Finishing a book always inspires…..
Bank Holiday morning and with the family in various states of recovery, I sit alone at the breakfast table with a few chapters left of The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray. Reading a good book is a real treat, a guilty pleasure that I should really not feel that way about. But more on that another time.
This book has a familiar premise; Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walkern first introduced me to the idea of the deceleration of earth’s rotation back in 2012. So when I saw this in Waterstones it was a quick impulse purchase.
I finish it over my muesli and oat milk and, for what it is, it doesn’t disappoint. Hunter has, in my view, achieved what the unborn author inside me searches for; a set up, a world with an inbuilt capacity for a sequel or series. Hungry for more on the dystopian impacts of a freak stellar event I find myself googling for news of a sequel.
No news on that front. That’s not surprising perhaps, given this a relatively new book by a first time author; albeit a minor celebrity. Despite many online raves on the authors twitter feed and a reported 6-figure TV rights deal, I haven’t heard much about it since I stumbled on it in a pre-lockdown bookshop (remember them?)
But then something catches my eye. A post by RFM on his blog Frequently Arsed Questions. I read this well written piece and it opens my eyes to everything that is wrong with this book. I experience a mixture of enlightenment, from the very fair examination of plot holes and inadequacies in this book; and guilt over the fickle volt-face, having so recently experienced enjoyment and a thirst for more.
But the upside is that I have discovered a well written blog on subjects that interest me which I shall make time for; in lieu of reading inaccurate news stories in what seems to pass for journalism these days. Best of all it has inspired me to write again. Whilst I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a decent summer read, I shall leave the review of the book to RFM and embrace the rest of the bank holiday with new found inspiration of my own.
the COMPANY we keep 