Book Review: The Last Day and the First by Tim Lebbon

Title: The Last Day and the First

Author: Tim Lebbon

Release date: July 1st, 2023

First – a huge thanks to Tim for posting about this book. And what I mean specifically, is that, as a 100% completely digital reader, when this came out, I was a bit dismayed that it was only in hardcover. Both because if I bought it, I’d probably never get to it, and when I looked, shipping was horrible to Canada. It’s no different anywhere else, but for this reader, I decided to hold off and wait for an ebook release and when Tim posted that it was available in digital through PS Publishing, I immediately snagged.

If you’ve not read Tim’s work before, boy are you in for a treat. Tim has a timeless nature of how he crafts his stories. While his work is traditionally horror or sci-fi, he paints his prose with what I would describe as a speculative/fantasy brush. For lack of a better way of saying it – his writing is beautiful and compulsive.

And this novella fits that bill so very perfectly.

What I liked: The story follows Rose, 103 years old and potentially the last person alive on earth. She lives in the settlement of Pantelle, where she’s lived since the world we know collapsed and nature began to reclaim everything. She knows she’s at the end of her life, so she’s putting things down onto paper, in case someday someone else should come across her musings.

The story she shares is fascinating and heartbreaking. Of a woman who has outlived every person she’s ever loved and cared for, and a woman who was there when the first bloom was found.

What Lebbon’s created with the characters/figures referred to as ‘blooms’ is magical. What starts out as a strange, plant-like growth in the forest, becomes a flower-like creature that can walk on its roots and move freely throughout the forests. The people fear a strange beast called ‘scorers’ a metal-like thing that hunts the old roads, but the blooms seem to not be on their radar.

As the story progresses, Tim does such an amazing job of layering the story with a mixture of sorrow and hope. Sorrow over Rose’s realization that her time left is growing less and less. Hope for the future. For what life will be like on earth when all of the humans are gone and the planet can relax, knowing our destructive ways have ended.

What I didn’t like: It’s funny, because in my writing life, I’m 100% guilty of this as well, but there were parts I just wished for more of, or more about. More about what happened. More about the scorers. More about the bloom’s. But Tim has stitched this together so pristinely that to expand upon any of that would take away a lot of the beauty this story shares.

Why you should buy this: As I mentioned, Tim’s writing is just so very powerful to read. I have his next novel, ‘The Last Storm,’ already on my Kindle, but I decided to jump into this first and it was a perfect reminder of just how phenomenal Tim’s storytelling is.

If you’re looking a powerful, one-sitting read that’ll have you emotionally destroyed – look no further. I wish I would’ve read this sooner, as it’d easily be on my year end Best-Of list.

5/5

PS Publishing Link:

https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/the-last-day-and-the-first-ebook-by-tim-lebbon-5271-p.asp

Amazon Link: