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Lightwarriors
Charlie MacLeod, a young and beautiful girl, was gifted at birth with the power to set the world alight; a power she neither wants nor can easily control. A victim of tragedy, Charlie is adopted by David and Catherine McAuliff, a young couple with similar god-like powers who only wish to live a quiet, normal life. Events quickly spiral out of control as Charlie is marked for death by the NSA, and later pursued by another, far more dangerous entity that seeks to exploit her power for its own dark ends.
456 pages, Paperback
Published November 23, 2018
9 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Brian L. Jackson
2 books5 followersI am a long time writer, recently published Indie Author. I currently live in Claremore, Oklahoma with my wife and two children. In addition to writing have my own law practice and I am an avid reader.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 20, 2019
This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com. I received a copy of the book for review consideration.
‘Lightwarriors’ is a book about a young girl with pyrokinetic abilities who is on the run from the US authorities who want to harness her power.
If the above sounds familiar that might be because it’s also the plot of a book called ‘Firestarter’ by an author called Stephen King. Stephen King is quite a well-known. You may have heard of him. ‘Firestarter’ isn’t his best or most famous book, but it was made into a reasonably popular movie starring Drew Barrymore in her post-ET years. I can’t say with 100% certainty that the author of ‘Lightwarriors’ is familiar with the book or movie ‘Firestarter’. It does seem quite likely though.
They say that there are only so many stories, that we end up telling ourselves essentially the tales over and over. You could argue that what author Brian L Jackson has done here is borrow an idea from Stephen King and riff on it a bit. There are other books and movies about psychic kids on the run, so maybe we should cut him some slack.
Let’s dig a bit deeper though. The girl in ‘Firestarter’ is called Charlene McGee, Charlie for short. The girl in ‘Lightwarriors’ is called Charlene MacLeod, Charlie for short. Charlie McGee is the daughter of a young man and woman who were given an experimental drug by the US government which gave them psychic abilities. So is Charlie MacLeod. In both books Charlie’s mother is killed by authorities and she goes on the run with her dad. In both books they hide in her grandfather’s cabin in the woods. In both Charlie is captured and imprisoned by the authorities who experiment on her. In both books one of her captors befriends her. Those aren’t the only similarities. These books are very, very similar. I don’t know what the chances of that happening are, but if I were Brian Jackson, I’d buy a lottery ticket.
But wait! I’m being unfair! Because halfway through ‘Lightwarriors’ takes a massive turn and it turns out it’s not a ripoff of ‘Firestarter’ at all. Charlie learns that there are other other people who have psychic powers like hers. These people have organised themselves into two groups. Some chose to use their powers for good. Some are full of anger and use them for evil. The two groups are locked in an endless struggle and battle each other with space ships and swords. The evil faction is called the Black Empire, they are ruled by a devious figure called The Emperor. His main enforcer is a man so hideously scarred that he wears a fearsome black helmet. The soldiers who fight for the Black Empire are called Death Troopers.
If that sounds familiar it’s because it’s also the central concept of a film series called ‘Star Wars’ by a filmmaker called George Lucas. ‘Star Wars’ is quite well known. You may have heard of it. Again, I can’t say for certain that Brian Jackson is familiar with ‘Star Wars’. However, his author bio says he lives in Oklahoma, not on fucking Mars, so it feels like there is a chance he might have at least heard of it.
Turns out though, that coincidental similarities to extremely well-known works by other people isn’t the biggest problem that ‘Lightwarriors’ has. It’s also really not very good. It’s full of horribly long chunks of exposition and wild coincidences. The characters are wafer thin, the dialogue is stilted and the action scenes (which get massively bloody in the second half for no real reason) are boring.
Anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know that whilst I review honestly, I also endeavour to find something positive in every book, especially when it is from an indie author or publisher. As someone who has published fiction, I know that bad reviews can feel like a slap in the face.
I just can’t find that glimmer of light with this book though. It has no redeeming qualities and is breath-taking in its willingness to ransack better stories for ideas.
‘Lightwarriors’ is a book about a young girl with pyrokinetic abilities who is on the run from the US authorities who want to harness her power.
If the above sounds familiar that might be because it’s also the plot of a book called ‘Firestarter’ by an author called Stephen King. Stephen King is quite a well-known. You may have heard of him. ‘Firestarter’ isn’t his best or most famous book, but it was made into a reasonably popular movie starring Drew Barrymore in her post-ET years. I can’t say with 100% certainty that the author of ‘Lightwarriors’ is familiar with the book or movie ‘Firestarter’. It does seem quite likely though.
They say that there are only so many stories, that we end up telling ourselves essentially the tales over and over. You could argue that what author Brian L Jackson has done here is borrow an idea from Stephen King and riff on it a bit. There are other books and movies about psychic kids on the run, so maybe we should cut him some slack.
Let’s dig a bit deeper though. The girl in ‘Firestarter’ is called Charlene McGee, Charlie for short. The girl in ‘Lightwarriors’ is called Charlene MacLeod, Charlie for short. Charlie McGee is the daughter of a young man and woman who were given an experimental drug by the US government which gave them psychic abilities. So is Charlie MacLeod. In both books Charlie’s mother is killed by authorities and she goes on the run with her dad. In both books they hide in her grandfather’s cabin in the woods. In both Charlie is captured and imprisoned by the authorities who experiment on her. In both books one of her captors befriends her. Those aren’t the only similarities. These books are very, very similar. I don’t know what the chances of that happening are, but if I were Brian Jackson, I’d buy a lottery ticket.
But wait! I’m being unfair! Because halfway through ‘Lightwarriors’ takes a massive turn and it turns out it’s not a ripoff of ‘Firestarter’ at all. Charlie learns that there are other other people who have psychic powers like hers. These people have organised themselves into two groups. Some chose to use their powers for good. Some are full of anger and use them for evil. The two groups are locked in an endless struggle and battle each other with space ships and swords. The evil faction is called the Black Empire, they are ruled by a devious figure called The Emperor. His main enforcer is a man so hideously scarred that he wears a fearsome black helmet. The soldiers who fight for the Black Empire are called Death Troopers.
If that sounds familiar it’s because it’s also the central concept of a film series called ‘Star Wars’ by a filmmaker called George Lucas. ‘Star Wars’ is quite well known. You may have heard of it. Again, I can’t say for certain that Brian Jackson is familiar with ‘Star Wars’. However, his author bio says he lives in Oklahoma, not on fucking Mars, so it feels like there is a chance he might have at least heard of it.
Turns out though, that coincidental similarities to extremely well-known works by other people isn’t the biggest problem that ‘Lightwarriors’ has. It’s also really not very good. It’s full of horribly long chunks of exposition and wild coincidences. The characters are wafer thin, the dialogue is stilted and the action scenes (which get massively bloody in the second half for no real reason) are boring.
Anyone who reads my reviews regularly will know that whilst I review honestly, I also endeavour to find something positive in every book, especially when it is from an indie author or publisher. As someone who has published fiction, I know that bad reviews can feel like a slap in the face.
I just can’t find that glimmer of light with this book though. It has no redeeming qualities and is breath-taking in its willingness to ransack better stories for ideas.
April 22, 2019
I read this book a few weeks ago and loved it. The characters are well developed and the story hook moves along at a fast pace. There is a lot of action and the ending leaves you wanting to know more. I have started following him on FB and he is hinting at the sequel coming out later this year. I've already told Brian to make sure he lets me know when its ready because I want to be the first in line to purchase this sequel.
Charlie is not your ordinary 9 year old girl. On the run from unscrupulous government agencies as well as a powerful entity bent on perverting her powers to his own needs, she must find a way to survive long enough to find a way to defeat those who wish to exploit her gifts.
Charlie is not your ordinary 9 year old girl. On the run from unscrupulous government agencies as well as a powerful entity bent on perverting her powers to his own needs, she must find a way to survive long enough to find a way to defeat those who wish to exploit her gifts.
May 12, 2019
This is a brilliantly written book and would have gained 5 stars but for my disappointment in the glimpse of the underlying darkness of humanity that doesn't coincide with my beliefs, hence I didn't "love" the book but did like it very much. The writing is replete with action verbs and nouns, and the little girl is well represented as a small child who holds an incredible power that is perhaps beyond her scope of understanding or control. The classic story of "good" versus "evil" is well thought out. As a lawyer by trade, the author certainly uses his perception of humanity's failings as well as the grandness of the world we know, the love of parent and child, and the disappointment experienced by those who are naive enough to believe that the world is better than it has proven itself throughout history to be.
I think the book is meant to be the first in a series and if so, I would like to read the sequel.
I think the book is meant to be the first in a series and if so, I would like to read the sequel.
March 12, 2022
As an indie author myself, I always try to find some good things to say about a book written by another indie author even if I didn't like the book overall. Here are my compliments for Lightwarriors: It takes a lot of dedication to write a full-length novel. It's a huge time commitment. There are grammatical errors that made it to the final draft, but none that made the book unreadable.
Now on to criticisms.
This book was formatted so that there were no indentations at the beginning of paragraphs. Lightwarriors read like one giant block of text, and quite a bit of that text was exposition. None of the characters were memorable or had much depth to them. That made it very difficult to finish reading the book.
About halfway through the book, the story drastically changes. It started as this sci-fi/fantasy action/thriller--very much set in modern day earth--then out of nowhere, it turns into a Star Wars knock off. To top it all off, the book went on FOREVER, to the point where I was skimming the last few chapters. Suffice to say, I will not be reading any sequels to Lightwarriors.
Now on to criticisms.
This book was formatted so that there were no indentations at the beginning of paragraphs. Lightwarriors read like one giant block of text, and quite a bit of that text was exposition. None of the characters were memorable or had much depth to them. That made it very difficult to finish reading the book.
About halfway through the book, the story drastically changes. It started as this sci-fi/fantasy action/thriller--very much set in modern day earth--then out of nowhere, it turns into a Star Wars knock off. To top it all off, the book went on FOREVER, to the point where I was skimming the last few chapters. Suffice to say, I will not be reading any sequels to Lightwarriors.
July 8, 2022
a real firecracker
An odd book as it clearly takes its premise from Steven King’s Firestarter. The MC is named Charlie in both books, so i don’t get the feeling that this is some kind of shameless rip off. It’s like her name and even the title is a tip of the hat to the original. It’s enough different, however, and I enjoyed it. This story is darker and more visceral, especially the night she almost dies of poisoning and remembers the last day with her father. You really feel her horror, pain, hatred and
fear as she’s dying. I like how the government is out to just kill them dead and not try and take her in to maybe control. It gives the book a perpetual sense of dread and terror. The pride is outstanding. Very vivid language and powerful. Overall, a must read!
An odd book as it clearly takes its premise from Steven King’s Firestarter. The MC is named Charlie in both books, so i don’t get the feeling that this is some kind of shameless rip off. It’s like her name and even the title is a tip of the hat to the original. It’s enough different, however, and I enjoyed it. This story is darker and more visceral, especially the night she almost dies of poisoning and remembers the last day with her father. You really feel her horror, pain, hatred and
fear as she’s dying. I like how the government is out to just kill them dead and not try and take her in to maybe control. It gives the book a perpetual sense of dread and terror. The pride is outstanding. Very vivid language and powerful. Overall, a must read!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews