The year 2059, earth had stopped rotating so one half saw the burning sun and the other, frozen night. Only a twilit region could survive.

Britain was the only safe country which had survived, but it had closed its borders to all. People were trying to survive a harsh world in poverty making use of few resources. One such person was Ellen Hopper who received a message from her professor to meet with him. Therein lay the adventure when Ellen traveled to places to know the biggest secret.

My first book by Andrew Hunter Murray, kept me hopping in eagerness to know the big secret of this dystopian world. Down the pages I got to know the consequences of a still Earth and life of people. I did not know the veracity of the consequences as I didn't want to analyze the prose. I just went on a quest with Ellen to get to the big secret.

The thriller aspect was fun. Ellen was a great protagonist. She was clever and determined, though she did pay the price for it. The writing was great in the thriller bits, the suspense made me read fast. I liked when she found a partner or two to help her.

Overall, it was a fun read which kept me hooked to this unknown world.

Intriguing concept, great lead protagonist, this book reflects current day themes of how countries react to climate change and immigration.

As the story progresses you’ll be saying to yourself “just read one more chapter”

Highly recommended.

Set in the near future this is a really good read. There is plenty of action and I liked the ending. I have read several books about earth in the future and this is one of the better ones.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The Earth's rotation slows then stops so that it in lockstep with the sun. Some parts of the Earth are in permanent light, others in permanent darkness. Only some areas are Goldilocks zones, capable of sustaining life. England has been very lucky. About 30 years after the great Stop, earth scientist Ellie Hopper is working on a rig off the coast of south west England. She is compelled to visit her old Oxford tutor on his deathbed. He effectively sends her on a mission....

A dystopian apocalypse thriller. It's intriguing to read the author's vision of the future in the light of the climate change we're experiencing.

When the Earth stopped rotating, half the world was thrown into permanent night, the other into an endless day. On the edges of this global divide, life continues. Being in a fortunate position when the Stop came, the United Kingdom closed its borders and declared itself a survivor when all else was lost. Ellen Hopper lives offshore on a rig, monitoring the changing ocean currents. When some government officials appear on the rig, they come on behalf of her old Professor, someone she has no desire to see but when she is given little choice, she is set off on a path to discover something they want to stay hidden.

The Last Day is a mix of thriller and musings over what would happen if the world stopped turning. Unusually for me, the thriller plot was the most entertaining part with the environmental aspects falling short. Once Ellen gets to the mainland, her every move is dogged by members of Internal Security. People keep dying, and she isn't even sure what it is she's chasing.

I think I would have liked this more if the perspective wasn't just from the UK, where the Stop had the least impact. It seems we just became extremely isolationist (I mean we're getting there already without an extinction level event) and got better curtains. I suppose it's trying to be a post-Brexit novel, with the nation cutting itself off from the rest of the world. The information about the Slow and Stop worldwide came across as info-dumped. I'd have liked to have seen characters dealing with the extremes, not just the hard-to-believe position of the UK in the one spot where the sun was bearable. Let's face it, there was a good chance it'd be in the middle of the ocean.

I felt some of the flashback chapters were better written. They weren't stopping to explain something that had happened to the world, they were letting the story unfold in those moments. They also shed some light on why on earth Ellen was not just returning to the rig. I'm not sure I got her motivation at the start.

If productive arable land is precious why are they growing tobacco still? People keep having cigarettes like it's not the end of the world. They're not even people who would be in a privileged position to access restricted items. And coffee! A crop that is notoriously susceptible to climate change. Not to mention the lack of major environmental changes. Floods are briefly mentioned, but these subsided and clearly couldn't have been that bad if everyone is living in London still...

I'm not a fan of the narrative referring to characters by their surname all the time, it's kinda distancing. It just seems that the people that know Ellen use her first name, so why is the narrative using Hopper all the time? I found the characters a little unemotional in general, but for a thriller that's not unusual.

