THE LAST DAY
Andrew Hunter Murray
Published in 2020, this is labelled as ‘fiction’ rather than ‘science fiction’.
It’s 2059 and the earth has stopped rotating. The Slow began some thirty years earlier. So a good half of the planet is in perpetual night, like the dark side of the moon, with all that that entails. One half an endless frozen night, the other unabated burning sun. Crop failures and mass emigration are just two issues. Britain was fortunate to be in the constant sunlight and was apparently undergoing the Great British Resurgence, according to the authorities.
The heroine, Ellen Hopper is a scientist who is called back to London by a dying associate, Thorne. Here, she learns that everything is not what it seems; there are secrets that people are willing to kill over. She enlists the help of her ex, David, a journalist.
The story moves along at a fair pace as they track and trace clues to the Big Revelation. I don’t know why the author persisted in referring to her as Hopper rather than Ellen when he refers to David by his name, but it grated for me.
The conclusion suggests the possibility of a sequel to further explore Murray’s changed world.
It was okay, but don’t believe the hype.
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