Book info

• Title The Last Day
• Author Andrew Hunter Murray
• Year 2020
• Genres Science Fiction, Dystopia, Thriller

It is 2059, and the world has crashed. Forty years ago, a solar catastrophe began to slow the planet's rotation to a stop. Now one half of the globe is permanently sunlit, the other half trapped in an endless night. The United States has colonized the southern half of Great Britain--lucky enough to find itself in the narrow habitable region left between frozen darkness and scorching sunlight--where both nations have managed to survive the ensuing chaos by isolating themselves from the rest of the world. Ellen Hopper is a scientist living on a frostbitten rig in the cold Atlantic. She wants nothing more to do with her country after its slide into casual violence and brutal authoritarianism. Yet when two government officials arrive, demanding she return to London to see her dying college mentor, she accepts--and begins to unravel a secret that threatens not only the nation's fragile balance, but the future of the whole human race.

Thoughts

The concept of this was more satisfying than the book itself – what would the world be like if it stopped turning and the sun was stationary over the same land for eternity? Great premise. And the descriptions of the scenery, the situations, the politics, all good.

But I felt like the big mystery at the heart of the story, the reason that kept our hero running around the city and falling foul of the authorities didn’t quite hit home enough for me. Obviously a devastating discovery but it didn’t quite seem enough for either side to be taking the actions that they did. I don’t know.

I listened to the audiobook and it was brilliantly read by Gemma Whelan – crisp and initially cold, but gradually warming as she dug into her past and tried to make sure there was a future.

Rating: 3 / 5