Whilst the ending provides an answer, it definitely felt like it was setting up for a sequel. I'd have preferred an epilogue, but then I don't feel inclined to read another one, so maybe I wasn't that excited about the thought of unanswered questions.

I love dystopian fiction and 'The Last Day' is GOOD dystopian fiction. It is set in the world of the near(ish) future after our planet has slowed and ground to a halt. I was fascinated to read of the effects of this on the planet and our peoples. I really loved that the British returned to a state of ruthless empire rulers, even if their empire was a thin Goldilocks zone. The plot is good, fast paced and dangerous with lots of political thrills and spills thrown in, but it was the science, history and survival challenges that really got me going. The book does come to a solid conclusion but that won't stop me begging for a sequel.

The Year is 2059 and most of our planet is dead, along with the majority of the population. The big shock for me had been that we hadn't been the cause of the world disaster that had happened but there was time for us still to mess up and finish the job, we are far from being fast learners.
Britain had survived while almost half the plant sat in frozen darkness permanently while almost the other half was in the permanent scorching sun after the earth stopped rotating. Ellen Hooper worked off the coast on the oil rigs testing and gathering water and fish samples that could give some indication to how long the world could survive and sustain the ones that were left.
Ellen isn't a people person, with no-one she calls a friend and family she rarely sees. When the rare sight of a helicopter arrives, it is for her. Two officials require her to return to the mainland and talk to her former university lecturer and mentor who is dying. All very strange.
The author creates a land where technology is a thing of the past, rationing is a way of life and a heavy-handed government that can do little to control the population that is left. Britain had been to go to place after the disaster, making the small island overcrowded and unsustainable.
The story turns into one of espionage and political thriller as the race to find something that could change world history again but those that don't have it don't know where it is and those that do don't know what it is. The clock is ticking and the race is on.
A brilliant storyline with strong characters, shocking but not unbelievable. Liked the end, there could be another book someday.
I wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

And so we find Britain ruled by a Prime Minister who will stop at nothing to achieve his ambitions, a Britain that is determined to be as isolationist as possible whilst taking stock and rebuilding an empire hoping the glories of Albion will be once more. Isn't it fortunate that this is only fiction!!

The year is 2059 and the world has stopped turning leaving Britain in the fortunate position of being in the habitable zone. The PM is busy ruling the roost re-establishing slavery and defending the shores from anyone who seeks refuge here. The populace is unaware of most of what goes on behind the scenes as the press only reports propaganda but there are secrets. When Professor Thorne is dying he gets in touch with Ellen Hopper, an ex-student, and whispers to her on his deathbed. This information sets off a chain of events and we follow Ellen through the increasingly dangerous events as she seeks out the key to it all. To find out whether or not she succeeds I will leave to you to read and find out.

This sort of set in the future novel is not normally my cup of tea but I was interested to read this author's first novel as I know of him as one of the QI Elves from the successful BBC TV programme . I have to say I enjoyed it, it is written well with a wry look at human nature and the rapid reversion to type. I look forward to reading any future books by Andrew.

#TheLastDay #NetGalley

If you like dystopian fiction then the premise of this is fantastic. The world’s rotation has slowed and now come to a complete stop, meaning that half the planet is in perma-darkness and half in constant light. Thirty or so years on from this, a young scientist In Britain, one of the few countries to survive, is asked to visit her dying Oxford tutor, who sends her off on a mission to locate something of huge importance,

I thought the premise was great, but for me it didn’t quite hit the mark. It wasn’t quite pacy enough I think, but that’s a purely subjective opinion. If you’re a big fan of dystopia then the detail around the ‘Slow’ and the ‘Stop’, and the subsequent breakdown of nations and society might be right up your street.

Set in the scarily-near future, the earth has stopped turning. Half of the planet is in darkness (including Australia, so I guess I'm dead) whilst half burns to a crisp. There is a slim habitable region left on the planet which happens to include England (and some of Europe). This is all thanks to a white dwarf star (one that is the size of the earth but two hundred thousand times as dense) that suffered a supernova explosion and travelled at two thousand kilometres a second, skimmed past our planet and dragged it backwards, and continued on its merry way; already gone before scientists realised what had happened.

