{"id":1248,"date":"2002-07-21T12:22:42","date_gmt":"2002-07-21T12:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2016-10-21T12:27:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T12:27:28","slug":"on-a-beam-of-light-by-gene-brewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/book-review\/science-fiction\/on-a-beam-of-light-by-gene-brewer\/","title":{"rendered":"On a Beam of Light, by Gene Brewer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/On-a-Beam-of-Light-by-Gene-Brewer.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1249\" src=\"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/On-a-Beam-of-Light-by-Gene-Brewer-156x250.jpg\" alt=\"on-a-beam-of-light-by-gene-brewer cover\" width=\"156\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/On-a-Beam-of-Light-by-Gene-Brewer-156x250.jpg 156w, https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/On-a-Beam-of-Light-by-Gene-Brewer.jpg 249w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 156px) 100vw, 156px\" \/><\/a><strong>Genre: Science Fiction<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Publisher: St. Martin&#8217;s Press<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Published: 2002<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Reviewer Rating: <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-244\" src=\"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/11\/threestars.gif\" alt=\"three stars\" width=\"36\" height=\"13\" \/><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Book Review by Lynn Nicole Louis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Have you read this book?<br \/>\n<span id=\"post-ratings-1248\" class=\"post-ratings\" data-nonce=\"4483715f20\">Why not rate it! <img id=\"rating_1248_1\" src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/stars\/rating_off.gif\" alt=\"1 Star\" title=\"1 Star\" onmouseover=\"current_rating(1248, 1, '1 Star');\" onmouseout=\"ratings_off(0, 0, 0);\" onclick=\"rate_post();\" onkeypress=\"rate_post();\" style=\"cursor: pointer; border: 0px;\" \/><img id=\"rating_1248_2\" src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/stars\/rating_off.gif\" alt=\"2 Stars\" title=\"2 Stars\" onmouseover=\"current_rating(1248, 2, '2 Stars');\" onmouseout=\"ratings_off(0, 0, 0);\" onclick=\"rate_post();\" onkeypress=\"rate_post();\" style=\"cursor: pointer; border: 0px;\" \/><img id=\"rating_1248_3\" src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/stars\/rating_off.gif\" alt=\"3 Stars\" title=\"3 Stars\" onmouseover=\"current_rating(1248, 3, '3 Stars');\" onmouseout=\"ratings_off(0, 0, 0);\" onclick=\"rate_post();\" onkeypress=\"rate_post();\" style=\"cursor: pointer; border: 0px;\" \/><img id=\"rating_1248_4\" src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/stars\/rating_off.gif\" alt=\"4 Stars\" title=\"4 Stars\" onmouseover=\"current_rating(1248, 4, '4 Stars');\" onmouseout=\"ratings_off(0, 0, 0);\" onclick=\"rate_post();\" onkeypress=\"rate_post();\" style=\"cursor: pointer; border: 0px;\" \/><img id=\"rating_1248_5\" src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/stars\/rating_off.gif\" alt=\"5 Stars\" title=\"5 Stars\" onmouseover=\"current_rating(1248, 5, '5 Stars');\" onmouseout=\"ratings_off(0, 0, 0);\" onclick=\"rate_post();\" onkeypress=\"rate_post();\" style=\"cursor: pointer; border: 0px;\" \/> <br \/><span class=\"post-ratings-text\" id=\"ratings_1248_text\"><\/span><\/span><span id=\"post-ratings-1248-loading\" class=\"post-ratings-loading\"><img src=\"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-postratings\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" class=\"post-ratings-image\" \/>Loading...<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I was standing in front of the bookshelves in K-Mart when I saw <b>On a Beam of Light<\/b>. At the top of the cover: <i>The sequel to the cult smash K-PAX. Now a major motion picture.<\/i> I&#8217;d seen K-PAX about a week before, after reading a review of it on. I didn&#8217;t know K-PAX had been a book, but I enjoyed the movie (good but not great) so I snagged <b>On a Beam of Light<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>It picks up pretty much where the movie (and I&#8217;m assuming the book) left off. Prot (rhymes with goat) is gone, leaving behind a catatonic Robert Porter and a ton of questions. He did, however, promise to be back. And in <b>On a Beam of Light<\/b>, he is.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Brewer is the psychiatrist who&#8217;s still trying to help&#8211;he believes Prot is a splinter personality of Robert&#8217;s. But how to explain the extraordinary things Prot can do? And will saving Robert result in the destruction of Prot?<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot of New Age stuff here&#8211;take care of each other, exercise responsible control over ourselves and our planet, etc. Prot doesn&#8217;t hold out much hope for humanity. Although I found myself agreeing with much of what Brewer espouses, he mainly offers only generalized solutions to his criticisms, such as &#8220;be nicer&#8221;, &#8220;get rid of money and religion&#8221;, and the like. After a while, these enigmatic proclamations grow stale and repetitive. By the end of the book, I was tired of the main character&#8217;s smug superiority.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not to say I didn&#8217;t enjoy the book; I did. It&#8217;s light fare and not too long, with an interesting psychological mystery slowly (yet easily and unconvincingly) unraveled by Gene. I breezed through it in a few evenings.<\/p>\n<p>Labeling it science fiction is, in my opinion, not correct. It&#8217;s more like philosophy, a sort of feel-good self-help book that doesn&#8217;t really make you feel good or offer any help.<\/p>\n<p>If you saw or read K-PAX and enjoyed it, you&#8217;ll probably like this. If your reading stack is depleted and you&#8217;re standing in K-Mart and it&#8217;s there, pick it up. But don&#8217;t make a special trip.<\/p>\n<div class=\"buy\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Beam-Light-Gene-Brewer\/dp\/0312982089\">Click here to buy On a Beam of Light, by Gene Brewer on Amazon<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genre: Science Fiction Publisher: St. Martin&#8217;s Press Published: 2002 Reviewer Rating: Book Review by Lynn Nicole Louis Have you read this book? I was standing in front of the bookshelves in K-Mart when I saw On a Beam of Light. At the top of the cover: The sequel to the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[74,395,252,177,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}