THE END OF THE WORLD SURVIVORS CLUB / PUBLISHER: PENGUIN / AUTHOR: ADRIAN J WALKER / RELEASE DATE: 5TH SEPTEMBER
In The End of the World Running Club, published in 2016, Adrian J Walker brought the world to its knees following a bombardment by thousands of asteroids which destroyed cities, devastated landscapes and left human survivors eking out a miserable, brutal existence in the shattered rubble. The book told the story of one man – feckless father and hapless husband Ed Hill – as he sets off across a blasted countryside to be reunited with the family he now realises he really can’t live without. The tough and unforgiving book’s ending was bittersweet at best and now, in this unexpected sequel (Walker himself admits he hadn’t originally visualised a second book), the story’s perspective is shifted to what happens in the hours, days and weeks after the end of Ed’s journey.
The narrative focuses on his wife Beth and their two toddlers on a rattling passenger vessel called the SS Unity which is chugging away from a devastated UK in search of sanctuary in Cape Town. But Beth’s world becomes a nightmare when she is separated from her children and cast adrift, washing up in Gibraltar which has become a war zone. Beth, a mass of neuroses and uncertainties, has to dig deep inside herself to find the strength and resolve to battle a ruthless, bloodthirsty tyrant as well as the dangers and perils of an ugly new world which has changed forever, as she embarks on an impossible journey to find her children.
Adrian J Walker had done it again, crafting a book which is possibly even more of an irresistible page-turner than his previous effort. The End of the World Survivors Club is a thrilling, propulsive read which quickly sheds its edgy, unnerving slowburn opener to develop into a balls-to-the-wall action adventure, a survivalist tale largely set out in the open seas.
The focus this time isn’t on the shock of the end of the world itself but in the uneasy aftermath with a cast of characters who broadly demonstrate the extremes of human nature; those who still retain the standards of decency and compassion we all hope to aspire to, and those who wish to dominate and oppress by violence,savagery and cruelty. Beth is a reluctant hero. She is powered only by her singular determination to find her children but this alone is enough to liberate her inner strength even as her body is battered, bruised and abused. Aboard a liberated and barely-adequate sailing vessel, Beth and an often-reluctant crew she enlists along the way set off across the Atlantic where they must battle against Nature itself as well as a vicious and determined enemy who will stop at nothing to exact a gruesome vengeance.
The End of the World Survivors Club is unashamedly pulpy stuff but it’s briskly, snappily written and deftly-plotted with a real bravado and confidence that easily papers over some occasionally creaky dialogue and moments of huge coincidence and convenience which keep the story rolling towards its pleasingly upbeat conclusion. Walker knows exactly what he’s doing here and his story hits its beats and plot turns with an almost mechanical precision. Genuinely unputdownable, this is a book that sinks its claws into your imagination and your sense of adventure and won’t let go until the final page. Massively enjoyable.
