I originally purchased this book for my dad, but ended up finding something else to give him as a gift and kept it for myself. I didn't read the summary of the book, just saw it at the local Christian book store and thought that he would enjoy a series by a "#1 suspense author."

I brought it with me on vacation and finished the book in a matter of a couple days. It was a very good book, but there were parts about it that bothered me.

The premise of the book is unique, in my opinion. I've never thought about not only losing power, but everything mechanical. I have no idea what my family would do to survive, so it was a very interesting idea for a book.

I didn't mind the murder aspect of the book - it was how the murderer was portrayed. I won't go into detail, but there are some aspects of his character that just weren't believable for me. They had me rolling my eyes at how dramatic he was making that situation out to be.

Overall, I thought it was a good book and am excited that the other three books of the series have higher ratings than this one. I'm definitely looking forward to getting home to read the next one.

And maybe I'll even let my dad borrow them...

By the end of the Last Light I was hooked and had to devour the rest the series. I have to say that the first book gave me uncomfortable dreams -- but that's me. I found myself dreaming about where I was going to get water. [smile] I found the books engrossing, provacative and convicting. It shows you that difficulty and hardship can either bring out the best or the worst in people.

Ms. Blackstock certainly focused on the christian writer aspect of this story, forgoing any real knowledge of the rest of her topic. Her ignorance on a lot of the topics she chose to write about is readily obvious. The book was filled with inaccuracies that would have been readily fixed with little effort if Ms. Blackstock had made any effort at all to check with someone who is knowledgeable on the various topics.

-Bicycling. Her characters buy 10-speed bikes? Not at any store since about 1990. Furthermore, out-of-condition stockbrokers aren't going to ride a bike for days at a time, regardless of the person's motivation, not without months of training.

-Electronics. Sure, EMP will destroy silicon chips. And it would take about 15 minutes for anyone reasonably handy to fashion a wind-powered generator using the alternator from a car, for instance.

-Electronics. Old fashioned telephones require no silicon to operate.

-Electronics. Old fashioned radios require no silicon to operate. Ham radio operators would pull out their old equipment and be operating 30 minutes after the failure.

-Gasoline Engines. Cars would fail due to the electronics failure. So would large airliners. Lawn mowers would operate just fine, as would old tractors and any other device that doesn't require electronic ignition. Old cars would continue to run, so there would have been a lot of folks pulling out their antiques.

-All airliners would be in trouble, but very very few small airplanes would crash except if bad weather was also a factor or incredibly poor pilots dealing with incredibly bad luck. Contrary to popular belief, small airplanes glide just fine even if their electronic-ignition systems fail. And the majority of very small aircraft would continue to run, as they still run off magnetos, which should continue to operate.

Ms. Blackstock even admits some of this (such as old cars would likely still run) but the entire story is written as if she were going to ignore this anyway.

If you want good writing about what could happen if all electronics failed, read SM Stirling instead. I recommend Ms. Blackstock only if you want a good dose of Christian propaganda.