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Summary
Summary
A New York Times Bestselling Author
Walter Mosley, the New York Times bestselling author of the Easy Rawlins novels and acclaimed author of Futureland and Blue Light, returns to science fiction with a novel both eerie and transcendent.
Author Notes
Walter Mosley was born in Los Angeles, California on January 12, 1952. He graduated from Johnson State College in Vermont. His first book, Devil in a Blue Dress, was published in 1990, won a John Creasy Award for best first novel, and was made into a motion picture starring Denzel Washington in 1995. He is the author of the Easy Rawlins Mystery series, the Leonid McGill Mystery series, and the Fearless Jones series. His other works include Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, 47, Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, and Twelve Steps toward Political Revelation. He has received numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award, and PEN America's Lifetime Achievement Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Bestseller Mosley's latest foray into allegorical SF is reminiscent of his 1998 novel, Blue Light, but it isn't nearly as rich and captivating. How should the book's hero, Errol, react when his late, beloved father reappears as a younger, ecstatic, incomplete version of the father's former self? How should the government respond when nearly invincible reanimated bodies claiming to be portions of a primordial life-form appear in our midst, out of an immense wave? And how can that life-form, which strives only for harmony, connect with us if it can't make itself understood to the fanatical military doctor, who takes Errol and his father prisoner, and is developing a poison to exterminate the peaceful newly arisen dead lest they overwhelm the human population? Mosley fails to sustain the deep, meaningful tone that would have brought this pensive tale to life. Even various sexual encounters and communions with the vast universe lack passion. This wave is fast and small, but it leaves little behind in its wake. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Mosley's wandered off turf again, writing imitation Dean Koontz and calling it science fiction. Out-of-work programmer Errol Porter lives in his former garage since his wife ditched him and the house was sold. For work he maintains a pottery shop, where he has struck up a relationship with artist Nella, which is good because it gives him someone to tell about the weird phone calls he's been getting from a guy who sounds like his nine-years-dead father. He discovers it is his dad, but he's only 20 and says that he really just embodies Errol's father's memories and is actually part of the wave that a meteor brought to earth one and a half billion years ago. Goofy, Errol thinks, until he is hauled away by a secret army operation that already knows about the wave because of other reanimated dead people. The army's bent on destroying the revenants and every other manifestation of the wave, including Errol if they find he has been infected. Errol escapes and joins the wave people in fleeing and trying to hide their life source. In the process, Errol boffs several other women, gets buff, and writes this first-person account. The (mercifully undetailed) sex seems gratuitous, the wave business feels mushy, Errol's captivity and escape are like scenes from a dull-witted fifties sci-fi flick, and the characters aren't even strong cardboard. For Mosley completists only. --Ray Olson Copyright 2005 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Established writer Mosley's (after Futureland) new sf novel opens with programmer-turned-potter Errol "Airy" Porter receiving a strange phone call from the cemetery where his father is buried. When he visits the cemetery, he meets his reincarnated father-or someone very much like him. Set in the Los Angeles area and told from the black protagonist's point of view, this book evokes the Easy Rawlins mystery novels (e.g., Devil in a Blue Dress), though the era is the gritty present. The titular "wave" refers to a colony that formed millions of years ago, when simple cells were driven into the Earth's core by a comet. As Porter's-and the colony's-adventures unfold, Mosley explores some of the themes of human purpose and limitations that run through Blue Light, another one of his adult sf works. The sf aspect of this novel is less well developed than the contemporary setting and the frightening and illuminating situations into which Porter is thrown. However, the taut story will hold readers' interest and is recommended for public and academic libraries.-Sara Tompson, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Walter Mosley is best known for his crime stories. With The Wave he proves he's just as skilled at science fiction/horror, and Tim Cain is just the narrator to deliver it. --AudioFile [Cain] delivers emotion and intensity throughout the story, making it easy for any listener to enjoy. --Publishers Weekly Errol Porter is awakened by a strange prank caller, one who asks for him by name and claims to be his father. But Errol's father has been dead for years. Late one night, curious and a little unnerved, Errol sneaks into the graveyard where his father is buried. The man he finds there will change his life. Soon Errol's on the run from mad scientists and homeland security death squads, and befriended by creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. Plunging into a series of stunning revelations, he must uncover the hidden tragedy of his family's past and penetrate the depths of an earth-shaking, ancient enigma to determine the fate of the entire world. Excerpted from The Wave by Walter Mosley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
