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Star Light
Chris Rush was an average guy, until a construction site accident took his left arm, and then he becomes an extraordinary man when his arm grows back.
In the wake of losing his arm, Chris falls into depression and frustration by having to relearn mundane tasks, like brushing his teeth. While at a prosthetic clinic, he has a chance encounter with a childhood friend, Lilly Christian, the technician that’s going to make his artificial arm. Lilly tries to rekindle their lost love, but Chris' disability hinders his confidence. He’s also haunted by dreams of his mother's death that happened thirty years ago, when his stepfather killed her in front of his eight-year-old eyes.
His world is thrown upside-down when he awakens one morning and discovers that his severed arm grew back overnight. He soon finds out that he’s been watched since birth by a clandestine government agency and now they want to capture him, because his unique DNA has come out of stasis. He learns that they abducted Lilly to use as leverage against him, so he’s going after them. Chris needs to find out what he is and in order to do that—he must find his father, who he’s never met, because he thought he was dead.
Chris leaves behind a trail of destruction as he heads on a collision course with the mystery of his true identity.
"I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another."
—John Lennon
STAR LIGHT is 92,000 words.
Facebook.com/ Thonas Rand
In the wake of losing his arm, Chris falls into depression and frustration by having to relearn mundane tasks, like brushing his teeth. While at a prosthetic clinic, he has a chance encounter with a childhood friend, Lilly Christian, the technician that’s going to make his artificial arm. Lilly tries to rekindle their lost love, but Chris' disability hinders his confidence. He’s also haunted by dreams of his mother's death that happened thirty years ago, when his stepfather killed her in front of his eight-year-old eyes.
His world is thrown upside-down when he awakens one morning and discovers that his severed arm grew back overnight. He soon finds out that he’s been watched since birth by a clandestine government agency and now they want to capture him, because his unique DNA has come out of stasis. He learns that they abducted Lilly to use as leverage against him, so he’s going after them. Chris needs to find out what he is and in order to do that—he must find his father, who he’s never met, because he thought he was dead.
Chris leaves behind a trail of destruction as he heads on a collision course with the mystery of his true identity.
"I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another."
—John Lennon
STAR LIGHT is 92,000 words.
Facebook.com/ Thonas Rand
- GenresScience Fiction
339 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 22, 2012
7 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Thonas Rand
4 books11 followersThonas Rand was born and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up, his mother fed his imagination by taking him to countless movies, including the animated movie Wizards and the original Alien in 1979, which at his very young age, scared the hell out of him.
He recalls going into the theater nervous with the ticket stubs in his hand. After it was over, he looked in his hand and didn't realize that during the film, he held the ticket stubs so tightly, that he rubbed them into unrecognizable paper pulp. That experience was most likely the catalyst that started the fire of his imagination. That, and, of course, watching Star Trek as a kid. Thonas has always been a daydreamer, picturing other worlds and realities were, and still is, his best therapy. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, are his favorite genres to watch and write about.
"Science Fiction is the unbelievable." ~Thonas Rand
"Thonas Rand" is his Nom de Plume, he created it as a tribute to his late Grandmothers, Theresa and Onez, two great women that have left this world with a little less light.
Thonas just published his fourth novel, which is book three of The Fall of Society Series, The Fracture of Society. He will begin work on his fifth novel in December/January of 2019.
You can follow Thonas Rand at facebook.com/Thonas Rand
He recalls going into the theater nervous with the ticket stubs in his hand. After it was over, he looked in his hand and didn't realize that during the film, he held the ticket stubs so tightly, that he rubbed them into unrecognizable paper pulp. That experience was most likely the catalyst that started the fire of his imagination. That, and, of course, watching Star Trek as a kid. Thonas has always been a daydreamer, picturing other worlds and realities were, and still is, his best therapy. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, are his favorite genres to watch and write about.
"Science Fiction is the unbelievable." ~Thonas Rand
"Thonas Rand" is his Nom de Plume, he created it as a tribute to his late Grandmothers, Theresa and Onez, two great women that have left this world with a little less light.
Thonas just published his fourth novel, which is book three of The Fall of Society Series, The Fracture of Society. He will begin work on his fifth novel in December/January of 2019.
You can follow Thonas Rand at facebook.com/Thonas Rand
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 23, 2013
Thonas Rand’s novel “Star Light” begs to be made into a motion picture that begs to be made in a television series. Fast-paced and action-packed, Rand smartly begins the book by getting readers to identify and sympathize with the main character, an everyday blue collar worker who loses his arm in a construction accident. That’s a smart move, because the character, Chris, soon begins to exhibit a number of strange abilities – such as body part regeneration – that slowly evolve into almost god-like powers. Meanwhile, a super-secret government agency with special weapons of its own chases Chris in an attempt to capture him. Along the way, there’s a growing romance with a young woman named Lilly and a worthy moral statement when what saves them is not simply Chris’ powers but a basic human quality so missing in his pursuers. Pick up “Star Light” – you won’t be disappointed.
