Light (Gone, 6)

Title: Light (Final book in the Gone Series)Author: Michael GrantRating: 5 StarsMy Review - No MAJOR Spoilers. Some minor ones...Ok, so I JUST finished this story and I am tempted to just babble, "I loved it" repeatedly like a lunatic. But the truth is, I LOVED it. Perfect, perfect, perfect ending.I absolutely absorbed this book, and I knew I would. I've been on this ride with Mr. Grant for a while now and I have a lot invested in this story. Having *just* set the release date for the end of my own trilogy, I have a new and sustaining respect for anyone who attempts to bring an epic story to a satisfactory close.And the GONE series is EPIC. I love it. Ironically, the "world" is a small space, but it's an entirely different universe, no different from Middle Earth in its need for world-building. I love the "truth" of being teenagers forced to face adult issues. I love the "truth" of duality: good and evil, bravery and cowardice, life and death.In the end (though I tend to say this too often about this series) Grant is BRAVE. You know why I think so? Let me break it into categories for you. (And you thought I was going to be brief. HA!)Social Issues:Grant is brave because he's willing to muck about in religious waters that often scare authors, particularly ya authors. He has characters that had faith that lose it and others that gain it. He has characters that have no idea what they believe, but who feel the pull of ritual, the desire the make sense of it all. But none of it is a simple, trite, easy answer.Grant is brave because he's not afraid to write about 15 year olds having sex with *gasp, heaven-forbid* a few details thrown in, KNOWING that this is authentic to his story and that the characters are essentially ADULTS given their situation. Still, people are terrified of this in ya. (Bravo for showing a loving, mutual relationship in Sam and Astrid, as well.)Grant is brave because he deals in all those real-life issues of race and prejudice. Like Albert. He's the "businessman" but he's African-American, and characters are wary of him in this role at first (until they realize they're hungry). And Edilio, often referenced as the "wetback" by the nastier or more ignorant characters. The way that Grant addresses those issues and turns them on their ear without sounding preachy is excellent and gives a lot of DEPTH to a story for and about teens that one would not associate with "superhero" kind of stuff. (ie - Most adults who don't appreciate graphic novels and comics don't realize these media can include serious discussion topics)Writing:Grant is brave because he wasn't afraid to write it his way, with a kabillion shifting POVs, sometimes that last for only a few sentences at a time! No fear of HEAD-HOPPING here.Grant is brave because he wrote a sprawling epic that has WAY too many words to be MARKETABLE, right?Grant is brave because he's not afraid to take on a modern-day "Lord of the Flies" in a time when we've become increasingly uncomfortable with precocious youth.BACK TO "LIGHT" IN PARTICULARThis may be one of my favorite endings to an epic tale ever. It had exactly the right amount of tragic loss, gut-wrenching, heart-stopping loss, AND heroism, and triumph, and sacrifice and REDEMPTION. In the end, that is what this story is about, I think: redemption.I never expected anything that Caine ever said to anyone, especially Diana, to make me cry. But it did. And it was perfect.And I never expected a kiss between Astrid and Sam to feel like the last gasp of a marathon when you feel the tape snap across your chest, but it did. I practically pumped my fist in the air! (Ok, I did pump my fist in the air.)And I never expected to be so moved, so entertained, and so enthralled by such an odd, personal, and utterly genre-breaking story as the Gone Series. But I was.Go out. Buy it. Read it. May I be so fortunate as to write something that makes people say the same.

