This is one book I will be buying - I will be very interested to read what you think is coming.

I am interested to know what were your sources of information, to work out what life might be like after oil no longer drives our existance?

Cheers and good luck with the new book, AFTERLIGHT - might as well advertise it as much as we can......

PS. You say it is not pleasant - do we need to take 'happy pills' whilst reading it?

PPS. And how has it made you feel after writing the book?

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 11 May 2010, 11:48

alexscarrow wrote:Hi there emor'

I'm glad LAST LIGHT did its job with you. Please do pass it on, I don't begrudge not getting sales, just as long as it gets read and PO gets a chance to be discussed.

FYI, there's a sequal coming out in 3 weeks called AFTERLIGHT, which follows the same characters 10 years after the collapse of the oil-world. It was a chance to explore what a non oil-driven exixtence could look like. And it isn't pleasant.

Thanks AS. I'll buy it to make up for the charity shop one!

I'm 'enjoying' The Road at the moment, btw. No doubt you've read it, it deals pretty much with a similar situation but boy, is it bleak!

Good luck and stay cool.

welshgreen · Post by **welshgreen** » 13 May 2010, 20:50

looking forward to this one alex!

lurker · Post by **lurker** » 17 Jul 2010, 04:03

Hi reading your book after seeing this thread

Reminded me abit of J.G ballard one of my favourite authors. Particualry High Rise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Rise

Book is decent but can't say its in the same quite the same league as Cormac MacCarthy's or some other classic post apocalyse fiction.

Would be interested to know if you if you have read there work

Hoping the the posh street to form a vigilante group too fight back against the chavs maybe they do later....

I'll have to read on to find out

MrG · Post by **MrG** » 19 Jul 2010, 16:58

Hoping the the posh street to form a vigilante group too fight back against the chavs maybe they do later

That was the bit about the book which I found the most unrealistic. Who would really just sit there waiting to get robbed without even speaking to their neighbours about doing something about it

Seriously!

Post by **mikepepler** » 28 Feb 2011, 11:09

Anybody else been thinking back to the opening chapters of this book, given the current situation in the middle east? (minus the conspiracy theory in the book's plot, of course)

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 05 Mar 2011, 10:36

I have it on good advice that one of the first acts of our new government will be to push for EC legislation that makes the interruption of oil or gas supplies a punishable offence!

Tawney · Post by **Tawney** » 05 Mar 2011, 14:55

mikepepler wrote:Anybody else been thinking back to the opening chapters of this book, given the current situation in the middle east? (minus the conspiracy theory in the book's plot, of course)

Absolutely! Let’s hope to God the ending is different.

Roger Adair wrote:I have it on good advice that one of the first acts of our new government will be to push for EC legislation that makes the interruption of oil or gas supplies a punishable offence!

What sort of interruption are you thinking of, Roger? Surely someone taking an axe to oil or gas pipelines is already committing an offence? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick? (not uncommon).

Post by **adam2** » 05 Mar 2011, 15:49

A physical attack on an oil or gas pipeline would indeed be a criminal offence under present law.
What I suspect is being refered to is the cutting off of supplies due to protests, embargoes, industrial disputes and the like.

And yes the present situation in the ME is begining to look a bit like the opening chapters of last light.
Sunni against Shia ? already started.
The blowing up of holy places comes next I believe.
Those in the know of course have gone to do a "big shop" before the sheeple realise that there is only a few days food and fuel in stock.

The term "AN ALEX SCAROW EVENT" Seems now to be current outside of these fora.

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 03 May 2011, 19:15

I finally came upon a copy of this and it is a pretty competent if stilted conspiracy thriller pot boiler.

What really doesn't do it for me is:-

1. The basic super mega conspiracy premise.

2. The characters are all pretty 2 much dimensional mouthpieces
and it was pretty hard to work up much interest in any of them.

3. The only message is that we're f****d and there is b***er all
we can do about it.

Additionally the author seems to have an unhealthy interest in weapons and describing ingreat detail scenes of people being killed............

2/10

featherstick · Post by **featherstick** » 08 May 2011, 18:29

I enjoyed this book (and Afterlight, and October Skies. Thousand Suns wasn't brilliant, IMO).

The short chapters irritated me, but that seems to be a contemporary requirement. The characters were only-just-enough filled in. There were a couple of mistakes that research could have caught.

For me the real value of the book was shaking me out of my Transition Town "everything-will-be-lovely-we'll-all-ride-bikes" bubble of false optimism, and making me think about hardening up my preps. We live on the edge of a council estate and the rising tide of unskilled, inarticulate, unemployable urban underclass is now well-and-truly washing over our ankles. Scarrow's vision of the consequences of a major glitch is spot-on, in my opinion.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 08 May 2011, 21:22

featherstick wrote: For me the real value of the book was shaking me out of my Transition Town "everything-will-be-lovely-we'll-all-ride-bikes" bubble of false optimism, and making me think about hardening up my preps.

David Fleming in the soon to be published Lean Logic wrote:...Or we could grow our own vegetables. We have a wonderful literature and an emerging ecology of support groups to help us to take our own action in the pursuit of green living. Lean Logic’s dark recognition of the limits to this should not discourage us from going as far along that road as we can.

Post by **adam2** » 08 May 2011, 21:41

featherstick wrote:For me the real value of the book was shaking me out of my Transition Town "everything-will-be-lovely-we'll-all-ride-bikes" bubble of false optimism, and making me think about hardening up my preps. We live on the edge of a council estate and the rising tide of unskilled, inarticulate, unemployable urban underclass is now well-and-truly washing over our ankles. Scarrow's vision of the consequences of a major glitch is spot-on, in my opinion.

Agree entirely, the "transition town" movement has a lot to commend it, but seems to presume a slow, steady, and relatively peacful decline in oil supplies.
This may well occur, in which case the growing of our own vegetables and the riding of cycles, and the seeking of local employment, and similar measures would be very helpful.
It would however be well to also consider the risks of a sudden crash which could be very violent and unpleasant. No reasonable preps would ensure survival in such circumstances, though many forms of stocking up would improve ones chances.
I know several people who have read Last Light and decided to become better prepared. They have spent from as little as £100 to as much as £10,000, but are undeniably better prepared than before.