October 8, 2012
The number of indie books that have made it on my nightstand has been surprising -- mostly because I never set out to read indie books but rather followed recommendations.
Many have rough edges and maybe not fully thought out ideas but they have all had some sort of unique slant or some such that made them stand out.
None have done this better than Star Light. A twisty-turny read that may come close to straining credulity at times but does it in such a way that you enjoy said strain.
Flowing and tasty metaphors, combined with fast paced action that threatened to overheat the "next page" button on my kindle, along with a somewhat mind-bending plot has left me impatiently waiting for the next installment.
Many have rough edges and maybe not fully thought out ideas but they have all had some sort of unique slant or some such that made them stand out.
None have done this better than Star Light. A twisty-turny read that may come close to straining credulity at times but does it in such a way that you enjoy said strain.
Flowing and tasty metaphors, combined with fast paced action that threatened to overheat the "next page" button on my kindle, along with a somewhat mind-bending plot has left me impatiently waiting for the next installment.
July 9, 2012
Good story. Will look forward to more by this author.
April 6, 2012
I want to be kind, but to tell the truth about this book, I must hurt feelings. The author personally recommended his own book to me anonymously, and on the spur of the moment, I got it and read it. This was a ridiculous book and very bad, too. It starts out in a promising manner. I'm debating with myself, though, about putting up my real opinion because of hurting feelings...I might delete this later.
This is the oddest book I've read so far this year. It starts out like a normalish science fiction young adult book, but then it becomes a potpourri of New Age metaphysical concepts, Scientology, 'The Celestine Prophecy', and that peculiar incomplete story telling from people who haven't thoroughly thought through their created fictional world.
I think Thonas Rand is not a real name for the author. I can discover no bio for him at all, other than a brief one written by the author on Amazon. Whoever you are, this book is not very good. You are a brave person to put it out there, and I give you kudos for that. But the marketplace will be your judge, not only your friends and family. For the record, George Lucas, of Star Wars, was a bad writer. I got some early Star Wars books with his name as writer on the cover and they stink.
The writing and the flow of the story is ok. The editing was obviously a word processor edit, since there are a number of sounds-alike and other misspelled words that are wrong due to programmed correction, such as using the word patients rather than patience, or conscious when it should be conscience. If that was all I have to say about the book, I'd give it a better rating.
I'm going to be spoiling, so stop now if you don't want to know this book's secrets.
It wasn't a bad book until Chris became a godlike person. It wasn't simply limbs growing back, it was how his god energy powers manifested with too fast increases of strength and so much omniscience, it is impossible to understand why Chris simply didn't send everyone away from the first time he had powers that worked like that, or absorb them all until he could safely release everyone, since his powers were almost without limits. He could have simply hugged everyone to death. The first time he ran into Alexander and the Jackals I thought this was going to be an evil government black operation focused on genetic and/or mechanical enhancement story, but it veers away from that and in fact, never explains, or hints there will be more on this, about their existence. Then the story really went off the rails with nonsensical excess. At this point, it became more and more black and white morally, no grey areas, and religious, with a healthy dollop of stupid New Age empowerment and general cartoon spiritualty, with sweet angel-like, but cow-simple, aliens with a senseless biological drive for ascensions of soul energy for reincarnation. It makes no sense because Chris's dad shows up in the flesh without having to reincarnate because he climbs into a spaceship on his home planet and flies here.
Why should these aliens reincarnate here, specifically on Earth, another unexplained plot point, and why not use the option to fly here since they have that capability instead of reincarnating into newborns, living as a regular, no-memory-of-alien-life human, then dying and their soul energy goes back to the alien world? Either religious uplifting or strange life cycle? Then, eventually we learn one purpose of these aliens ascending to reincarnate apparently is for the purpose of being in love with another ascended alien they were in love with on their home planet. Since they can love each other back home, the hell why should they need to ascend and reincarnate on earth to do that here? There is no hint of 'to be continued' on this mystery, which should be hinted at for a better story. Their home planet is a heaven of a planet, with birds and greenery and mountains and great beauty. The aliens are all vegetarian and the animals love them. Did I mention they are all telepathic and telekinetic? Why come to the Earth? To take on human flesh with no special powers, no past memories, live, marry, die, and return to superman souls of light on the other planet? No hints or clues or 'to be continued' hanging fire plot endings here, either.
This is all musings on my part, which actually covers this ascension business in more depth than it does in the book.
Other than military tanks and planes and satellites and weapons, there is no other tech of any nature. No Internet. No cell phones. No other involvement by anyone else either. No politicians, no scientists, no friends, no neighbors with idiosyncrasies really stick their noses in. Everyone who is introduced is really nice or really evil. The women are all man-besotted. This is not a book where characters have any depth. Not that there are many characters. The one single instance of some inner life is Chris's love for his dead mom.
