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Alex Scarrow is becoming one of my favourite authors. His books are both compelling and page turners that stay in your head for a long time afterwards. Last Light was a great thriller which had a very scary message which I still talk about a couple of years later.

Afterlight is the follow up to Last Light and you could read it without having read that, but you would be missing out big time. I've finished it in a day; no way was I going to leave it until tomorrow to finish!

Afterlight is, interestingly, set 10 years after a `big crash' when the oil stopped flowing and the lights went out and the food stopped coming. The Sutherland family are surviving on an oil rig with a community of fellow survivors, but their sanctuary is about to be invaded by an unlikely source..

We are also given flashbacks to the O2 Arena in London, set up as an emergency point and we see how that has evolved over the years and how it might clash with the community on the oil rig.

Fast paced, engrossing and very entertaining thriller, certainly of appeal to those who enjoyed the BBC's "Survivors" but also those who might have liked "The Road". But this is not just an action thriller, there is a theme about humanity and one about the choices you have to make.
Mr Scarrow does not play in any particular genre, his last (the excellent October Skies) was set in the pioneering Old West, but he is a clever and thoughtful writer and whatever he puts out seems to be very readable. I imagine I will buy his next book, whatever the subject because he has not let me down yet.
Recommended.

Set 10 years after Last light Afterlight for me is a book about the last best hope for Humanity (to steal a line from BSG).
Alex sets out with some old faces to explore a time after the oil crash, have we changed, can we adapt/ change and create a new future? or are there just too many out there who hunger for the days of old and the power that they can reap for themselves.

Following the fates of the Sutherland Children while they explore their past and look to the future.
Again alex weaves the story brilliantly with wonderful characters (his truly best writing gift). This book delivers just as much as Last light and then gives you even more, action, pace, characters, depth, humour and sorrow...what more could you ask for in a story.

Buy this book you will not be disapointed.

I read Last Light by Alex Scarrow and enjoyed it so much that I picked up Afterlight. Last Light was a wonderful novel based on the simple premise of what post-oil civilization would look like, telling the story of the rapid breakdown of civilization as we know it when the oil tap is turned off, through co-ordinated acts of sabotage, told through the eyes of one family. Afterlight is a worthy sequel, detailing how the family copes with the aftermath, establishing a colony of survivors on an oil rig and gradually fighting their own battle for survival before they begin to re-establish civilization. A very well written tale, with strong characters, good pacing, the various threads working well together. So, on the whole a novel I would recommend- in fact, I would recommend that anyone read both Last Light and Afterlight for a satisfying read.

Being a writer myself, I don't like to get pretentious and slam any fellow writer on reviews- since I know how easy it is to criticize someone else's creation and how tough it is to create something yourself. But what I would offer up as a build to what would have made Afterlight even more complete- the dark powers behind the oil crisis aren't really revealed and we aren't told anything more about them. Even as Afterlight reaches its conclusion, the reader is left wondering what happened to them and what they are up to. If their whole plot was to take over control over the world, where are they now? Perhaps I had all these questions since I was so immeresed in the story, and perhaps Mr. Scarrow has another sequel up his sleeve to close this loop. If that's the case, count me in as someone who will read it as soon as it's out.

When I first read Last Light by Alex Scarrow, I had mixed feelings. It had some decent post apocalyptic moments for me, but also had a sort of annoying "Illuminati" like sub plot that was a bit distracting. So, I was a little hesitant when I began to read Afterlight, the sequel to Last Light. My major concern was the expansion of the conspiracy sub plot to the dominant focus of the book. Well, I was very glad that wasn't the case. In fact, all in all, Afterlight is a much more satisfying listen.

First off, while we see some of the same characters, we see then 10 years after the events of Last Light. Still struggling to survive, the essences of the characters remain, yet they are altered. Yet, even more drastic is the change of the world around them. The oil crisis describes in the first book leads to a brutal world. Thee Sutherlands from the first book have lost some of the luster, with Jenny, the matriarch of the family still suffering from abuse from the hands of raiders. This makes Jenny a good leader if somewhat less balanced. This is an intriguing change from the career women we see in the first novel. With these changes in both setting and characters we are treated to the type of tale that post apocalyptic fans enjoy, full of brutality, yet hope.

If I had any complaints about the book, it would be the frequent soliloquies on how evil our oil addicted consumer based society was, and how unhappy its inhabitants were. While this attitude was expressed most often by the deranged antagonist, it was also prevalent among the musings of the hero's. I understand the overall sentiments of the author yet, I find this sort of sentiment to become annoying. Yes, maybe there are some joys in returning to the "simple ways" but I also feel like we idealize ways of the past instead of trying to reform our ways by embracing our present and working to better it. While not as distracting as the Evil World Order subplot, it was a bit trying at times.

David Johns again does the narration with his soft spoke British style. My only real complaint was his horrible Homer Simpson impersonation that was supposed to be "spot on." Other than that, his performance fit the material.

Alex Scarrow has once again impressed me with his amazing writing skills. I have read all his books except A Thousand Suns (which is on my Christmas Wish List!). I love all his books and Afterlight was certainly no disappointment. I had read Last Light beforehand and this book , in my opinion, is even better.

In my review of the first book in this series, Last Light, I wrote that what followed from that story would make for more interesting material. However, in this follow-up, the author chooses to pick up the action ten years after the world ran out of oil. I was most curious about how people would pick up the pieces immediately following such an event. Scarrow does flashback throughout to show how England suffered as a result but most action takes place years later. Like the first novel, the premise is extremely frightening as is the speculation of what would happen to society.

Throughout the book Scarrow lectures on materialism, commercialism, consumerism, short-sighted government planning, and the impact of 8 billion people on the environment. Ten years following the targeted terrorism that shut down refineries and its supply, a character in the novel diarizes "People no longer tucked away in isolation surrounded by an Aladdin's cave of mail-ordered possessions; no longer tapping anonymously on keyboards to an internet world of other lonely people." The author's message is a need to return to simpler values and stresses in his afterword that we cannot "go on consuming the way we're doing now".

Beyond the strong messages, the book was on par with Last Light. Curiously, there seemed to be a couple of plot lines or situations closely reminiscent of episodes from the BBC's remake of The Survivors (children rewarded for certain acts by being granted video game time, a leader who who once taught history and sets up a feudal state). The ending was a little too neat but he has hooked me again...I now wonder what the survivors will do from this point forward.