Mark Reece's Blog - Posts Tagged "post-apocalyptic"

The Last by Hanna Jameson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Last is a post-apocalyptic novel, set after a nuclear war that destroys much of civilization. However, the story is narrowly focused around a small number of characters who were in a hotel at the time of the disaster.

The protagonist, Jon, an academic, now a long distance from his family, investigates what seems to be a murder that took place at the hotel either before or around the time of the disaster. The novel focuses around that investigation, and his group's struggles to survive.

Although neither the premise nor the plot devices were particularly original or striking, the author writes at a thrilling pace. Many of the chapters end with simple set-ups, such as a character's exclamation, that work very well with the structure of the novel, with its short chapters that are comprised of diary entries. The investigation is also handled well, with the character's skills from the old world enabling Jon to learn more, while the resource constrains of his situation hinders his efforts.

I found the conclusion to the central plot to be unsatisfactory, as it didn't flow from the events that were focused on hitherto, and relied on the author introducing a lot of information in an off-hand way. The characters were well enough developed that the book felt as if it could have been longer.

Overall, an enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading other works by the author.



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