I get what Mosley was going for with this, but man—this is one of the worst books I've ever read. ( )

Be forewarned: the first 15 pages of Blue Light are intense. Mosley is merely setting the scene and gathering characters for the center of the plot, but he does it with the finesse of swinging a two by four and guess what, reader? You're the one getting hit. People start dying in droves and Mosley doesn't hold anything in the way of sex or violence back. It's a hell of a way to start a story. But, wait. There's more. As the story progresses things go from intense to insane. Be prepared for a lot of violence and weird sex. What exactly is the story about? I'm not really sure. It's San Francisco, California in the mid 1960s. There is the weird blue light and a cult of people who have been affected (infected?) with it. The main character is Chance, a suicidal grad student who becomes a half blue light after he gets half involved with Orde, the cult's leader, prophet and former scam artist. Things get really strange when Juan Thrombone enters the picture and goes to war with Grey Redstar, also known as the Gray Man, in a forest of redwoods. ( )

I gave up on this book. It was just too strange and confusing for my taste. ( )

Unlike his many other great books that WalterMosley has created "Blue Light" is totally different from his other books.For me it was hard getting into it maybe because I had this preconceive notion that it would be like his other books.The jumping around from character to character made it hard to follow the flow of the writing in which it cause me to put the book a side. That's a first considering I thought all his books were about the same.That's what I get for thinking but I do get that all his books are the same meaning in mystery not plot.This does has mystery through out the book, but reading it gives off a mystical feel to it sorta speak.Read for your self ,and form your own opinion about this book yours just might be different from mines. ( )

In 1960s California, a number of people are struck by bolts of sentient, alien blue light. Some of them die instantly. Others find their consciousness somehow integrated with that of the light and develop enhanced perceptions and strange mystical abilities. One of them does both, and becomes a vicious killer.

It's hard to quite know where to start with this one. On the plus side, it's well written, with prose that's thoughtful, readable, and smooth. And some of the individual story elements are pretty good; I thought the undead antagonist was quite nicely done. On the other hand, the mysticism is vague and not very insightful, and some of its manifestations seem faintly silly. The most interesting plot thread gets all but abandoned for most of the second half of the book. And ultimately the whole thing seems, well, pointless. I honestly never felt like I had any reason to care one way or another whether these blue light people succeeded or failed in whatever the hell it was they were trying to do. If I'm feeling charitable and inclined to focus on the positive, I might say that Mosely does far too good a job of trying to portray something distant, incomprehensible and alien to the point where it has little to do with humanity. If not, I might suggest that he's just thrown a bunch of fantastical elements together hoping they'll add up to something profound and failed. In either case, it's kind of frustrating, because there's clearly some writing talent behind it all, and it was impossible to escape the expectation that there just ought to be something more. ( )