Ho hum. There is a good story in there somewhere.

Barnaby Edwards does a sterling job narrating this but...

It needs a re-write. Far too many major characters, pointless tacked on plot loops, melodrama and over 10 chapters of painful and ultimately fruitless character development before anyone even dies.

I actually cheered at the first death.

Shelly sets the tale in the 2070's but shows little curiosity or imagination regards possible technological or social change. Wars are fought with cavalry and ranks of musket firing soldiers, people travel using sailboats, horse and foot. There are flying machines but they are "fragile" and not usable in bad weather.

Beneath the spaghetti plot (and the many many wordy expositions on the power of love and courage) there is a good story though, and some excellent writing, Some really moving sections.

She's strongest on the social impacts of the calamity, the way news of it spread and how people justified their actions or inaction. Some of these sections are the best parts of the book with chilling parallels with recent events.

The deadpan drop of “half a pint for me and a Babycham for Clara” made me laugh.

Overall worth a listen.

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The melancholy desolation and loneliness

The speculative depiction of late 21st century Europe through the eyes of an early 19th century perspective was pretty interesting. The connection to that history is still undeniable especially the loss of Shelley's entire family and social circle. This proto-dystopian apocalypse is incredibly personal to the writer though it can still resonate with readers who know that sting of loss and lonliness. I compare it to Interview with the Vampire which tells of similar melancholy inspired by deep personal grief. I also wonder whether Stephen King ever read it, as I see some similarities in The Stand as well. Whether it is better to end on King's ultimate hope of survival for human kind or Shelley's uncertainty is up to the reader.

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The chap who read this deserves a medal

This book is an incredibly strange mixture of fangirling about male English aristocracy, ancient bigotry and prescience about the modern world and the current nature of humanity. There are obvious parallels with our age of climate change and pandemic, but the mode of writing is rambling, verbose and inaccessible to modern ears. I feel like I have a greater insight into the mores of the age in which the book was authored. Would I want to sit through it again - absolutely not, but I’m happy to have done it once.

I was also amused by the cheeky little Easter Egg. In the midst of the most earnest dialogue, we suddenly hear, “half a pint for me and a Babycham for Clara”.

The narrator did a wonderful job, considering, and probably needed therapy afterwards. I give him a round of wondering applause for just getting to the end.

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Interesting listen in the time of a pandemic

Many parts very relevant to today's environmental crisis and pandemic climate... but the best bit is that the narrator slips into the gothic/dramatic narrative " half a pint for me and a babysham for Clara" on Chapter 23 45.47. I wonder if he had a bet on with someone he could fit it in and no one would notice? Narrator's voice suited to the narrative. I enjoyed it though listened to it at speed x1.5 as it did drone on a bit in places.

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Meticulous literary artwork

Would you listen to The Last Man again? Why?

This is a great book, although the tempo of the story itself is slow. But it’s never boring, it paints the scenes in your mind. And there are such wonderful sentences. Meticulous literary artwork, put together neatly and perfectly as a Swiss watch. You can only marvel at the intricate mechanics.
These are sentences you want to remember, but can’t because there so far & above daily communication.
The audio book is read by Barnaby Edwards, a true artist of the trade. I bought a few books, based on that instead of on knowing the writer or the book. And the best narrator for this book’s masterful literary artworks.

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7 people found this helpful

Corrupt

One more garbled audiobook which needs tossing into the bin. Multiple instances of nonsensical corruption even in the first ten minutes. For example being almost bent double because a passage becomes "narrower and narrower".

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1 person found this helpful

bad book

quite possibly the worst book I have ever listened to, I got this after listening to Frankenstein read by dan stevens, if you are tempted to do the same just no, don't do it to yourself it will drive you to insanity. 22 and bit hours of never coming to the point . You would think a book of this length would have well drawn characters a world you can believe in a plot to engage in, but no it has none of these things, the characters have all the substance and depth of stick figures, supposedly set in the future it makes no effort to show that things might have moved on from the time it was written we all still use horse drawn transport and gas lighting, the personalities of the main characters are almost non existant and none of them likable and the story is so boring and is more interested in the main character's political ambitions and paranoia than in actually moving forward, by the the time it starts to get to the point when the plague happens and the population of the planet stars to die off you wish you could be one of them. It does have one thing going for it though the narration is excellent. this is a poor excuse for post apocalyptic fiction a poor excuse for a book in general, my one big regret over this is that I waited too long to be able to return it so that I ended up waisting a credit.

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5 people found this helpful

Beautifully read but my goodness it does go on

I listened to all 20+ hours of this audiobook and wished that it had been abridged, It is quite depressing without much relief. I kept feeling sorry for the mindset of the author. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend it, the main tenet of the plot is intriguing to consider.

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