Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

It's an apocalyptical novel, and with that it ends my interest in this novel. 

Not really giving it a rating, let's make it 3/5.... It's simply not mine.

I'm not usually a fan of dystopian plots but something about this really drew me in and kept me hooked. I read it in one evening.

While I enjoy sci-fi and thrillers, there was something about this which didn't quite connect.

Set in the not too distant future, the world has stopped turning, leaving half in permanent darkness and the other in blistering sun. Mankind is reduced to living in that small sliver of twilight where only the strong survives.

When Ellen Hopper receives a letter from her former tutor, she ignores it. However, she is then forced to go see him, which is when he tells her that she needs to find something in his home before dying rather inconveniently.

It's an interesting premise, but I found the book a little too slow moving for my tastes and it didn't really get going towards the end, which wasn't enough to truly pull me in.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

This immersive page-turner has been one of the delights of the year. Coming from the unlikely source of one of QI's elves its central conceit of a civilisation hurtling towards collapse as the Earth has stopped turning leaving only a thin habitable region is original and leads to a book that is thrilling and immersive. You simply won't want to stop reading.

Didn't review in time for release, premise sounds really good will be picking up a physical copy and come back to review soon.

This was a fantastic read with a great plot and characters! The twists and turns were endless and it was

A WORLD HALF IN DARKNESS. A SECRET SHE MUST BRING TO LIGHT.
In the not too distant future, the world has stopped turning. One half is in the freezing dark and the other is in the boiling sun. There is a small section between where live survives.

Ellen Hopper gets a letter from Edward Thorne who was her tutor at Oxford University 15 years ago. Edward is dying but there is some history between them and they haven't spoken in a long time and Ellen disregards the letter.
Ellen is then taken from the rig that she is working on and taken to London to see Edward on his death bed. Obviously there is something more going on here. Ellen see's Edward and he whispers that she needs to find something at his house just before he dies.

I didn't enjoy reading this. I was rather hoping for more. The book began to get interesting, I felt, just toward the end and I suspect that there will be a follow up. I however, shall not be reading it.

The premise of this book sounded really interesting and could have been so much more. I found the book quite slow going and then when things got interesting it ended. post apocalyptic is one of my favourite genres and I expected great things which were sadly not delivered. A bit too conspiracy filled for my liking.

Its 2059 and the world has come to a standstill. Literally. The world has stopped turning. One side lives in perpetual cold and dark, the other in light and heat. And the best place to be is in good old Blighty! Yay! Well the best place to be considering the alternatives. Because Britain is now a place of closed borders, horrible weather, shortages and dictatorial government....so yeah not much has changed in 30 years. Ellen Hopper doesn't think much of it so has been living on the rigs for several years, studying how the oceans have changed, trying work out how it affects humanity's future. If there is one at all. But she is called back to see her old university professor. It's his dying wish to see her. His final words lead her to secrets and revelations....secrets that powerful people are willing to kill for.

I have two major issues with this book. Firstly it specifically says the event that initially slows the planet was in 2020. Now I know this was written before 2020 but seriously no. Let's no tempt fate.
Secondly I feel a great premise was wasted. Hopper just isn't likeable enough to carry the novel. And the initial information she goes on isn't that interesting. We're meant to believe shes risking everything for minimum reveal. Even with later revelations it doesn't feel enough to set someone on such a path.
However that been said this is still pretty entertaining, if in a somewhat bleak way. I was engaged and curious enough to keep reading. 3.5 stars.

The earth has stopped turning and Britain is the last habitable place. Other regions have died in extremes - succumbing to the cold and dark or bursting into flames in the ever-present burning sun. Britain's position means that despite the constant sun crops can still just about grow. But it has become a fascist dictatorship on the brink of starvation and with no moral compass.

Our heroine, Ellen Hopper, lives and works on an ocean rig monitoring changes to the earth's currents until she is called back to London to the death bed of her estranged former tutor. He wants her to know a damaging secret that might topple the government but can't tell her outright as others want to know. On his death she is left to track down this powerful secret.