The first two-thirds of the story is all fighting, maiming, bleeding bits of flesh, killing, absorbing bodies, car crashes and explosions, and a lot of secret military airplanes, tanks, and weapons, but the last third is love love love love love love love love and love - pretty, clean, holding hands innocence, emotionally only one note ringing with absolutely not a whiff of carnality or personality. Chris loves his dead mom who loves him and his dad who loves Chris and his mom and Chris loves his paper doll girlfriend who is maniacally driven to force her way into Chris's life in the first few chapters, but then it's love love love love love like angel pure and sweet flower love. Also, yes, Chris absorbed his dead mom's soul at age four, and she has been with him in his heart ever since. He is a grown man when he transforms, and he finally remembers his mom is inside of him (why is she inside of him and why didn't she go back home to her planet?) and it is all love love love love with clean soap purity. Despite all of the clean loving, by the way, there is a kiss or two, quite chaste and pure. However, when Chris and the rest of his family aren't loving each other with complete beautiful purity and respecting the ordinary humans, he is killing killing killing a lot of military guys and wiping out buildings and innocent civilians. But no news helicopters, no police ever get wise. Why does the all powerful dad alien sit in his cell for decades when he could have absorbed his jailers and anyone else who got in his way, or simply kill himself so he could float about as spirit, like Chris's mom living in Chris's heart? Everything kinda points to a stupid religious, Christ-like, or human improvement benevolence story, something a home-schooled with a religious curriculum kid would write.
This is a really, really, odd and bad book. But I did finish it because I wanted to know if it ever got back on the rails again. It didn't. I think he means to do a series. I think it is supposed to be heartwarming, or something, by the end, not like the child's song of 'Twinkle twinkle little star' which it is stylistically but perhaps 'Evergreen' by Barbara Streisand, which it is not. The one note simple tone of everything leads me to suspect a very young writer or a very unlived life, which would be better since that would indicate he can get better. If the author is young, depending on how young, say for sake of argument he is a bit of a prodigy of 14 years old who needs a lot of seasoning, like a musician, good. But if this is a book by someone in his 50's like the Cigarette Man from The X-Files, you REALLY need to go to a writing class or ten.
I really debated putting up this review. If this is a kid, he is a really good writer, but needs growing up. I would not put this review up at all. If this author is an adult, dude, it's kinda a straight to DVD movie the way it is now. I still feel like I'm being mean, but this was so bad! Should I take this down, anyway?
This is the oddest book I've read so far this year. It starts out like a normalish science fiction young adult book, but then it becomes a potpourri of New Age metaphysical concepts, Scientology, 'The Celestine Prophecy', and that peculiar incomplete story telling from people who haven't thoroughly thought through their created fictional world.
I think Thonas Rand is not a real name for the author. I can discover no bio for him at all, other than a brief one written by the author on Amazon. Whoever you are, this book is not very good. You are a brave person to put it out there, and I give you kudos for that. But the marketplace will be your judge, not only your friends and family. For the record, George Lucas, of Star Wars, was a bad writer. I got some early Star Wars books with his name as writer on the cover and they stink.
The writing and the flow of the story is ok. The editing was obviously a word processor edit, since there are a number of sounds-alike and other misspelled words that are wrong due to programmed correction, such as using the word patients rather than patience, or conscious when it should be conscience. If that was all I have to say about the book, I'd give it a better rating.
I'm going to be spoiling, so stop now if you don't want to know this book's secrets.
It wasn't a bad book until Chris became a godlike person. It wasn't simply limbs growing back, it was how his god energy powers manifested with too fast increases of strength and so much omniscience, it is impossible to understand why Chris simply didn't send everyone away from the first time he had powers that worked like that, or absorb them all until he could safely release everyone, since his powers were almost without limits. He could have simply hugged everyone to death. The first time he ran into Alexander and the Jackals I thought this was going to be an evil government black operation focused on genetic and/or mechanical enhancement story, but it veers away from that and in fact, never explains, or hints there will be more on this, about their existence. Then the story really went off the rails with nonsensical excess. At this point, it became more and more black and white morally, no grey areas, and religious, with a healthy dollop of stupid New Age empowerment and general cartoon spiritualty, with sweet angel-like, but cow-simple, aliens with a senseless biological drive for ascensions of soul energy for reincarnation. It makes no sense because Chris's dad shows up in the flesh without having to reincarnate because he climbs into a spaceship on his home planet and flies here.
