Review-Diary: Alone on Earth



Posted: Friday, January 20, 2012

by Paul Lappen

 Diary: Alone on Earth, JD Weldy, 2011, B005W3NACK (Kindle e-book)

It's normal to wonder what it would be like to be the last person on earth. That is, until it actually happens.

David is a senior citizen who has reasons for wanting to cut himself off from the rest of the world. He finds an isolated house outside of a small town in Alabama, where he plans to spend the rest of his days with his faithful dog, Ralph. One day, the whole world is menaced a strange humming sound. The media is full of speculation as to the cause. Several hundred people are driven to suicide, including one of David's neighbors. Countries are ready for war, convinced that their "enemy" is about to attack. David goes to bed.

The next morning David wakes up to no electricity, and no battery power, either. Even new, freshly charged batteries are dead. David travels to the houses of his neighbors, to find them deserted. He visits the small town, a place called Axis, to find it also deserted. He finds a motorcycle that he can push start, and visits Mobile, Alabama. He finds hundreds and hundreds of abandoned, burning cars, like people were in a panic. But there are no people, not even dead bodies. He finds the same thing in Atlanta, along with signs that people tried very hard keep something out, or in.

The book turns into something of a psychological battle between David and a being that he calls The Blackness. David feels that it wants him dead, but it can't kill him, so it torments him constantly. David hears Ralph barking, but no matter how much he calls out to Ralph, he doesn't come. David also hears voices that he should recognize. David and The Blackness meet late in the book (think "demon from hell"). David decides to travel west to keep looking for any other people. For some reason, he feels that answers will be found at the end of Interstate 90, in the town of Van Horn, Texas. As he travels, with The Blackness making it as hard as possible, David has to maneuver around thousands and thousands of smashed and burning cars, but still no people. Does David reach the end of his journey? Does he discover what happened to mankind?

Told all in diary form, this is a really interesting suspense story. It does a very good job of showing the despair that will set in after the "novelty" wears off, including the wondering if God would really let such a thing happen to His people. It is very much worth reading.
Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer from Connecticut whose web site http://www.deadtreesreview.com  contains nearly 700 book reviews on all subjects, concentrating on small press books.
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