This kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. A mix of dystopian scifi and political thriller, The Last Day is a debut by one of the QI Elves. It features stunning world-building and characters that could easily leap from the page straight onto the big screen.

The year is 2059. A solar catastrophe some decades ago caused the world to start turning more slowly with each passing day until it completely stopped. Now, one half of the world is covered in eternal night, while the other half suffers eternal daylight. Britain was one of the few lucky countries that remain habitable, if inhospitable.

Ellen Hopper, a scientist on an Atlantic oil rig, receives a letter from a former professor of hers. She ignores the letter, but one day representatives of the government arrive at the rig to bring her to London. Her professor is dying and he has requested one final conversation with his former student, exploiting her need for truth to help uncover a dangerous secret that could mean the end of Britain. But the people in charge will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.

This was written in such rich prose, the setting felt familiar and at the same time completely unrecognisable. The characters felt so real that I half expected them to actually exist outside of the novel. All of that, combined with the almost-perfect pacing, make The Last Day an utterly compelling and addictive read. This was Andrew Hunter Murray's debut, and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next. Let's hope he decides to return to this intricate world he has created, I'm sure there are lots more stories to be told about it.

Once you get past the science terms, and the slowing down of the pace it causes, this is actually quite a good dystopian novel with a semi-novel premise. The characters were good, but I did find it a bit slow.

I'm a big fan of dysotopian books and I couldn't resist 'The Last Day' as it seemed such an interesting concept.

Set in 2059, the world has stopped turning and life on Earth has changed dramatically. One half is stuck in complete darkness and the other half in constant sunlight. Most of the world has not survived but Britain is 'thriving' in this new post apocalyptic world. Trying to make sense of the new world is Dr Ellen Hopper, who is based on a rig in the North Atlantic trying to study the impact of the 'slow' upon the ocean. Life suddenly flips 360, however, when she is summoned by UK officals to London to speak to an old mentor who is dying. Why are these officials involved and why is Ellen so vital?

As Ellen starts digging around for information she finds that all may not be as it seems and that perhaps the UK government are not being entirely honest about the current situation on Earth. However, in a new untrusting world, how will she ever get to the answers she needs when she is being thwarted and spied on at every opportunity.

I'll be honest and say that initially I thought I'd have to give up on the book as there was so much science talk that I had no clue what was going on but after persisting I found that the book did flow and I started to warm to the characters.

Overall, a very interesting book that makes you think 'what if?'

It's 2059 and the world has stopped turning. Only a small part of it is habitable and Britain just happens to be in that section. Ellen Hopper, a scientist, is contacted by her old Oxford tutor who is dying and who wants to tell her something. The security forces are very interested in what that might be and this sets off a series of events that turn Ellen from a passive scientist into someone desperate to learn the truth.

I found this to be a very slow read. There are times when it becomes quite exciting especially towards the end but on the whole I found it hard to care about either Ellen (referred to throughout by her family name which I found odd and quite distancing) or the world in which she lived. Overall I wasn't convinced by the premise of the world stopping its rotation. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

It is 2059 and the world has stopped turning – quite literally. More than thirty years ago, the world started, ‘The Slow,’ and gradually came to a stop. Half the world is in darkness, the other burning hot. Only a small sliver is habitable and that includes the UK, although it still has massive problems with climate and how that affects health. The author has cleverly turned politics on its head here – what if the refugee boats heading out were from the United States? However, the US still has some power, including control of nuclear weapons, which gives them a lot of leverage.

Into a world that is changed, but still close enough to our times that we can recognise it, we have a mix of dystopian and political thriller. Ellen Hopper is a scientist on an oil rig, when she is visited by two government officials, who ask her to return to the mainland. Her old tutor is dying and he has asked to see her. Once, he was one of the most powerful man in the country, but became an academic after falling from grace. Now, he is going to trust her to discover a secret that he holds, knowing that she will be unable to resist trying to uncover the truth.

What makes this work is the setting. This is a recognisable world, but completely changed. People ask whether it is worthwhile bringing children into a dying world and there are demands to provide enough food for those left. London is still largely functioning, but full of refugees and, outside of the capital, infrastructure is at breaking point. An interesting and thought provoking novel, with a good central character. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I was hooked into this by the premise – such a fascinating idea! Seeing how it played out was part of the fun of this book, but the thriller element is just another bonus. It could have moved a little faster, but other than that, a great read!

