Customer Reviews

Vigil's End : Book One of the Ninth Day of Man

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So the story sets up like this, Mankind sees that a large "Global Killer" asteroid is coming and has a number of years to prepare for it. This in a timeframe just a few dozen years from now so there is no technology that can save the planet or lift the population out of harms way. So the idea is to dig and dig deep. A large underground complex is built to house a large population of humans and like the story of Noah's Ark with a modern twist, DNA samples of as many animals, plants, viruses and bacteria are collected for the future use of mankind after the planet becomes habitable again. This is called Sanctuary.

The book starts 600 years after the asteroids impact, all life in Earth is gone and Sanctuary has changed.

The author, Grant Macaw while not entirely new to writing, this is his first major publication and while I like to try new authors from time to time we all know that it can be a hit or miss proposition. But having met the author, I decided to give the book a try.

The story is well written story, it's easy to read and the story flows from chapter to chapter. The book is what I would call an intellectual story. Written in the fashion of Isaac Asimov who was an extremely intelligent man himself, his writings often reflected his back ground in science. It's the same with Grant Macaw and Vigil's End, the story dives into a few heady subjects, but the author does a great job explaining these things so the reader is not ever lost as to what is going on. But you can clearly see Macaw's background in military intelligence, strategic planning and space operations coming out in his writing.

The story is very engaging, so much so that you can't help but wonder what is going to happen next and that to me is a good sign that you are reading a good book and I found myself going through an interesting range of emotions while reading the story. To the realization that mother Earth is dead and the thoughts and feelings that brings because it's all gone, all of Human history is gone. None of it all seemed to matter because its all gone, the Earth as the cradle of human civilization has been destroyed along with every single life form that we shared this planet with are all gone. It's a sobering thought and one that brings a level of sadness to the reader that helps engage him in the story as you really want to see how things are going to turn out.

I very much recommend this book to any Sci-Fi fan, you wont be disappointed.

"Scientists first detected the armada of rogue asteroids advancing from the Alpha Centauri star grouping in the year 2214 of their chrono-calendar system." That bit of laughable science is on page 11 and is part of a larger information dump which uses nearly every adjective for listening available in the English language. The whole book is more or less in they style of telling rather than showing and what it tells us is that the author does not know anything about science. A great example this is on page 145 where there is a "thin black laser beam" showing that the author apparently does not even know that lasers beams are light and it is as illogical as a black flashlight beam. The only other error of science I'll mention is that he uses "Negroid", "Caucasian", "Indo-Caucasian", and "Mongoloid" as scientific terms.

Even if he had made no science mistakes the book would be near unreadable due to a style of writing that reminds me of a high school student badly imitating the style of his favorite roleplaying game novelization. The bad guy is pure evil of the sort that reminds a reader of a cardboard cut out while the good characters from the past are dreadfully trite stereotypes saying stock phrases like, "Let's move it guys, the main event is still down there." And simply everywhere Mr. Macaw makes up awkward phrases when there are already better words for what he is describing. In short this novel is about clueless people "re-incepted" (would not resurrected have worked just as well?) 600 years in the future by dippy techno mystics who declare any bits of life to be a sign of "the ninth day of man", even though they frequently say they don't know what that means.

I have read very few books that were more poorly written than Vigil's End. The 'science' is dreadful, the prose itself is dull, and the dialogue is painful to read. It exemplifies the sort of vanity project produced by authors without a dictionary, style guide, or clue.

Based on recent headlines, you might wonder, at times, if it would be a good idea to wipe the slate clean and start civilization all over again. Well, if you've ever thought along those lines, you may change your mind after reading Vigil's End by Grant Macaw. The destruction of the Earth's biosphere and the end of all humanity ... you have to stop and think for a moment about the enormity of such an event!

Grant Macaw has thought about it and he brings this horrific world into focus in Book One of the Ninth Day of Man. The universe is a dangerous place, full of titanic forces beyond our control and from which we can only run and hide. Deep in a sanctuary designed to escape these forces the last remnant of human civilization survives below the surface of an Earth shrouded in a black, toxic, atmosphere.

600 years have past since multiple asteroid collisions wiped out all life on the surface and the guardians of the sanctuary have watched and waited for the time when conditions would be right to return life to the surface. What were once instructions passed down from the days of the catastrophe have now become legend; but will that day ever come? Can someone be found with the courage to take up the task of restoring what once was? Would that even be a wise or proper aspiration?

These questions are dealt with as the fires of humanity are rekindled in an enjoyable tale suitable for anyone who reads for the pure love of it. I enjoyed the plot that unfolded carefully like an intricate flower. This book is a good recommendation for the young adult reader and may be enjoyed by any fan of science fiction.

Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield at stormbold.com.