A good apocalypse story is, at its core, a rumination on human nature. After all, in lieu of a real apocalypse, we can't really know how we would respond to the disintegration of civilization. We know that humans tend to perform well in smaller-scale disasters like floods and earthquakes, banding together to form strong, sympathetic, supportive networks. But such disasters aren't large enough to threaten the Rule of Law. They aren't devastating enough to wipe out the world that humans know and operate in. So what if the disaster is apocalyptic? What if it kills off the Rule of Law? What if civil services collapse and humans have to rely on other humans to survive? Will our ethics, our civilized standards, hold up in a world without justice? Last Light is far from a perfect novel, but it does ask this question. And though its answer is rather more pessimistic than mine, that it speaks to the issue makes it a worthwhile read.
One morning in contemporary England, everyday British citizens rise and go to work, not realizing that this will be the last normal morning they ever experience. A series of explosive attacks at various global chokepoints for oil distribution have, it soon becomes clear, virtually crippled the dissemination of fossil fuels to every country in the world. Though these attacks are well-disguised as terrorist events, Andy Sutherland, a British-born, oil engineer, knows, when he sees the oil fires burning across the Middle East, that something bigger and infinitely more cruel is behind this well-coordinated strike. Everything, from international trade to putting food on supermarket shelves, is made possible by oil. Take it away and there is no global community; there are no cars; there is no economy; there is no law.
In the days that follow the attacks, Andy battles to get back to his family in Britain while his wife (at a job interview) and teenage daughter (at university) attempt to re-connect with one another in an England infinitely more dangerous and less predictable than the country they knew and loved. Through the eyes of the Sutherland women, we watch England fall apart, devolving into bands of thirsty, starving humans willing to do anything to fill their bellies. We watch both the government and the emergency services collapse. We watch chaos reign as a prelude to the deaths of millions who, in their desperation, aren't thinking of the long term: putting crops in the ground and finding a place to rebuild. They are stripping the supermarkets bare, unable to think beyond the next score. If the Sutherlands are to survive the chaos, and the darkness that hunts them, they'll have to start abiding by the new rules of a new world.
At some 500 pages, Last Light struggles to maintain a good pace, alternating between long passages of dreary plodding and quick smashes of mayhem which rapidly advance the plot. Of the three main protagonists -- the three Sutherlands --, Mr. Scarrow does his best work with the daughter (Leona) who is forced to grow up quick as her comfortable and sheltered world swiftly transitions to one of brutality and selfishness. Where the daughter provides us the longing for home and normalcy, mother Sutherland shows us the true extent to which Britain has decayed in so short a time. Jenny's desperation to reunite with her kids drives her onward, but not so singlemindedly that she doesn't observe how the world has forever changed and what will need to come next if there's to be a next. By far the weakest link here is father Sutherland who, stranded for much of the book in Iraq, gives us nothing more than a succession of thunderous battles as he and his British-American companions attempt to extract themselves back to their homelands. The scenes here are all-too repetitive and are little more than party favors tossed to Mr. Scarrow's action-oriented fans. But for its flaws, the story holds together well. Mr. Scarrow injects a sense of genuine menace into an already scary genre. Treads a bit too close to the silly Rothschild conspiracies for my tastes, but those who like a good conspiracy will devour the malevolent scheme which underpins this piece of quality post-apocalyptic fiction. (3/5 Stars)
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