Stop the world... 4 stars

When a rogue white dwarf star passes through the solar system, its gravitational pull affects the Earth’s rotation on its axis. Gradually over a period of years it slows, with days and nights lengthening; and then it stops completely, leaving half the earth’s surface in endless burning day and the other half in endless frozen night. Humanity scrabbles to survive and Britain comes out on top, lucky to be in the small habitable zone that surrounds the growing desert in the centre of the sunlit side. But when scientist Edward Thorne, on his deathbed, gives his old pupil Ellen Hopper a cryptic message, she is sucked in to uncovering secrets about how Britain has ensured its survival – secrets the authoritarian government will do anything to keep hidden...

There’s a lot to like about this promising début, so let me get my criticisms out of the way first. The book is drowning under the weight of words, being at least a third too long for its content. Murray describes everything in detail – he does it very well but a lot of it is unnecessary and it slows the pace to a crawl. In order to thrill, thrillers have to maintain a good pace and to speed up towards the climax. This is so self-evident that it always stuns me that editors don’t pick up on it even if writers make the basic mistake of getting too involved in their own descriptions of the settings at the expense of maintaining escalating forward momentum. The scene should be set in, say, the first third to half, and from there on the focus should switch to action. And the climax, when it comes, has to both surprise and be dramatic enough to have made the journey worthwhile. Here, unfortunately, the climax is one of the weakest points of the book, both in execution and in impact.

However, there are plenty of strong points to counterbalance these weaknesses. The writing is of a very high standard, especially the descriptions of the scientific and social effects of the disaster. Not being a scientist, I don’t know how realistic the world in the book is but it is done well enough for me to have bought into the premise. Murray shows how science during the Slow and after the Stop becomes concentrated on immediate survival – developing ways to provide food and power for the people – while less attention is given to research into how the long-term future may turn out. As Ellen, herself a scientist, begins to investigate Thorne’s hints, Murray nicely blurs whether this neglect is because of lack of resources, or because the government specifically doesn’t want researchers happening on things they want to conceal. In a world where the government brutally disposes of anyone who threatens them, it’s difficult for Ellen to trust anyone or to involve anyone else in her search for the truth for fear of the consequences to them, but her brother and her ex-husband both get caught up in her quest, and both are interesting relationships that add an emotional edge to the story.

The characterisation is excellent, not just of Ellen but of all the secondary and even periphery characters. I was so pleased to read a contemporary book starring a strong but not superhuman woman, intelligent and complex, who is not the victim of sexism, racism or any other tediously fashionable ism. The only ism she has to contend against is the authoritarianism of the government – much more interesting to me. Murray handles gender excellently throughout, in fact, having male and female characters act equally as goodies and baddies, be randomly strong or weak regardless of sex, and keeping any romantic elements to an almost imperceptible minimum. He also shows a range of responses to the authoritarianism, from those who think it’s essential in the circumstances, to those who dislike it but remain passive, to those who actively or covertly resist it; and he makes each rise equally convincingly from the personality of the character.

So overall a very strong début with much to recommend it – if Murray learns, as I’m sure he will, that there comes a point when it’s necessary to stop describing everything and let the action take over then he has the potential to become a very fine thriller writer indeed. I look forward to reading more from him.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Random House Cornerstone.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC exchange for an honest review. #TheLastDay #NetGalley

I thought I'd given up on dystopian thrillers until I read Andrew Hunter Murray's epic, tour de force, 'The Last Day'. Why? Well, dystopia's were at one time were important, ideological (or anti-ideological) inspired narratives providing astute observations on the future implications of contemporary events of the day. George Orwell's seminal 1984 immediately comes to mind, but with a few exceptions, 'dystopian' has become a trope in itself. Not so with Andrew Hunter Murray's immensely important contribution to this withering on the vine genre. 'The Last Day' is quite simply creative genius distilled in novelistic form. Awestruck, I read on and on, until late in the night, fully enmeshed in Murray's richly textured narrative of a future in which the world has literally stopped turning. Where the world is literally been divided into night and day, Britain is the lucky goldilocks of the continents, a new climatic superpower if you like, shielded from the worst consequences of earthly stasis. Yet, all is not well in the new Britain, which suspends its long history of parliamentary democracy to embrace the darkness of absolute totalitarianism and tyranny. In this creatively imagined .macrocosm of sumptuous, yet chilling detail, is a more personal story that has broader consequences for the new world order. Ellen Hopper, a young Oxford graduate, is called to the sick-bed of the ailing, Professor Thorne. What secret does he wish to impart, and what are the consequences for the future of a dying earth? What follows is a highly resonant tale of a near-future world that is sadly, all too possible. Dystopian novels can be read from a distance, as a form of escapism, usually because there is something jarringly impossible about their premise. Not so with this book, and not for the creative genius of Andrew Hunter Murray. This dystopia feels all too real in spelling out the future consequences of the present trajectory of treating the earth is such a cavalier way. Not since 1984 have I read a more important dystopian novel. A siren-song of a future-world full of terrifying possibilities, with Andrew Hunter Murray as its implacable maestro. Compelling and intelligent - a must-read for fans of dystopian fiction in its purest form.

