The End of Play Paperback – August 18, 2025

Blake Avera is an American writer, and this is his second novel. He loves to read about history, and his extensive reading about the Vietnam War led to this latest book. His inspiration for this story are the Vietnam veterans who are his patients that he has met and operated on in his 35 years of practicing ophthalmology in his hometown of Wichita Falls. Recently retired from eye surgery, he still sees patients, but he has more time for family and grandchildren along with his love of golf, tennis, and scouting out a new bird sighting. Tom Harrison is born into a wealthy oil family on a ranch in Texas. He and his friends and future wife grow up in the 50's and 60's and watch their innocent world change as their future is shrouded by the specter of the coming Vietnam War. Tom and his classmates take many different pathways through that tumultuous time, and Tom decides to serve his country. The result costs Tom his friends, his wife, and his only child. The characters in the story and the world they knew are all changed by the events of that generation. Tom struggles with God and the reality of his new world, and he finds hope through love as he fights to save his world from The End of Play. Read more