This debut apocalyptic thriller features a dystopian society set in a futuristic Great Britain, the last remaining habitable country on a planet that slowed its orbit to a dead stop. Thirty years after the slowing began, the earth's remaining population now resides only in the area of continual sunlight with temperatures that are able to allow the production of food and the continuation of human life. Things are not good in this new world order and only those who are towing the political line, working ceaselessly and keeping the borders secure are surviving, but barely. Everyone who tried to flee to relocate to Great Britain on ships from other continents was sunk into the ocean and channels surrounding that country. Isolationism is paramount. The USA has a toehold in the southernmost part and are holding their own. Now they need more resources and are about to make a deal with the British government -- but Prime Minister Richard Davenport, the man who engineered the survival of the country -- wants America's nuclear weapons in exchange for more food and resources. But there might yet be hope to save the planet. Dr. Ellen Hopper, a scientific officer stationed out in the North Sea, has been contacted to the deathbed of her former teacher from her Oxford Days. He has information he needs to give her. Helicoptered to the hospital by security agents, Ellen is unable to get what she needs when he dies and soon finds herself targeted by the government and pursued as she attempts to figure out what is meant from a single clue. Can she do it? NO SPOILERS.
The premise was good, the futuristic aspect was chilling, and the writing was excellent. The story, however, moved very slowly and it seemed to take forever to get to the gist of the secret. I both love and hate the world building in novels that portend a hideous and bleak future for humankind. I'm still holding out for a new world that is more like the Jetsons (old TV show I never missed) and less like the collapse of knowledge and civilization -- barren wasteland of the nearly dead and starving. I have no idea if the science that explained the whole situation is accurate, but could appreciate the concept of half the world in eternal darkness and the other in nonstop sunlight, massive cold, blistering deserts that encroach the land mass, falling oxygenation, etc. Dismal. The basic narrative line has a lone woman facing off against nearly insurmountable odds to find some hope. I did enjoy this overall but definitely would have liked a more definitive ending as it seems to conclude rather abruptly after all the build-up. The descriptions and detail were good in some areas but deficient in others. Then again, I don't think the book needed more pages. Not sure how apt the title is either.
Anyway, I'll be eager to read more reviews of this one.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton/Penguin Random House for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - apocalyptic thriller, futuristic 2059
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