Why should these aliens reincarnate here, specifically on Earth, another unexplained plot point, and why not use the option to fly here since they have that capability instead of reincarnating into newborns, living as a regular, no-memory-of-alien-life human, then dying and their soul energy goes back to the alien world? Either religious uplifting or strange life cycle? Then, eventually we learn one purpose of these aliens ascending to reincarnate apparently is for the purpose of being in love with another ascended alien they were in love with on their home planet. Since they can love each other back home, the hell why should they need to ascend and reincarnate on earth to do that here? There is no hint of 'to be continued' on this mystery, which should be hinted at for a better story. Their home planet is a heaven of a planet, with birds and greenery and mountains and great beauty. The aliens are all vegetarian and the animals love them. Did I mention they are all telepathic and telekinetic? Why come to the Earth? To take on human flesh with no special powers, no past memories, live, marry, die, and return to superman souls of light on the other planet? No hints or clues or 'to be continued' hanging fire plot endings here, either.
This is all musings on my part, which actually covers this ascension business in more depth than it does in the book.
Other than military tanks and planes and satellites and weapons, there is no other tech of any nature. No Internet. No cell phones. No other involvement by anyone else either. No politicians, no scientists, no friends, no neighbors with idiosyncrasies really stick their noses in. Everyone who is introduced is really nice or really evil. The women are all man-besotted. This is not a book where characters have any depth. Not that there are many characters. The one single instance of some inner life is Chris's love for his dead mom.
The first two-thirds of the story is all fighting, maiming, bleeding bits of flesh, killing, absorbing bodies, car crashes and explosions, and a lot of secret military airplanes, tanks, and weapons, but the last third is love love love love love love love love and love - pretty, clean, holding hands innocence, emotionally only one note ringing with absolutely not a whiff of carnality or personality. Chris loves his dead mom who loves him and his dad who loves Chris and his mom and Chris loves his paper doll girlfriend who is maniacally driven to force her way into Chris's life in the first few chapters, but then it's love love love love love like angel pure and sweet flower love. Also, yes, Chris absorbed his dead mom's soul at age four, and she has been with him in his heart ever since. He is a grown man when he transforms, and he finally remembers his mom is inside of him (why is she inside of him and why didn't she go back home to her planet?) and it is all love love love love with clean soap purity. Despite all of the clean loving, by the way, there is a kiss or two, quite chaste and pure. However, when Chris and the rest of his family aren't loving each other with complete beautiful purity and respecting the ordinary humans, he is killing killing killing a lot of military guys and wiping out buildings and innocent civilians. But no news helicopters, no police ever get wise. Why does the all powerful dad alien sit in his cell for decades when he could have absorbed his jailers and anyone else who got in his way, or simply kill himself so he could float about as spirit, like Chris's mom living in Chris's heart? Everything kinda points to a stupid religious, Christ-like, or human improvement benevolence story, something a home-schooled with a religious curriculum kid would write.
This is a really, really, odd and bad book. But I did finish it because I wanted to know if it ever got back on the rails again. It didn't. I think he means to do a series. I think it is supposed to be heartwarming, or something, by the end, not like the child's song of 'Twinkle twinkle little star' which it is stylistically but perhaps 'Evergreen' by Barbara Streisand, which it is not. The one note simple tone of everything leads me to suspect a very young writer or a very unlived life, which would be better since that would indicate he can get better. If the author is young, depending on how young, say for sake of argument he is a bit of a prodigy of 14 years old who needs a lot of seasoning, like a musician, good. But if this is a book by someone in his 50's like the Cigarette Man from The X-Files, you REALLY need to go to a writing class or ten.
I really debated putting up this review. If this is a kid, he is a really good writer, but needs growing up. I would not put this review up at all. If this author is an adult, dude, it's kinda a straight to DVD movie the way it is now. I still feel like I'm being mean, but this was so bad! Should I take this down, anyway?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 30, 2015
I agree with an earlier review that this could be a movie; Star Man with a bit of Terminator and some Matrix or something all mixed up (movies the men in my life enjoyed way more than I did).
My problem with this book was I just didn't enjoy it very much. By the time the death count reached the dozens I was kind of skimming the violent bits. I liked the back story on the aliens and I really liked the way it was presented in bits of memory that kept it all flowing in a circle. I thought the female main character was weak in more than one sense, she just wasn't developed enough to be more than sort of vague and I don't think she got to drive, blow something up, or fly enough to have really contributed. The one time she shows up with an arm her contribution is stomped on, sheesh.
Swearing, Very violent, No sex.
My problem with this book was I just didn't enjoy it very much. By the time the death count reached the dozens I was kind of skimming the violent bits. I liked the back story on the aliens and I really liked the way it was presented in bits of memory that kept it all flowing in a circle. I thought the female main character was weak in more than one sense, she just wasn't developed enough to be more than sort of vague and I don't think she got to drive, blow something up, or fly enough to have really contributed. The one time she shows up with an arm her contribution is stomped on, sheesh.
Swearing, Very violent, No sex.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews