A post apocalyptic novel might have been the wrong thing to read on the verge of a swine flu pandemic, but anyway.



Richard Jane is an oil rig diver and he surfaces to find that during his dive, an apocalyptic event has occurred which has killed nearly everyone and destroyed the infrastructure. No cars, no electronics and not much sign of life. Jane has a young son in London and decides to travel to London from Scotland to see if he survived, this is obviously unlikely but it does give him a goal and a reason to survive.



This could so easily have fallen into the usual trap of marauding bad guy survivors but is more about a man's journey through the ruins of the UK. Yes there is the occasional bad guy and dark side to the journey, but this is, in essence, a pilgrimage through a world torn apart. As we read we assume that the likelihood of the son being alive is very low but we do understand that in the fire torn new world, Jane needs to cling to the hope of finding his lad.

The first half of the book deals with the walk to London and then on arrival we switch forward a few years to find out what London now looks like, how the survivors are coping and the dangers that now lurk on the London streets. A slight switch here as we see more horror and SF influencing the story, but still interesting and gripping as we see humanity not doing too well.

So far so good and it was looking like an enjoyable three star book, but then the last fifth let me down as the author ramps things up and lost me completely. I re-read the last bit a few times and either I am dense (quite possible) or the time invested in the book was let down by a poor ending that lacked clarity. A bit like when you watch a film and it is not resolved well in the final fifteen minutes and you are left unsatisfied. - Lots of potential but in the end I felt a little let down.