I bought the first Gone novel on impulse just days after its initial release and have been avidly following the series ever since. Endings, wherein the author has to solve the mysteries and bring all of the plots and sub-plots to completion in a believable way for the reader are understandably difficult and Michael Grant has succeeded beyond even the wildest of expectations. Gone is at heart about the characters and the relationships, but the series also has strong plotting and if the ending hadn't been done well, the brilliance of the heart-rending characters, their loves and hates and the terrible choices they have to make would have been weakened. Let me just say there isn't anything weak about the finale.It has been over a year since the Dome descended on Perdido Beach, originally trapping everyone under the age of fifteen within its sphere. Since then, the survivors have dealt with starvation, injury, disease, resource wars and power wars, the development of mutations that give some of the residents super powers and changed bodies and all of the emotional trauma and growth that such a situation brings. Friendships and loves and coalitions are built and destroyed and built again with new formations. Moral choices are made, reviewed, regretted and lived with in situations where there are no good choices and the effects on Perdido Beach and on the characters are lasting, real and believable.The Gone series and Light in particular are so well plotted and action-packed that it would be easy to overlook the fact that these novels are in fact profoundly moral character studies with real depth. The Dome around Perdido Beach has become transparent and people can now see both out and in, but the children still aren't free. The watching world is beginning to get some idea of just how terrible conditions have been for the children trapped within not only because of the physical and emotional condition of the children, but because the skirmished and conflict that mark life in the Fayz are all to visible to the watching world.Add to that the sense of destiny descending in the form of a final battle between the beleaguered residents of the Fayz, the evil that grew out of the nuclear accident and a cosmic blowback and the residents lining up on both sides of the good and evil divide and the scene is set. Grant doesn't disappoint with his conclusion.Not only do the characters have more believably human traits and choices for both good and evil, but all of the relationships are superb, both friendships and romances. I recently wrote a couple of bad reviews about YA fiction that had harmful messages about romance and it is a joy to report that all of the relationships in Perdido Beach are between flawed and lovable equals whether they be male of female, friends or lovers, gay or straight. It is an inspiration to read. Grant gets a big check plus for sending great messages to young people about what love actually is - that it involves the bad days as well as the good and that one loves the person not only for their virtues but for their flaws as well. An amazing message that we all need to read, hear and remember to practice.I've been careful not to give spoilers about Light, leaving that for the reader to discover but Light is a strong finish to an amazing series, a series I honestly do believe will become a classic of the genre. If you haven't read the other novels in the Gone series, start at the beginning and have a wonderful book marathon. If you have been anxiously awaiting the finale, rest assured that Light is worth the wait and won't disappoint. Highest recommendation for the finale and the series.

ook was great like always But the ending made me Curl into a ball and cry for hours.

El libro llegó en perfecto estado

I love this book but it is not same as it looks in the picture. But anyway, I am happy. 😊😊😊👍👍👍

Très bon livre, enfin la fin de la série !Michael Grant et un génie :) Ca a été un plaisir de lire la saga Gone

I waited impatiently for Amazon to deliver my copy of Light. It took them ages after first telling me that the marketplace seller had no more copies and that I'd have to order another one. It finally came on Saturday and I've now finished the last Gone novel.It is bittersweet this final book. Not just in the way the FAYZ ends, but in the knowledge that characters that I grew to love and fear will never return. Grant drew portraits of his Perdido Beach kids that rang true, deep, and varied. They all seemed real, even the "moofs" who despite their super-powers were full of character and depth.In Light, the kids have reached what they refer to as "the endgame." It has become a battle between the gaiaphage who has taken human form in the shape of Diana's and Caine's "love child" and is now known as Gaia. Gaia has all of the powers of the other "moofs" and is growing at an inhuman rate of speed.Which is fitting considering that she is not human at all. Despite her human birth, she really is a product of the gaiaphage that is in reality a virus from another planet.Sam and Caine join forces to defeat Gaia and the other super powered children gather to help the brothers to defeat her. Even "The Healer" Lana joins the ranks in the final battle.Gaia decides to lay waste to the land in the bubble surrounding Perdido Beach to aid her in the quest to destroy the entire planet. The only thing she fears is Little Pete, Astrid's dead brother. who has managed to survive his body's death and remain in ethereal form in the FAYZ. Gaia calls him nemesis and she is terrified that he will take human form and destroy her.As the barrier gets thinner and more people from the outside world witness the death and destruction taking place on the inside of the barrier, opinion goes against the survivors of the FAYZ. The retribution that Sam has feared from the very start now seems very real and if he survives the final battle with Gaia he will have to face his accusers.Light brings an end to the Gone saga and like the rest of the novels, it entertains and excites. All the characters face their own personal Armageddon as the endgame reaches its inevitable conclusion. While the "good-guys" team up to kill Gaia, she relies on the help of her mother Diana and Drake 'whip-hand' Merwin (who still shares the same corporeal space as Brittney the religious zealot).I will miss the entire crew, Sam, Quinn, Albert, Caine, Diana, Edilio, Astrid, Little Pete, Bug, Orc, Dekka, Brianna (the Breeze), Taylor, Jack and all the other guys and girls who make up the beleaguered and embattled citizenry of Perdido Beach. But the ending of their story is just as brilliant as the rest of the books and Grant gives us a 5 star dynamite conclusion.If you've read the Gone novels, don't miss this one. If you haven't? What are you waiting for? Unlike Trix, Gone is not just for kids.To read all my reviews go to MikesFilmTalk.com