EMBER Reviewed by Samaria Alston

Samaria is a 2018 graduate of Bay High School. A freshman at the University of West Florida this fall, she is majoring in Nursing. Her hobbies include music, cooking, dancing, and singing.

“Ember” (2017) by Brock Adams was intriguing to me because the author is a 2001 graduate of Bay High School. How exciting to read a book written by a former student from my alma mater!

“Ember” is a science fiction thriller set in apost-apocalypse era. The sun has mysteriously weakened to a faint ember, a massive solar flarehas knocked out all power after a nuclear arsenal aimed at the sun fails to reignite it, and the worldis cooling to dangerously low temperatures. In the ensuing chaos, the Minutemen, a survivalist group, has violently taken over the world. For survivors Lisa and Guy, life is a survival of the fittest.“Ember,” Adams’ debut novel, won the South Carolina First Novel Prize in 2016. The storyis a classic “good-versus-evil” story. The most compelling action takes place when the survivors raid the Minutemen and semi-destroy their base. Bravery and courage are portrayed throughout the entire story. Lisa never gives up fighting for her beliefs, nomatter what comes her way, she weathers the storm.Even when Guy is killed in an attack, Lisa knows she will survive in the ever-darkening world only if she and her dog, Jemi, adapt to the bleak and threatening predicaments they encounter as they find ways to live. Until I read “Ember,” my favorite genre was mystery but, thanks to “Ember,” I will definitely read more science fiction, especially if it is written by Adams.