Weekend Blast - The Last Witness

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 12/09/2016 - 07:16

My Two-Bits: The Last Witness

Pretty much my entire life, I have had a reading addiction. It's not as dangerous to the body as a drug addiction, but it can get pretty rough on the wallet. I have gotten better about using the library, but I still spend quite a bit on books. The worst part of this addiction is when I really get into a series, and have to wait for the next book. Dark Tower came close to killing me several times…6 years between books????

Earlier this year, a friend had pointed me towards Legacy, which is a terrific spin off of The Destroyer written by Warren Murphy and Gerald Welch. I basically devoured the first five books, so I was fiending for the next book. On the Legacy Facebook feed, we got a cover tease followed by a coming soon. I would quickly realize that “soon” is always a relative thing in the book world…

Author Gerald Welch has always been generous about answering questions about the series. When I mentioned to him how stressed I was waiting for the next book, he pointed me to his other series, The Last Witness. Coincidentally, the books happened to be on sale that weekend for the absurd price of free on Amazon. I downloaded them, read them in a weekend, and asked when the next one was coming out...just to get the answer of “soon.” That evil, evil word again.

Fortunately, my other addiction of choice is writing, so while we patiently….oh so patiently...wait for soon to get here, I thought it would be a good time to talk about this excellent series.

The Last Witness is a alien prince named Shiloh. He is sent to Earth at a young age when his older brother stages a coup taking over the planet and killing their father. Shiloh doesn’t remember his home world of Ehrets, all he knows is that he has been sickly most of his live. The alien computer Mattis sent to monitor him ends up triggering his abilities as “The Witness.” Unfortunately, this awakening has put Shiloh in the crosshairs of threats on both Ehrets and on Earth.

What makes The Last Witness work is that it seamlessly blends teen drama, superheroes, aliens, and religion into one brilliant serialized narrative. Pretty much every book ends “To Be Continued..” leaving the reader immediately wanting more. It actually would make a terrific graphic novel; Welch’s descriptions paint terrific pictures in the reader’s mind.

Another thing I love about The Last Witness is the in-depth world-building. Welch creates an entire alien empire revolved around the planet Ehrets. At the same time, he also develops a terrific “alternate” history of Earth, providing some neat little details on heroic characters of the past like Samson. Book Zero, The Arterran Chronicles serves as a brilliant sourcebook fleshing out so many of the characters and details of the main series. Just a word of warning, if you are going to pick up these books digitally, BUY THE ARTERRAN CHRONICLES IN PRINT! The digital version does not include all the “sourcebook” material

I also loved War in Heaven, which is a retelling of Satan’s war with God set in the world of The Last Witness. It is short, but shows the full scope of Welch’s vision for the series.

At the moment, there are four books in the main series, with the 5th coming...soon. Definitely check them out!

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