The Last Day

A Novel

By: Andrew Hunter Murray

Narrated by: Gemma Whelan

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Wonderful: boldly imagined and beautifully written—the best future-shock thriller for years.”—LEE CHILD

A visionary and powerful debut thriller set in a terrifyingly plausible dystopian near-future—with clear parallels to today's headlines—in which the future of humanity lies in the hands of one woman, a scientist who has stumbled upon a secret that the government will go to any lengths to keep hidden.

A world half in darkness. A secret she must bring to light.

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.

“A tantalizing, suspenseful odyssey of frustration, deceit, treachery, torture, hope, despair, and ingenious sleuthing . . . Murray has so thoroughly thought through the ramifications of his conceit and conjured up such a dramatic plot and stellar cast of characters that he might have set a new standard for such tales.”—The Washington Post

©2020 Andrew Hunter Murray (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A tantalizing, suspenseful odyssey of frustration, deceit, treachery, torture, hope, despair and ingenious sleuthing… Murray has so thoroughly thought through the ramifications of his conceit and conjured up such a dramatic plot and stellar cast of characters that he might have set a new standard for such tales."—The Washington Post

“A stunningly original thriller set in the world of tomorrow that will make you think about what’s happening today.”—Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A brilliant near-future thriller and a really cracking read."—Richard Osman, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Political Sci Fi

I liked the sci fi but was not a fan of the political. Great world building, but I felt the mystery was drawn out and really no surprise at all in the end, so it just annoyed me. I don't regret the purchase or time spent listening, but it's not a book I will listen to again.

Wow! So good!

I'm a huge fan of QI and "No Such Thing As A Fish", so listening to this was like reading a book that a friend wrote and thinking "Wow! I didn't know he was so talented." The book is utterly unexpected if you think of Andrew hunter Murray as a comedian. It's not a funny book. But, don't let that stop you. The same mental gymnastics that make Andrew so great at dishing up surprisingly interesting trivia make him an excellent story teller and great at pondering the "what if" kind of tale. The characters are compelling. The world is well described. The plot is twisty and turny and awesome all the way through. Absolutely worth your credit and your time.

Amazing

I absolutely loved the story, it was slow at first but it picked up. There was some nice unexpected twists and a bit of humor as well. The questions I had initially about the “stop” were answered throughout the story so it all started making sense. I absolutely loved it and recommend it to anyone who enjoys apocalyptic stories. Gemma did an amazing job narrating the story as well.

Poor pacing/plot/characters. Good world building.

An ok popcorn read. Maybe drags a bit too much to be fully entertaining but I was mildly amused.

What kept my attention the most was the great world building. The writing really painted a very good picture of the surroundings and state of the world. It was very easy to see what was going on and get a clear picture in my head.

I didn't however like how sorta aimless it felt. The plot sorta drones on too long. I felt anxious for a plot to get going but it just took too long to come, by the halfway point I shouldn't still be waiting.

This is a unclear mystery sort of plot, MC knows she's supposed to find something, but doesn't know where, what it is, how to find it. So she ends up just taking shots in the dark constantly that of course conveniently work. It never felt exciting though, the writing never sells any of this fumbling around as interesting. This fumbling was weirdly unrealistically convenient as well, there's this scene where the MC is calling a collect line to get sensitive call records and the operator just sorta goes with the cheap story way too easily, eye rolling bad scenes like this kept happening like the writing wasn't smart enough to know how to move forward so old school tropes were resorted to but badly.

During all this fumbling, I was at least pleasantly distracted by all the exposition and world building. It was bleak, hard to enjoy at times because it was uncomfortably an awful state the world was in.

The characters kinda suck in this book too. The character is so busy fumbling around and so much world exposition keeps happening that it's hard to keep track on who to care about. I didn't like how blank of a slate she felt, I needed more time focused on her to get me to care, the character sorta gets lost amongst all the exposition and feels more like a vehicle for fumbly plot to move forward then a human.

Overall, it was alright. Cool premise and world but wish the plot, pacing and characters were handled better to make this stand out.

The world comes to a standstill

The world comes to a standstill, Seems quite topical. An interesting concept, well read and an enjoyable book overall.

Great read

Really enjoyed the story and the narration was so good I felt like I was part of the story.

Excellent Dystopian Political Sc Fi Thriller

I loved this book. I've described it to friends as a dystopian political thriller with a smidge of Sci Fi thrown in. Having listened to it twice now, I've found it has stayed with me, in part due to the uncomfortable issues and moral complexities the plot centers around. The book has a great pace and is rather hard to put down. The audio book is read by Gemma Whelan who played Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. Her narration is superb. Hopefully, they will have her read all the sequels. And I am looking forward to finding out what the next 10 years brings in the lives of these characters and the world they inhabit.

5

I've listened to n a couple of end of the world books on Audible, booth of them were good. This one is very good. After you get through the opening chapters with the scenes set, characters introduced, some scientists have
scratched their heads at Cambridge, the author veers off in an unusually positive end of earth recovery story. Little odd
people pop up here and there
as we hit a very big twist. And the rest of the book is hard to put down
I enjoyed it - well, it's my fav- British,

Post apocalyptic novel - fantastic story but more like a good Sherlock Homes mystery than a sci fi novel.

Hopper is smart and relentless young scientist that is trying to study the new sea currents since the slow of the earth’s rotation. Hopper can’t overpower the brutes the government sends after her. Her Brother works for security too and try’s to persuade her to let it go but Hooper won’t and is trying to make life better for the survivors. A fantastic story, not what I was expecting, but a great one all the same. The narrator is super. I normally have a problem with British narrators, having difficulty understanding the accent but this narrator has a London British accent which is the easiest to understand and she did a great job.

Very Good and Unsettling theme

The theme is quite unique and dark towards humanity. I'm hoping there will be more to come.