Dystopian thriller set in a world which has stopped turning leaving the UK in the narrow band of the planet in the sun and able to survive. A scientist is contacted by an old University tutor on his death bed and a secret is passed. A secret that the government will do anything to keep. Interesting premise, a thriller that moves through a future state but for me missed the opportunity to really explore that development and outcome. Some interesting characters and reasonable pacing.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but Andrew Hunter-Murray presents a picture of truly terrifying future, where the world has stopped spinning and nations fight no longer for territory but simply survival. However, what makes this all the more terrifying is just how accurate a portrait of the near future it could be. It’s easy to sit back and think, “What a crazy story!” from a sunny terrace in Auckland, but reading this in the aftermath of the Australian bushfires, alongside the wake of three major storms and unprecedented flooding back home in the UK, it’s enough to make you think, “Oh, shit...” The author paints a vivid image of a future world, and although I did find some characters hard to connect with - Hopper is quite difficult to engage with - and the plotting a little slow at times, this is still a book I would thoroughly recommend. Well researched and and scientifically fascinating, one to pick up for any speculative fiction fan!

I didn’t finish this novel, despite trying two or three times. The premise is great. The idea of the world slowing and stopping from spinning is original. It leaves one side of the world in permanently frozen night and the other in perpetual daylight. Realistically life can only thrive in the liminal spaces of twilight in between the two extremes. In this new world our main character, Ellen, receives an important letter from a dying man that contains a secret. A secret so important that people in power are willing to kill to retrieve it.
This sounds like a great set up for an engaging thriller but sadly, I wasn’t thrilled. It felt slow rather than ‘pacey.’ It felt, possibly realistically, that in the UK those in charge were more invested in keeping the status quo than trying to adapt to this new world. I found it odd we were in some years into the crisis but still had plentiful food, electricity and a functioning society. I kept desperately wanting more scientific explanation and it didn’t come in time. I simply lost interest.

Due to a celestial event the earth has been knocked off it's axis. First the days got longer & longer until finally earth stopped tuning completely. Half the world was cold & in darkness whilst the other baked in endless sunlight. A small habitable zone exists & Britain becomes the lead power by being in the right place. Ellen Hopper lives on an rig out in the Atlantic studying sea currents when she gets a message from Edward Thorne, an old Uni tutor who had been a great influence in her life. He is dying & wants to see her. To her surprise a government helicopter arrives on the rig to whisk her off to Oxford. Why are the ruling powers so interested in Thorne? Arriving as Thorne is almost taking his last breath she finds herself wanting to find out what was so important even if it does put her at odds with the totalitarian government.

This dystopian novel, written at the time of Brexit & of the growing awareness of what we are doing to the earth's climate, struck many chords. It was a totally absorbing read & one I won't forget in a hurry. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this great, but disturbing book.

I thought the idea behind The Last Day was creative genius. What would happen if the Earth stopped rotating leaving part of the planet exposed to the sun, and lit, 24/7 whilst the rest of the planet is in darkness and frozen? Here, the Slow (diminished rotation) and the Stop (the end of planetary rotation) have occurred and Britain is now the epicenter of constant sunlight. Essentially, the only country still run like a country, without civil unrest, though it's mostly a dictatorship. Ellen Hopper is a scientist on a rig in the Atlantic who is recalled to London to visit an ailing professor she fell out with 15 years ago. Said Prof, Edward Thorne, who was at the center of government for a number of years before being pushed out to take up teaching at Oxford, has something he must pass on to Ellen. What could it be? Here begins Ellen's perilous adventure in London trying to get to the heart of the truth.

The world building in The Last Day is very good. You can easily believe in a world so diminished with no gps or mobile phones, government sanctioned curfew, the one or two remaining newspapers are mere tools of propaganda for the government, where documents are required to travel short distances and travel in a car is a rare thing. But that's not all, the level of tension is heightened as criminals are sent off as slaves, without a trial, to work their fingers to the bone in the breadbasket and the Americans have been granted a sliver of land in the south as their one chance of survival. Crazy new world.

