The Wave is what happens when you let your imagination run away with you. From a more average author, it might be a shame but from Walter Mosley, one of America's finest crime writers, it's worth shaking this allegorical tree to see what falls out. The brief science fiction novel, strongly reminiscent of his similar efforts in Blue Light and Futureland, combines its author's predilection for grounded, human characters with a wild streak that leads not into outer space but inner space.
It starts like many of Mosley's books, with a good-natured but troubled black man trying to live out the rest of his bruised life. Errol Porter evokes many of Mosley's everyman heroes including the influential Easy Rawlins and even more so, Charles Blakey, the narrator of Mosley's other Twilight Zone episode, The Man In My Basement.
It starts like many of Mosley's books, with a good-natured but troubled black man trying to live out the rest of his bruised life. Errol Porter evokes many of Mosley's everyman heroes including the influential Easy Rawlins and even more so, Charles Blakey, the narrator of Mosley's other Twilight Zone episode, The Man In My Basement.
Errol doesn't seem like the hero of a science fiction epic. His wife has ditched him for life in the big city. He's struck a deal to live in a small apartment in his old house, long since sold off. Not all is lost in Errol's small story, though. He's abandoned the computer business to work with his hands, making clay pots at a local studio, and pursues another artist, Nella, a lovely Caribbean girl who's resistant to Errol's advances but not impossibly so.
It's the midnight weirdness that has him on edge. Errol is taking frantic, disjointed phone calls in the wee hours from a cold, naked crazy man who's sleeping in the graveyard. It's quite the novel premise, if for no other reason than to see where the hell it's going. As the phone calls become more frequent, the mystery caller becomes more lucid, and starts bringing up memories of Errol's life that he couldn't possibly remember. Errol thinks his father must have had another family somewhere, with some damaged child seeking out what little family he has left.
It's the midnight weirdness that has him on edge. Errol is taking frantic, disjointed phone calls in the wee hours from a cold, naked crazy man who's sleeping in the graveyard. It's quite the novel premise, if for no other reason than to see where the hell it's going. As the phone calls become more frequent, the mystery caller becomes more lucid, and starts bringing up memories of Errol's life that he couldn't possibly remember. Errol thinks his father must have had another family somewhere, with some damaged child seeking out what little family he has left.
Finally, Errol jumps the cemetery gates to meet the man, who turns out to be a 20-year-old with many of the memories, feelings and characteristics of Errol's long-dead father. As the man babbles about "good times," Errol dubs him GT and squirrels him away until he can figure out what's happened and can find out more about "The Wave," which Errol assumes is a cult of some fashion.
There's even a small murder mystery to be solved. When Errol's mother is unconvinced of GT's identity, he tells of the strawberry tattoo on her breast, and reveals the dark secret of her affair with a man named Bobby Bliss. Errol's father hired a private detective to find out the truth and made sure that Bobby was never going to interrupt his own domestic bliss. This more traditional subplot will be familiar territory to Mosley's regular readers but may not sustain the attention of more hardcore science fiction aficionados.
Stay tuned. When Errol starts digging into the murder mystery, GT splits, and things take a further turn into deeper, stranger territory when Mosley abandons his book's conventional foundation.
There's even a small murder mystery to be solved. When Errol's mother is unconvinced of GT's identity, he tells of the strawberry tattoo on her breast, and reveals the dark secret of her affair with a man named Bobby Bliss. Errol's father hired a private detective to find out the truth and made sure that Bobby was never going to interrupt his own domestic bliss. This more traditional subplot will be familiar territory to Mosley's regular readers but may not sustain the attention of more hardcore science fiction aficionados.
Stay tuned. When Errol starts digging into the murder mystery, GT splits, and things take a further turn into deeper, stranger territory when Mosley abandons his book's conventional foundation.
His hero is soon kidnapped by archetypal government agents, black sunglasses and earpieces intact, who drag him off to a secret facility underneath Los Angeles. Run by the maniacal scientist Dr. David Wheeler, It turns out to be a holding pen for the body-snatching alien life forms that have invaded Earth. Driven into the Earth some billion years ago by a meteorite, these aliens have the ability to take over organic life forms, starting with animals and moving up to resurrecting human beings from their graves.
The government has assumed these small organisms have nefarious plans. Errol is witness to the barbaric torture of these "XTs," in the Pit, where a small girl's arm is chopped off regularly and others are burned, drowned and frozen in turn.
Not that Errol doesn't fall into his wicked ways before joining the extraterrestrial resistance, bedding Dr. Wheeler's insatiable wife. It's ironic that the most unbelievable turn in a book with alien resurrection and mad scientists is the hero's love life. Mosley has an immense talent for drawing strong, believable men but women don't come off quite as well. While I understand the need for romance, his heroes get more lovin' than James Bond, but with less effort.
The government has assumed these small organisms have nefarious plans. Errol is witness to the barbaric torture of these "XTs," in the Pit, where a small girl's arm is chopped off regularly and others are burned, drowned and frozen in turn.
Not that Errol doesn't fall into his wicked ways before joining the extraterrestrial resistance, bedding Dr. Wheeler's insatiable wife. It's ironic that the most unbelievable turn in a book with alien resurrection and mad scientists is the hero's love life. Mosley has an immense talent for drawing strong, believable men but women don't come off quite as well. While I understand the need for romance, his heroes get more lovin' than James Bond, but with less effort.
