The Last Day And the First by Tim Lebbon
Publisher – PS Publishing
Published – Out Now
Price – £15 hardback and £2.99 ebook via https://pspublishing.co.uk/the-last-day-and-the-first-ebook-by-tim-lebbon-5271-p.asp?v=0&variantid=5272
My name is Rose, and I’m the last woman left alive. So begins this novella that follows Rose’s final day, but it is also the first day of a future that few could have imagined.
The end of the world is fascinating to us. It is there in ancient myths with the fall of the gods and in science fiction and horror where we have many tales where terrible future events are witnessed, and humanity falls apart and often ends for good (the special effects though are gorgeous). There is a bit of ego in thinking how we are the summit of it all, but it is always worth some perspective that the planet has a few billion years still to circle the sun so even if we all vanish tomorrow the earth trundles on. In Tim Lebbon’s bittersweet The Last Day And The First we have a post-apocalyptic tale with a difference being more an elegy to our passing than a desperate race to survive.
Rose is very likely the last human being on the planet and at 103 she knows her time is short. She decides now is the moment to write down the last days of her little community and the final wonder that they saw which would change the world forever.
The approach to this story is fascinating. The apocalypse has occurred, and we’ve lost. There are no new births; we have had to flee the towns and cities, and little groups try to keep a community going but now they are all aged and increasingly the world is moving on. In Rose’s narration we realise the battle to survive is over and while not ending in immediate death is more a slow dying of the embers. We get to meet the cranky, funny and generally kind members of Rose’s community who all help paint a picture of what happened, but the focus is on them living to support one another and take each day as it comes. No masterplan to reboot humanity it is just what it is. Its quite an unusual slice of life tale in that respect but the community feels real and, in many ways, reminds me of those pandemic lockdowns when we were cut off from the world and limited to a few streets and the wildlife carried on and in many ways thrived without us. There is a gentle human dignity here similar to the way we see people reach the end of their lives and move towards acceptance that the end is now in sight and watch the world for them wind down.
There is still some danger we have the unusual monsters linked to the end of the world and we see that they still are a threat, if you’re not careful, but they too feel on their way out. All the big action is over just the odd deadly skirmish still needs to be avoided and while I tend to associate Lebbon with horror here it always feels a remote background threat and not the key focus of the story. Instead, the tale is more one of a last wonder – a mysterious bloom the community find that heralds a new change in the world. It is not going to save the world for us; humanity isn’t really going to be instrumental in what happens but we do get to witness it begin. Lebbon makes us feel and appreciate wonder again and that moment of realisation that we too will pass. The world however will tantalisingly continue, we desperately want to see what happens next but instead we now need to leave the stage and let the next act take over without seeing what it does. There is no bitterness here just acceptance.
The Last Day and The First is a beautiful novella using the format to tell the final part of an epic saga it brings us up to speed on but also reminds us that life changes, moves on and sometimes we have to accept that, witness it and move on. A tale of reflection and letting go that really worked for me. Strongly recommended!
