The Wave

Walter Mosley

5/21/2006

Erroll Porter wakes up to another middle of the night telephone call. The voice on the other end is the same erratic one he had heard previous times - "cold and naked". He questions the voice but still gets no clues. Yet there's something familiar about the voice...

He tells Nella, the woman where he works about the voice. The caller is reminiscent of his dead father. She is leery of the caller. The male voice calls again that night. He claims that he is Erroll's father, Arthur. So Erroll finally gives in and goes to the cemetary where his father is buried. There he meets a young man who could be his half-brother. Had his father had a mistress and another family?

The boisterous young man claims that no, he really is Erroll's father - sort of. Arthur Porter has been resurrected through a eons old miracle. A life source that was supposedly destroyed millions years before wasn't. They are returning and are like a wave. They want to return to their celestial partner and leave Earth. They want Erroll to help them.

The Wave is an intriguing, absorbing novel. Walter Mosley has created an alien encounter situation that is gripping and fascinating. The characters are rounded out if not fleshed out, except for Erroll. They don't need to be. The novel doesn't need fully developed characters. It has a fully developed situation that keeps the reader's interest.

The Wave is a short novel and easy to read. The antongonists are scary and properly (for this story) misguided. If you like good science fiction that feels like it could happen, you'll like The Wave.

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Notice: Sexual situations