Western Lights

De: C.P. Schaefer

Narrado por: Maria Marquis

2024 Literary Titan GOLD Book Award in Fiction

2024 Reader’s Favorite BRONZE MEDAL Winner in Fiction - Time Travel

She escaped the apocalypse—now she must stop it from happening.

When Earth’s magnetic core flips, violent solar flares ignite Super Auroras—tearing open rifts in time. In an instant, researcher Sara Gathers vanishes in a flash of light… and wakes up in the 1980s.

The world she knew is gone. The climate crisis that doomed her future hasn't begun yet, but neither has the fight to stop it. Stranded decades before disaster, Sara must convince a skeptical world to change course before it’s too late.

But time doesn’t yield easily, and neither do those in power. As authorities grow suspicious of her impossible predictions, her last hope lies in one person: Julia Gathers—a brilliant scientist who doesn’t yet know she’s destined to become Sara’s mother.

To alter history, Sara must risk everything. Because if she fails, Earth’s destruction is inevitable—and this time, there will be no escape.

Western Lights is a heart-pounding sci-fi adventure where saving humanity means rewriting the past, and where survival is measured by the strength of human connection.

©2024 Charles Schaefer (P)2025 Charles Schaefer

An Interesting Premise For A Disaster Resolution

The author is gifted but also takes the scenic route for the majority of the book. You really get to know the main characters and some of the secondary ones. But you also get to see every single meal or alcoholic intake. And no matter how much I may sympathize with a marine rescue, after six full chapters on one, I started skipping ahead to the rescuers conclusion. And there were a lot of plot detours that shattered the pace until about 3/4 of the way through. And without spoilers, while the ending is pleasant, I would have liked to see a few more chapters to explain it and reveal what happened to the main characters under these circumstances. As it is, it left me figuratively scratching my head.

The narrator was fantastic throughout the books. I loved her ability to differ her voices to convey the various male and female character. I never got tired of or bored with her voice. Great job!

Would I recommend this book? Genrrly yes, but not for the preposterous climate doom aspects; the science is extremely exaggerated. Still, this is fiction. Just don't expect Florida to be underwater in 3 years from climate change or a theoretical core flip to happen in real life. That said, the writing and characterization draw the reader into the book. And the audiobook is a treat because of the narrator.

If the author made a sequel to explore what happened next, I'd read it.