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A review by gerhard
Everyone Says That at the End of the World by Owen Egerton
2.0
This book starts off quite brilliantly, introducing the tragic figure of Milton, whose father commits suicide as a form of quantum dare. This launches Milton on a lifelong quest to make sense of life, the universe and string theory ... Unfortunately, the earth is about to be wiped out by a gamma ray burst from a nearby exploding star.
Rather than play this as a melodramatic scenario, Egerton opts for high satire mode, replete with a hermit crab called Click as a central character. Think Hari Kunzru (Gods Without Men) combined with Rick Moody (The Four Fingers of Death).
Unfortunately, towards the end, Egerton commits the fatal error of abandoning the satire for some heavy handed humanism, replete with wandering messiahs and omniscient blue-skinned aliens.
The planet's apocalyptic end mirrors the novel's implosion into outright, messy craziness.
Rather than play this as a melodramatic scenario, Egerton opts for high satire mode, replete with a hermit crab called Click as a central character. Think Hari Kunzru (Gods Without Men) combined with Rick Moody (The Four Fingers of Death).
Unfortunately, towards the end, Egerton commits the fatal error of abandoning the satire for some heavy handed humanism, replete with wandering messiahs and omniscient blue-skinned aliens.
The planet's apocalyptic end mirrors the novel's implosion into outright, messy craziness.