The story is well told and Ellen is a stalwart striving to solve the puzzle. Very driven, she has no qualms about putting herself in jeopardy regardless of the risk. This is rich escapist reading that will put the reader in an entirely different existence. Interesting enough I feel sure there is a sequel to come. We shall see.

The Last Day was a most unusual story line and a genre of which I am totally unfamiliar. One of the huge joys of NetGalley ARC is ability to throw readers into the reading experience as if for the first time. Armageddon has arrived, the world is slowly dying and a dysfunctional public are ruled on the one had by political despots and on the other by marauding criminals intent on survival. Secrecy, fear and breakdown in the majority of communication systems prevail in a world where half are dying of cold and darkness, the other half of 24 hour sunlight, and extreme heat with no protection from the extremities of climate and starvation. Back story of a tenuous link between a young oxford graduate and professor re-emerge into the present when he contacts her on his death bed. And so emerges a modern day Joan of Arc who will stop at nothing to reveal the truth and perhaps even save the world. Exciting, believable events and situations in this modern world which is focusing on climate change, and where politics of countries would appear as unstable and unbelievable as any time in our history. From beginning to end a thrilling read which is incredible and a chilling possibility of our future written with huge insight into a future world self destructing. Worthy of a movie for anyone interested and brave enough to purchase the film rights. Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC gem which should and must be recommended. I soaked up every well written exciting page.

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray

It is 2059 and thirty years have passed since the Earth finally stopped spinning, after ten years of a gradual, excruciating and catastrophic slowing. The results have devastated much of the world, with almost half plunged into constant freezing blackness and almost the other half baked into extinction by the unrelenting sun. Few parts of the planet remain habitable and, ironically, it is the Old World that has fared the best. While the New World roasts or freezes, it is Britain and northern Europe where life can continue in some form or other. Northern Europe has been transformed into the Breadbasket and it is there that all prisoners, all dissenting voices, are sent. They are sent from Britain, a nation that now sees itself as great again, commanding the seas, its borders closed as millions of refugees seek salvation. It is denied to all but the most useful. Davenport is Prime Minister and his power is absolute, the media completely controlled or removed, citizens bound by hunger, deprivation and curfew.

Dr Ellen Hopper is a scientist working on a British rig far from the south western coast of Britain in a perpetual cold twilight world. Her job is to monitor the oceans for changing patterns in the flows of the seas. She has a life there of sorts, she doesn’t want to leave. Then one day she has to. Her University mentor is dying and he wants to see Ellen before he dies. He has something vital to tell her of devastating significance. Whatever he wants to tell her, the government wants to know too and so begins a cat and mouse chase which is not only deadly for Ellen but could have untold consequences for the future of a dying humanity.

I do like a post-apocalyptic thriller and I couldn’t resist the premise of The Last Day. What makes this book especially interesting is that it tackles the subject from a British perspective and asks what might happen if the most hospitable place to live in the world turned out to be these small islands and what effect that would have on government and politics – the answer is not a good one. Which means that this is a political thriller every bit as much as it’s a post-apocalyptic/dystopian thriller.

The world building is excellent. The novel starts in the frightening world of the rig in the cold twilight, which is very much a frontier and border. It moves then to London and it’s fascinating seeing the city recreated as a place that in parts almost reminds its unhappy citizens of the old world before The Slow while other parts are clearly almost destroyed by that event. We see landmarks in ruins, people rioting, a curfew ruthlessly enforced, and empty shops and museums. And then there’s the daylight that never ends, which also has an impact on the psyche of the inhabitants, just as the relentless sun seers their skin. I especially liked the sections in my own hometown of Oxford, which was frighteningly recognisable while also being ruined.

The thriller races along. There are some great ideas and concepts in this novel and it certainly has an intriguing plot. However, I did have some issues with it, largely because I found it hard to engage with or care for any of the characters. Hopper is almost always called by her surname in the narrative and that did distance me from her further. The result is that this made the novel hard to get into. The plot, while intriguing, isn’t suspenseful, so the reveal had little impact. Nevertheless, The Last Day has a good premise and is a fun and entertaining read. Its strength is most definitely in its excellent world building, all of which is described with great skill and impact.

