Hutchinson The Last Day: The Sunday Times bestseller

Ok, story was a bit boring.

Very interesting concept of a world tidally locked to the sun. The brief glimpses of what had happened outside of London were engaging. But the main character was alternately dumb, selfish and annoying. I don't want to ruin the huge revelation at the end, but it was not worth the effort to wade thru this book. After hundreds of pages of unending minute detail, apparently the author ran out of time or ideas. A total letdown of this reader's imagination. Don't bother with a sequel.

Not to be harsh, but this book is over-rated. About one-third of the way through the book, it got very predictable and not very interesting. I was hopeful there would be a saving big twist or something if I read to the end, but nope.The novel deals with an interesting concept, the earth ceasing its rotation, but it doesn't really explore that concept much. The reader is told that the all day full sun and all day night places are uninhabitable, but it is not very convincing. England is supposed to be one of the few remaining habitable places but repeated mention is made of how hot it is. Nevertheless, the author mentions at one point that a fireplace is still used. Food is supposed to be difficult to cultivate and many people near starvation, but there are cigarettes (and not just on a black market or for the wealthy -- many people in the novel smoke and never comment on why land can be spared to cultivate tobacco!). Food is scarce but lots of land in England is abandoned, and weeds seem to grow readily. There is huge poverty but you can still get a taxi. Outside London, there are wild wallabies, but no one is trying to eat them.The characters are not bad, but not great either. The protagonist is very naive and some of her actions and motivations are not very credible (I don't want to give spoilers so no example, sorry). She is a scientist, but able to search locations better than the police on more than one occasion, which is not very believable. She is also able to survive fights and armed conflicts, and not be very hindered by her injuries (real plot armour). It has the feel of a book which hopes to be optioned for a screenplay. The focus is on action and the mystery. I guess it would make a typical movie. It is a science fiction concept though, and I hoped for a well thought out science fiction book treatment.

The book starts with a great premise and I did enjoy the world building. However, the book was awful. The actions of the main character are simply not believable - there is nothing in the description of her that would lead you to think she would take on the authorities in the way she did. Added to that, the reveal of the government conspiracy and the ending of the book is terrible for similar reasons. Shame as I really wanted to enjoy this book

There are lots of things that could happen to planet Earth. We could be hit by a big rock speeding through space. A gigantic Solar flare might turn Earth into a crispy critter. Heck, we might just Do it ourselves by blowing the place to smithereens with our weapons of mass destruction. About the last thing I imagine could happen is for good old mother earth to stop spinning. But indeed she does in "The Last Day". Of course it is quite inconvenient when the Earth stops spinning because the hot side gets unbearably hot and the dark side gets unsurvivably cold. Dr. Ellie Hopper is in her prime about 50 years after the Earth has stopped rotating. She's a citizen of Britain, which just happens to be on the part of the planet on the edge of sunlight that enables them to survive. In order to organize, the government of Britain has become totalitarian. There is a big secret out there that could bring down the government and Dr. Hopper is determined to find out what that secret is. Her quest makes for a good story with lots of action and suspense. This is one of those books that is a fun read as you watch the good Dr. progress through her quest for truth.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise is really fascinating and the world building kept me turning pages. But there either needed to be more of a plot or less of a plot, if that makes sense. I felt like I was always a few steps ahead of the protagonist in terms of the government’s response, so it was frustrating to have her be so clueless at times.