During the slow, the Earth is ravaged by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, gale-force winds, and floods, as the planet tries to resettle itself in this new physical state. The Earth finally stops moving in 2029.

Thirty years later from this event there's no internet, no satellites, no mobile phones, no television. Diseases have resurfaced from the permafrost (now not so frosty), and crops are heavily maintained and altered in order to survive in this new land, as well as manage to feed the amount of people who have crowded into the last remaining habitable areas on the planet. The Brits sunk as many things as they could get their hands on into the ocean around their border to lock themselves off, knowing they can't provide for everyone who tries to escape into their borders.

In this, we have Hopper, a scientist who lost her mother (a doctor, trying to help people on the wrong side of the border when England closed their doors) and a father (who worked in getting supplies across England... a dangerous job, lost to renegades with guns who overpowered his group in order to take their water/rations), but still has a brother who works in securityand thus can't speak much of his job. This new England is pretty much what one would expect if you've read 1984, only with more violence as the general population try to survive on the scraps they manage to get (rations don't cover much at all.) There are many, many prisoners who work the land under government control, which is apparently a better life than any of their other few choices.

Hopper has escaped the life in England to work on an oil rig in the North Atlantic, off the south coast of England. She studies the water currents and assists the crew in tugging icebergs out of harms way, and looting dead ships that float by, carrying people who tried to escape the world but have hopefully left some tinned food behind; the living need all the help they can get after all.

I say 'escaped' as Hopper was married, once. He wanted kids however, and she couldn't fathom bringing more life into a population that's already struggling. She figures it's easier to live out in the cold where she barely has to interact with anyone, though she is almost friends with another member of the crew, Harv.

One day upon their return from a boat they've now sunk (but collected some tins of food for their efforts, yay) there are two government officials who have come out to the rig by helicopter, simply to grant a dying wish to an old man who had once been highly ranked in this new Orwellian government (but then had a fall from grace). He also happened to be Hopper's teacher at university, the main one who'd listened to her, the only reason she had stayed and then got her job as a scientist at all... but who also then deeply failed her. She's ignored him since, including a letter that had reached her a few weeks before this point, begging her to contact him (discreetly) and that the risks are great but that he desperately needs her help.

She had burned the letter.

Now, however, a helicopter has been sent to collect her and when vague threats are made about what could happen to her job if she doesn't attend, she agrees to return to London... and from there we have a thriller full of political intrigue, hard loyalties involving her brother and ex-husband, the connections her dying mentor once had, and a twisted Government who will stop at no end (no matter how many bodies continue to pile up) if it means they can cover up... what, exactly?

You'll have to read to find out.

Murray has co-authored numerous books so far but this is his first step into fiction. His day job is researching interesting facts for the British panel show QI and as a Private Eye journalist, though I mainly know of his work from one quarter of my favourite podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, which has brought out three books so far, rounding up the weirdest news of the year (for 2017, 2018, and 2019). He's also part of a comedy improv group called Austentatious where they take suggestions from the crowd so then immediately act an entirely improvised lost 'Jane Austen' book, to much hilarity (they have audio skits on BBC radio occasionally but also do live shows; I've seen them at Edinburgh Fringe).

Murray also goes by the name 'Lightning' and eats crisps off a plate rather than from a packet. I hope he comes out with another piece of fiction in the near future.

I'm always willing to try different genres and this book had good reviews so I thought I'd give it a go. The premise appealled to me,however, I thought the beginning was slow and I couldn't get into it. I gave it two stars for it's originally.

Not a book I would usually pick up
but liked the concept, so thought I'd give it a go
unfortunately I just couldn't get into it

The world has stopped turning - and things have got uncomfortable. it's too hot, or too cold, or too bright or too dark. No this is not the first post-Brexit novel, or indeed a reaction to the rather frightening appearance of President Trump at Davos, but a good old fashioned post-apocalyptic thriller.

