Reviews

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray

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caljosenjo's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jess_mango's review against another edition

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4.0

It's 2059 and the world is in turmoil. Starting in 2019, due to a solar incident, the Earth's rotation slows and eventually stops, resulting in half of the world being in permanent daylight and the other half in darkness. Dr. Ellen Hopper works on a ship conducting studies on the ocean to see what lifeforms still exist in the water. Until one day she gets summoned by her former professor and mentor and returns back to London. the UK hails itself as the last surviving nation. They are in permanent daylight and have dealt with the influx of refugees from other nations. A region of the country has been sectioned off as an American Zone, where former US residents live. Ellen's visit to her professor sends on her a path of investigation that results in her being pursued and shadowed.

This was a fun, non-stop action read. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of "it's the end of the world as we know it" novels.

cupcakes_and_coffee's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Great debut novel and I look forward to reading his next! A dystopian thriller where the world stops spinning. I thought this a different angle than the usual apocalyptic world and was intrigued by the world and characters created. I enjoyed discovering the political coverup that only the scientists could reveal and make right!

mybestfriendsarefictional's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

bookreadgirl21's review against another edition

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1.0

I have been ripped off, is what I would have said if I had read this book on my own volition.
But since this book was part of my bookclub, the feeling of beeing ripped off was expected.

The book is basically:
The world has stopped rotating.

Okay now that you got that, you can forget it.
Basically the hole stationary earth premise is only backdrop for some conspiracy thriller.
Which is fine, usally the setting is either really thought out and presented in a compelling way or is populated by interesting characters.
Neither is the case in The Last Day.
The protagonist is a scientist working on an oil rig in a post 'earth has stopped turning' apocalypse world and doing important ocean science for authorian british government. Then she gets somehow wound up in a conspiracy during which she explores apocalyptic authorian britain, evades apocalyptic authorian british government agents (just imagine regular US police force without a funny accent), we get some insights into her past and the whole 'earth has stopped turning' history. And thats it. You ge told how the world works now, while Hopper runs from one clue to the next. You could switch 'earth has stopped turning' with any other apocalyptic event and still get the same story and anoter exposition. The story is weak and so is the exposition.
And then the book stops right when you think that the story starts to get interesting, just like this review!

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

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dark informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I sought this book out entirely because I adore Andrew Hunter Murray. I expected it to be clever like him (which it was), and I expected it to be witty and funny like him (which it was not).

But once I read the blurb I was intrigued by the premise. The scientific repercussions of the slowdown and eventual halt of the Earth's rotation were so well researched and that side of things was fascinating. The story behind it had intrigue and plenty of tension, along with a despotic leader of the "warm side" of the planet, who will use any means to further his cause (which, let's face it, is exactly what would happen). I actually wish we'd met Davenport or learned more about him as a person, because it's much more fun to hate someone when you know them better.

It did feel like the build up to the main events of the book was a little slow. It was fun seeing the characters develop and it broke up the science speak nicely, but things didn't really ramp up until the final 10% of the book. At that point I couldn't put it down and I loved what Hopper discovered. The end is ambiguous (perhaps leaving space for a potential sequel) and I'm enjoying speculating over what could happen next.

This is a solid dystopian thriller, and one whose potential was pretty alarming, but not as brilliant as I'd maybe hoped it would be.

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