Two new additions to my 1001 Books List......

Two new additions to my 1001 Books List are the novels The Last Gasp by Trevor Hoyle and Yesterdays Gone by Sean Platt and David.W.Wright....
 
First up, The Last Gasp:- 

"The Last Gasp is a science fiction novel first published in the mid-eighties that is part ecological thriller/ part cold war spy drama and part science fact! It takes a pre-emptive glance at one possible future for our planet if we carry on the way we are going and attempts to highlight the dangers of ignoring vital enviromental signs that might have far-reaching consequences for the Earth!

Marine biologist Gavin Chase is performing experiments in the Antarctic when a Russian scientist quite literally comes storming into camp. Badly injured and unable to talk any english, his last act, before being sheparded out to an American military base for interrogation, is to give Chase a standard scientific formula written on paper and to pass on the name of one of his associates. Meanwhile, out in the Pacific, recluse Theo Dettrick makes a startling discovery and realises that the future of the Earth is in jeopardy. Unfortunately no one is willing to listen to his fears for the future and big corporations just wish him silenced. Over the next few decades, his predictions for the enviroment begin to come true...but is it now too late to act?

This is one of my favourite books of all time that I have read several times over the years and which came out long before we had films like The Day After Tomorrow. It is very bleak at times but has a chilling message that should not be ignored. Namely that the needs of our planet vastly outweigh individual country's political gain and that only by working together can we hope to turn the tide of damage we have caused! Unfortunately, with the negative real-life results of events like the recent Green conference in Copenhagen, it largely looks as though this is a message being ignored by the Goverments of our world. The possible end repercussions for behaviour for this are very accurately and brilliantly explored in this novel and though it may be fiction, the themes and ideas herein examined are not! 

The story is told over several years, decades even and each new segment of the tale carries on several years after the last with handy recaps of what has gone on inbetween in a style that at no times feels forced or artifical. By following the same cast of characters too, Hoyle is able to pull you into the story and keep you interested and there is no point when this stretches credubilty. The other good thing about it too though is that ithe novel ends not with despair but with a faint glimmer of hope for humanity leaving you with a few last vestiges of postivity!! Too often these kind of books can leave you feeling depressed and unhopeful....here, at least, there is one small glimmer of light left at the end of the tunnel. That is not to be said that everything is all resolved and tied off neatly however, because that would be too convienient and unfaithful to the rest of the novel, but simply that all is not lost in the final pages!" 

Next, Yesterday's Gone:-

"Yesterday's Gone is a mini-series of short interconected novellas inspired by the likes of Stephen King's Green Mile series and the old cliffhanger serials of days gone by. Available either in seperate E-book episodes or collected together in one "season", the story is a chilling one that twists and turns for many miles before reaching an impossibly infuriating climax that leaves the reader hungering for more and desperate for answers.....

The story is a simple one. A group of people, spread out amongst America, all wake up simultaneously to discover that their loved ones and much of the population have disappeared with no apparent trace. It is as though they are just simply....gone. Each character then sets off in search of other survivors, some of them eventually coming together and forming bonds, desperate to find some kind of answers. But more and more mysteries confound them at every turn.......mass graves are discovered along the highways; strange creatures begin emerging and evolving ~ their infection passed on through the exchange of bodily fluids, often in very messy and disgusting ways; and signals begin getting heard, coming from some kind of Military Outpost on a remote island. And all through this, one question remains....what the frack is going on?

This is a great thriller that keeps you gripped at every twist and gasping at every new turn of events. The survivors, both those together and those alone, are a real mixed bag ranging from a murderous serial killer to a guy who may or may not be a former Goverment Agent through to a mother and daughter and a lowly everyman who just wants to find his son. And action? This book is full of action in every chapter! The only thing not forthcoming is any definite answers and, in that way, this book closely follows the style of modern T.V shows such as Lost. In fact, everything about this book is written as if it was a T.V show with chapters referred to as "Episodes" and the collection here referred to as "Season One"!

Season Two has just been released in its entirety for less than a Fiver and this Season was priced at a similar price on Kindle last year. I downloaded the first Episode for free and was hooked! This is post-apocalypse end-of-the-world fiction of the ike you have never seen before! It is brilliant, it is frustrating, it is often scary and always keeps you on your toes. Honestly, E-books don't get much better than this and I cannot recommend it enough!"