Overview: When the world ends, who you become begins.

The End begins with a chilling silence - the absence of wildlife in an African safari park, a subtle foreshadowing of the cataclysmic event to come. In London, Martin Larkin, a disillusioned teacher, and Katie, a successful barrister, are about to face a world far removed from their ordinary lives.

Verdict: The arrival of Bohr’s Comet, initially a source of global excitement, disrupts technology and throws nature into chaos. As the comet’s influence intensifies, Katie undergoes a shocking transformation. She abandons her life with Martin, seeking a radical new identity in Sydney’s underbelly.

But the comet brings more than personal turmoil. A terrifying illness sweeps across the globe, decimating the population. Society fractures further, and the ABs, a new dominant life form, rise to power.

Martin, forced into the role of survivor, navigates a post-apocalyptic world. He grapples with loss, betrayal, and the constant struggle to stay alive. His journey brings him face-to-face with the remnants of authority and a society forever changed.

Yet another solid Roundfire Books novel release this month comes in the form of The End by author Mark Golding, a law graduate turned secondary school teacher in Liverpool, who burst onto the literary scene during the first national lockdown.

For all intents and purposes, The End is a formidably written, well executed, and dutifully strewn with well-crafted characters work of prose art, for it not only highlights and distinctively creates worlds for us that we ourselves will never see, but brings a genuine heart and soul to the leads that enable us to veritably connect with them from the off.

Couple all that with a twisty-turny plot that one minute you think you have a handle on, the next you are left flailing, your trusty plot compass spinning all ends up, your brain now having to reassemble all you have read to try and fathom out just what happened and where this could all now lead, what we get is a narrative that is both easy to read, but at the same time easy to imagine.

That is the beauty of The End for as much as it is an engrossing and exceptionally built universe that we mentally traverse, it is also one that so seamlessly melds together with an unvisualized (for the most part) undercurrent that slips alongside everything; one that enables the aforementioned plot to always remain fluidly full of surprises.

In conclusion, this genuine page-turner of science-fiction imagination culminates in a heart-wrenching confrontation where Martin must confront the woman he once loved, now a symbol of the transformed world, and define his place in this new, unfamiliar order.

About the Author - Mark Golding, a law graduate turned secondary school teacher in Liverpool, burst onto the literary scene during the first national lockdown. His debut children’s book, Out of Time, released in June 2023, garnered critical acclaim and won the prestigious Golden Wizard Book Prize.

Praised for his whimsical storytelling and unique plot twists, Mark’s work has captivated young readers and earned commendations from reputable sources such as Kirkus. He lives in Wigan, UK.

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