“The nations of the world shared the same eco-system, the same biosphere.”
Trevor Hoyle’s The Last Gasp was first published in 1983, when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were at nearly 343 parts per million. In 2015, when this novel was updated and re-released, this had risen to over 400 ppm. The increasing levels of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere will have a significant impact on climatic systems and on rising global temperatures. No, you’re not reading a science lesson; it is one of the factors that underpin the re-release of The Last Gasp. Using scientific models, and imagining the very worst case scenario of what would happen in a world depleted of oxygen, the book portrays an apocalyptic future where polar sea ice melt leads to the release of billions of tonnes of methane gas, affecting earth’s atmosphere to the point where everyone literally begins gasping for air.
This is a timely re-release; over the last few years there has been a rise in climate fiction – or the rather clunky label of “cli-fi” – in the vein of novels by Liz Jensen, and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy. At the heart of this form of speculative fiction is a sense of the apocalyptic with the trope of the disastrous effects caused by climate change.
The main protagonist, Gavin Chase, an affable Lancashire lad and brilliant scientist, is placed in an impossible situation. There is an element of satire as Chase and biologist Cheryl go up against shady government officials and rich industrialists who seem to have geopolitical decision-making sewn up and unfettered access to clean air. As the oxygen levels decrease, existence is only possible through use of oxygen masks, condemning the poorest of the world to a slow and painful death. Meanwhile, the powers-that-be is experimenting, planning to breed “protozoic prototypes” for a brave new anaerobic world. Gavin’s quest is to alert the public to these unfolding events, and to try to devise scientific ways of dealing with this seemingly unfixable problem.
The book is epic; it spans a long period of time: 2016, 2030, 2042, ending with an enigmatic first person 2052 epitaph. The amount of scientific research that has gone into this book is admirable, however, perhaps the story takes somewhat of a back seat at times. Another weakness is that some of the characterisation is stretched; while Hoyle has a great ear for colloquial dialogue, it’s not completely convincing when applied to other (non-Anglo-American) characters’ dialects. That said this novel would be fascinating for disaster nerds who love a good catastrophe yarn.
The re-release of The Last Gasp is more of a reminder than a global warning. The sheer breadth of the book – at 700 pages it’s a mighty tome – and of the science, may leave the reader, while rooting for Gavin, also gasping for breath. The apocalypse is well researched.
THE LAST GASP / AUTHOR: TREVOR HOYLE / PUBLISHER: JO FLETCHER BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
The UK is blessed with the most remarkable genre small press, with high quality books coming out from small yet notable labels every month. Fox Spirit Books are one those companies that are always winning awards by consistently producing intelligent and interesting genre fiction. Even better, they take the sort of risks that larger labels rarely do. A good example is their recent release, African Monsters.
David Thomas Moore is one of the most interesting editors in genre publishing at the moment. His unflinching approach to giving a platform to emerging and fresh talent has yielded some great results so far, and this new project, Monstrous Little Voices, showcases some of the most exciting up and coming writers around right now. Thus, the name is a pun, the monstrous little voices being a good description of the writers in this collection of novellas, as well as a reference to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 
Since its launch in 2009, Arrow Video has become respected amongst film fans for its superb DVD/Blu-Ray releases of international cult movie titles. The care and attention given to its restorations, as well as the quality of its bonus features and the extensive collectors’ booklet writings by top cult film scholars have all helped seal Arrow’s reputation as the cult film distributor par excellence. Cult Cinema – An Arrow Video Companion is a fitting showcase for Arrow’s achievements to date: a collection of twenty of the finest written essays to have accompanied Arrow DVD releases so far, complemented by ten new pieces specially commissioned for this volume. 
Invaders is a collection where 22 writers of literature were invited to pen a science fiction short story, the title thus referring, perhaps rather presciently, to the authors themselves. While the core concept of the collection makes for an interesting experiment and is an understandable reaction to the swiftly expanding popularity of sci-fi and its acceptance into the mainstream, there is something fundamentally patronising about it. It seems to imply that genre authors are somehow not ‘proper’ writers, and it falls to the adults of true literature (who have “mandated that pulp fiction must finally grow up,” the blurb reads) to show all these immature nerdy kids how they are supposed to practice their art.
Ian Watson is one of science fictions rare gems; the man’s career has been very, very wide. From being the first person to write about 
Despite its short life-span, the sci-fi TV show 
Following on from 2012’s (Re) Awakenings: An Anthology of New Speculative Fiction, Elsewhen Press presents its latest offering, Existence is Elsewhen, a sharp collection of twenty short stories from the world of science fiction.