A difficult book to rate. Set in a future when the earth only rotates once a year so that one side always faces the sun and the other side is always in darkness, Britain is in the habitable margin. I really enjoyed reading it, but the more one thought about it, the setting became more inconsistent.. One minute we are being told that food was scarce because of the shortage of land to grow food, then a village in Oxfordshire was lost to forest. If forest is growing so well, why aren't they growing crops there. As another reviewer pointed out, why was everyone smoking; would they waste valuable land to grow tobacco. The author has tried very hard to create a world as it could be, who know's what it would be like, but loses a star to these inconsistencies. Maybe I'm being mean as I did it enjoy it overall.

Some interesting post-Brexit analogies here in a genre of novel I do not normally read.
Overall, I found it held my interest although the pacing at times seemed to slow down and speed up to the detriment of the story.

The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray
This novel was an unusual but very interesting choice for me. I usually read literary fiction, thrillers of historical novels and so this departure into a dystopian novel set in the future was intriguing. It is set in the year 2059 in a world where thirty years ago the Earth stopped rotating so half the world is living in perpetual darkness. England is located where it is far enough from the perpetual sun to be habitable.
The main character is Ellen Hopper who is living on an oil rig two hundred miles off the South West coast of England studying the oceans’ currents when she receives a letter from her old lecturer from Oxford University. He has a secret he wishes to share with her which could, if revealed, topple the British Government. Prior to working at the university he had been an advisor to the Prime Minister but had been sacked from this role.
The book is full of political intrigue as Ellen searches to reveal this secret and the story is also full of flashbacks which give us more information about her family and what has happened to her in the past. There is a high body count as the book progresses to its thrilling ending. Many thanks to Net Galley and publishers for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

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

The best place due to its geography is the UK but even here it is perilous after years of temperature changes and, well, basically everything we take for granted being eroded and is now a challenge

Some of the UK is now sectioned off and is America and Europe is known as the ‘breadbasket’ cultivating food

There is much more to it than I can explain but the detail is mesmerising and involving, scary and yet leaves you hungry to find out more, the descriptions of how London is now were chilling, yet I couldn’t read it quick enough all with the thought ‘but this couldn’t happen’...... ‘could it?’...

The story focus on Ellen stuck on a ex oil rig monitoring the seas, not people friendly but kinda ok with her lot, well until Govt big wigs arrive to take her back to London to see her dying professor from Uni days who has demanded to see her, they suspect he holds a secret, they suspect right and he imparts where the secret is held to Ellen who then has to decide what to do....then we have a 24ish section of the book as she...well, thats enough but when she finds it its earth shattering

I hope you can tell that I LOVED this book is it really is flawlessly written, excitingly different and kept me thrilled from page to page

Brilliant!

10/10
5 Stars

It’s not often I read dystopian fiction, a bit wary that I won’t like it, but I’m glad to say that I was fascinated by The Last Day by Andrew Hunter Murray. I’m not sure about the plausibility of the concept but I was gripped by the story of a world coming to an end and the effects that had on the planet and the population.

A white dwarf star, the size of earth but two hundred thousand times as dense had barrelled through space, and travelling at two thousand kilometres a second its trajectory and gravity had dragged the earth backwards. The earth’s rotation had gradually slowed and eventually came to a full stop. Chaos followed, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and gales swept the earth’s surface, but gravity still functioned as the planet was still the same mass and exerted gravitational force. As the planet stopped on the dawning of the last day in 2029 the boundaries of day and night were locked in place, with a slender ring of borderlands that varied between total darkness and a fractional glimpse of light. Europe was in the constant light of the sun with an isolationist Britain on the warm side far enough in to raise crops but far enough out to still be habitable.

Set in 2059, thirty years after the earth had finally stopped spinning The Last Day presents a totalitarian world, and gives such a vivid picture of what life has become for the people who live on the burning sun side of the planet. There is, of course, no night, but there is a curfew during the ‘night’ hours. I warmed to Ellen Hopper, a scientist working on a rig two hundred miles off the south-west coast of England in the North Atlantic, where it is always dawn, as she studies the ocean’s currents. She receives a letter from Dr Edward Thorne her old college tutor at Oxford who is dying. He has something important to tell her, information that would ruin the British government and that they would do anything to keep hidden. Prior to his appointment at Oxford he had been a scientist and an adviser to the British Prime Minister, Richard Davenport, until he had been ignominiously sacked.

What follows is Hopper’s search to discover the details of this secret, interspersed with flashbacks to her past and her family history, in particular about what happened to her parents, her relationship with her brother, who works in security, her fears that she shouldn’t trust him, and her ex-husband David. It is full of political intrigue and danger with a high body count and builds to a dramatic conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed it, was glued to the pages and by the end of the book I was convinced of the reality of this implausible world (at least I hope it is).