My name is David Alan McKesson. I can't remember how old I was when I first saw the lines. Their appearance was infrequent and peripheral to my awareness as a child, and I did not wonder at what was just a barely noticed part of my world. Later, I learned how to touch them, and where they led me, and the way they changed my life, and allowed me to change the lives of many others remains a true wonder, and the true story of my life
Size: 342 KB (64,987 words)
Genre: Science Fiction
Sex Contents: No Sex
Tags: Romantic, Science Fiction
Review by manddscott [other reviews by manddscott]
Reviewed:
A boy discovers that he has the ability to move between universes. Who can he confide in? How can he use this to help humanity? Warning, there might be at least one spoiler ahead.
This review is actually got both this story and its immediate sequel, Legion of Light. They are too intertwined to separate them.
For plot, at least so far given that the story continues, I give it an A+ (9). There is more to come, and I will continue reading the series once I am done with this review.
Technical score varies from chapter to chapter, ranging from a B (7) to an outstanding 10. On average, I give it an A (8). The first book has a lot fewer mistakes, on average and per chapter, than the second one has. Many of the errors are with simple there/their misapplications. Quite a few of them are in the use of quotation marks where an apostrophe was needed (i.e. - I"d, I"ll). Yet others are from missing capitalization or unneeded capitalization in other parts. Overall, they don't distract too much.
For personal appeal, at least so far, I give it another A+ (9). Stop reading now if you don't want some plot discussed.
What would I like to have seen more of? Humanity can be ugly. The second book explores a little of that, looking at war and needless death, along with the abuse of power by those that have it. The MC deals with what he can at the time, but I would like to know more about the aftereffects of his involvement. For example, when he demonstrated virtually god-like powers in defeating some attackers in order to protect some friends, what happened after he left? Did they start a new religion to worship him or did they consider him a demon? When he defeats the coercers, he finds that there are more of them. What did he do with that? At least so far, it is a loose end.
Review by Vitruvian Manuel [other reviews by Vitruvian Manuel]
Reviewed: - (Review Updated: )
If this is an accurate representation of the quality of the stories in this series, you should read them all.
The Bad:
There are a number of little niggling nitpicking problems with technical details about things like firearms, airports, sailboats, and basic Newtonian physics (Though the SF theme cold account for the last). No descriptive sex. Some of the interpersonal relationships between supporting cast don't make much sense.
The Good:
Open admission that our knowledge of the universe will not support this story and avoidance of technobabble explanations. Protaonist is likable. Interesting story. Interesting basic idea that supports sequels of exploration and discovery and who knows what else. Time frame for learning how to se and deal with abilities is reasonable -- Neo does not learn kung fu in under a minute.
The Last Call:
If you like SF, and especially if you like multiverse stories, this one's for yo.
Review by tendertouch [other reviews by tendertouch]
Reviewed:
This isn't really just a review of just "The Light Behind the World" - it's really a review of the first three stories of the series: "The Light Behind the World", "Legion of Light" and "Children of the Light". While each story can stand on its own they really go together as a chronicle of David McKesson, his discovery of and learnings about the Light.
The story is listed as Science Fiction and I suppose that's as good a category as any but it's much more than that; it's a romance, an adventure and just plain solid piece of fiction as well. It follows Davey from a nearly 13 year old with a crush on the prettiest girl in town to a married adult with children of his own so you can be sure that sex has a place in the story but it's never the focus, or even explicit.
Davey, as it turns out, has the ability to sense, and eventually work with, an underlying portion of the universe - Light. It's pervasive but unnoticed by all but a very few, and unmanipulated for many years until Davey comes on the scene. The stories follow his as he learns more about it, first fixing a grievous breach in the substance of the world(s) then using what he has learned to help, with the assistance of friends and family, the people of Earth and other worlds.
There's not much to say about the plots beyond that they're very, very well done.
The technical quality is the one place where I find these stories lacking. They really need the efforts of a good proofreader to fulfill their promise. Mostly it's little things - a name changing between uses, i instead of I, missing words, etc.... There is one glaring hole in the plot in the first story, but it passes and the story continues on.
In the end the story is good enough to overcome the weakness of the proofreading.