Britain is being led by a character that I pictured as Dominic Cummings. Our plucky heroine lives on an oil rig but is called back to Britain and is pulled into a tangled web of deceit and evil plotting. Most enjoyable.

I’m not a big fan of post apocalypse or science fiction books but this story had my attention some how. I still have mixed feelings about it although it’s been a while since I’ve read it. I liked the setting of the story and how Britain is the center focus of it. Also, the main character is pictured as a strong female lead and I enjoyed her way of discovering answers for some questions that were impossible to get anything.
The story hold a bit of everything as the suspense and twists and turns will keep you engaged throughout the book.

After a decade of slowing down the Earth finally stopped turning completely, making most of the world uninhabitable.  Everywhere became either too hot or too cold apart from the UK and a small slice of Europe, which ended up in a kind of 'Goldilocks Zone'.  During the last 30 years the UK has become home to the world's only political power and the place the rest of the world flocked to.  But the doors were soon closed and those few 'lucky' people who were able to make it soon realised that the only habitable place on Earth is not such a wonderful place to live. 

A political mystery that is also an unsettling and a quite believable look at what a dystopian world could look like.

A classic sci-fi thriller formula: after a big disastrous event there's dodgy government, cover-ups, indoctrination and propaganda but The Last Day does it with a killer hook. It was both a bit Orwellian and also a bit like The Martian. Short chapters make for a thrilling read, even if it seems a bit unlikely at times. Fun, addictive thrills.

Like nothing I've read before this novel is both a warning of what may happen and a token of hope for humanity. Well written, hard to put down and definitely leaves you wanting more.

I'm always a sucker for post apocalyptic fiction, so this was right up my alley! The story is less about the world ending, and more about the people who are left to cope with it.

An original idea, with compelling characters. You'll buy into the world from page one, and want to follow Ellen on her journey til the end.

Thank you to Random House UK and Netgalley for providing an advance read copy in exchange for an honest review.

It's a post apocalyptic book in a world where Britain is one of the places people can live. Ellen is brought to London as a result of her mentor's deathbed wish. But, it's a mysterious calling and authorities want to know why.
From here we read to unlock the mysteries and it was really thrilling and exciting. I love post apocalyptic stories because it shows a different side of human race. It's really scary but full of human truth.
I'd recommend if you like this type of books.

Thanks a lot to netgalley and the publisher for this copy.

3 stars

The world has slowed down and has finally stopped spinning which has left one half in permanent darkness and the other in permanent daylight. Although life can survive outside the dark zone there are very few decent places to live and these are restricted to the border zone where food can be grown.

Ellen Hopper is a scientist living on a rig, studying ocean currents, in the hope that her work will result in a way for more crops to be grown. It’s not a great life but it’s better than living in the cities or the countryside which is a no-go area; undisciplined and dangerous. She was tutored by a professor, Edward Thorne, who subsequently rose to high rank in the government which now controls the population with an iron fist and automatic weapons.

Thorne has contacted Hopper from his death bed. He wants to pass on vital information but dies before he can do so. Hopper picks up whatever clues she can to try to find whatever he wanted to tell her about. So starts a cat and mouse game with the elite who hold all the cards and are desperate to find and keep hidden the information Thorne wanted to pass on, through whatever means possible, even if that means torture and murder.


The thriller starts with an original idea and is well written. The main characters are nicely developed but are rather too black and white for my taste although it’s true that there are a few occasions when Ellen is conflicted as to which decision to make – the morally correct one or the one which will be most effective. There are parallels with our current situation too, in that the government of the day thinks it knows best and wants to keep secret important facts from the very people who elected them. It was ever thus though.

Ultimately though the plot failed to grab me as a reader, possibly because the fate of Hopper and her few friends was of little consequence to me. The very best novels engage the reader and transport him to a make-believe world where he cares what happens to the heroes and in this respect, it failed.

mr zorg

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book for review