It's an interesting premise - what would happen if the earth stopped spinning? What would it do to us as human beings? In such a catastrophic occurrence would morality be lost? It's a fascinating debut novel from Andrew Hunter Murray. It certainly wasn't what I expected from someone I had best known for comedy in the excellent Austentatious and The Mash Report but he pulled it off very well.

A good post-apocalyptic read. It was slightly slower than I expected and the first 40% was somewhat of a slog to get through as I didn't find the storyline nor the vague mystery compelling - however, I did find the world really interesting and enjoyed the flawed main character.

WOW!

This book is a dystopian thriller set in a world that quite simply has stopped spinning, this has caused half the world to be in constant light and half in constant dark and life chaotic in the few places where humans can now survive. UK has turned out to be the best place to me.

This story was mesmerising, scary and yet addictive. What a great story, highly recommended.

As a great lover of sci-fi, I jumped at the chance to read this book when it popped up as an ARC. And it actually turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of 2019. I certainly had no idea what I was in for.

A global catastrophe. Struggling to survive. Uncertainty abounds. Sound familiar? Little did I know that we would soon get a taste of this in reality! In December, I happily read this story as a little escapist fiction believe it or not. I am partial to a bit of post-apocalyptic fiction, and The Last Day definitely lives up to the genre. 

Viewed through the viewpoint of scientist Ellen she is sent back to the mainland unexpectedly and is soon thrown into a web of mystery and conspiracy. The story unfolds fast and fun, and by the end, you really feel like you've joined her on quite an intense experience!

The Last day by Andrew Hunter Murray didn't quite match my expectations.

The story follows Ellen Hopper in the days after she receives a letter from a dying man, Edward Thorne. Edward was her tutor 15 years ago when she as studying at oxford university . Two people arrive at the offshore rig she is working on and take her to the mainland as Edward in on his death bed and asking for her. Ellen goes with them somewhat reluctantly. She visits Edward moments before he dies, with his last breath he whispers to her that she needs to find something important at his house.
So Ellen goes about trying to discover whatever it is the old guy was on about.

This is where the book started to loose my interest. The mysterious aspect of the story seems to fade out to make room for the political agenda of a character that you don't actually meet within the book. The Political aspect of this book was clearly the main force behind the events that happened but I feel that it wasn't overly exciting to read about.

The plot of the whole story felt more like it could have been the first half of a book. The pace of the writing seemed unnecessarily slow for the majority of the book. By the end I didn't care for the characters and I was still waiting for something to actually happen.

The book was left at a somewhat interesting point that will lead well into the next book ( if there is one in the works). But as a first book in a series, it didn't hold my attention enough to make me want to read further .

The world building was done well. I wish there were more details about the futuristic and difficult ways people had adapted their lives. It was a very different version of futuristic Britain to what I have read in the past.

Overall I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book . This is mainly due to the fact that I was hoping for an eventful apocalyptic mystery with a world changing plot twist . This book wasn't that for me. I found it to be a unique concept that wasn't well executed and honestly rather dull.


Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Uk, Cornerstone for my copy of this book in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influence by the manner in which I received this book.

This review will be posted on my blog ( thetwoquills.wordpress.com ) on 11th May 2020 with a shorter version posted on my instagram account ( @thetwoquills) on the same day.

A dystopian thriller set in the near future when the earth has stopped turning and half the world is in perpetual darkness, the rest in Sun. It was an interesting premise, a slow burn but I rooted for the central character of Ellen and would a sequel to find where her journey goes.

A ‘chilling’ concept - the world has stopped spinning, and one half is stuck in constant darkness and the other searing heat. When scientist Ellen is asked to visit her old tutor dying in hospital, she is set on a path towards a secret many wish to keep hidden.

I have to say, this wasn’t the easiest book I’ve read. There were times when I felt very confused, with all the different characters and settings. Trying to work out who was on who’s side, and what was going on, and how that was impacting on anything else in the story, all took away from any enjoyment i might have taken from the book.

Sadly not a book for me, although others may not agree.

I so desperately wanted to love this book but I struggled with it from start to finish. I love the idea. But what you don't realise until you make a start on this book is that this isn't the dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel it first appears to be, but a bit of a ploddy political thriller (which made me feel like I needed a masters in Astrophysics to read it and wasn't quite worthy of it's pages). Political thrillers aren't my go-to genre and I probably should have put the book down and walked away. But the Earth coming to a stop and the effects of that, made me continue. I was holding out for a little more oomph. I wasn't invested in any of the characters and didn't care if they survived their ordeal. Sadly, I would not recommend this book but thank you for providing me with an eARC.

Andrew Hunter Murray’s debut novel is near enough everything I had hoped it would be from the description and was pretty close to a five star novel. I’d certainly be interested in reading the follow up and, given the inconclusive ending, there is certainly going to be a follow up. Set largely in Great Britain after an apocalyptic event caused the earth to first slow and then stop in it’s entirety, the world is a far darker and grimmer place. Enter, side left, Ellen Hopper who has spent the last several years working on what used to be an old oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean as a scientist, looking specifically at the way the Slow has effected tides and ocean algae. An old pupil of Edward Thorne, a man discredited and removed from both public office and academia. A man who is now dying and whose last request is to see her. Hopper has always known he carries dangerous secrets, and the decision she faces is whether those secrets are worth her safety, her employment and perhaps her very life.

The Last Day starts slowly but this isn’t a failing, instead it settles you into a world split very much into light and darkness and the political fallout of the world quite literally slowing to a halt. Scientific, political and economic repercussions are delved into and by the time you reach mainland Great Britain the totalitarian rule of law and police state are anticipated. Things once taken for granted simply no longer exist, food is in short supply and this is on the side of the world lucky enough to have sunlight. The other half is perpetual darkness and cold, unable to sustain crops or human life. Billions were simply left to die. This to my mind is where Murray is at his best, giving you a real sense of the political and social climate whilst building in depth and fully dimensional characters.

The pace picks up into a train wreck of a chase for secrets, answers and everything in between though, and whilst this makes for interesting, action packed reading, a lot of the depth is put to one side. Motivations become a little too clear cut and caricatured at times, one event spirals into another into another and the world-building comes in second place to the race against time. It was enjoyable, I’ll grant, but I couldn’t help but feel a little short changed, particularly considering the more introspective start. It starts as a multi-layered dystopia and becomes a fast paced conspiracy thriller, leaving many threads untouched in the deeper net of international relations and politics. The ending in particular felt rushed and somewhat unfinished, with everything coming together in a chaotic rush and no real explanations proffered. I admit, this didn’t spoil my enjoyment but I can’t help but think it could have been brilliant rather than very good.

I did like how the characters and relationships were built on throughout the novel, particularly the protagonists. Whilst there isn’t really enough time for them to learn and change, the interactions and reactions felt real and fully formed. I appreciated the edge of uncertainty unpinning the novel; nobody really knows how long the earth, let alone the country, will continue to sustain life. There are questions about oxygen levels, tidal impacts and extreme weather conditions and this leads to a generalised anxiety over the future that is at the very heart of individual and collective reactions and responses. Out of all the characters, the ‘bad guys’ are undoubtedly the weakest players here. The protagonists are given background and motivations, so that even when they are flawed they are undeniably real. The bad guys on the other hand might have faces and names, but they are weak cutouts in comparison, perhaps because the reader isn’t given enough to empathise with them.

However, for all the niggles, this is a strong debut novel and I will be watching with keen interest to see where Murray goes next with his tale. I’d have perhaps appreciated more of the political and socio-economic world-building to continue throughout the novel and indeed some of the loose ends to be better tied, but this makes for an exceptionally well written and thought provoking read nonetheless.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my ARC of this title.

Very original central idea that the world stops rotating and the consequences of an inevitable dystopian future. I'm no scientist so not qualified to comment on the plausibility of the premise, but if you accept the concept then you will enjoy the story.

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