The Final Six Days

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The Final Six Days by Joe Agster

Writing is hard. Those of us who read prolifically don't appreciate how hard it is to realize ideas in writing. We tend to think that because good writing looks easy, it is easy. Nothing disabuses a person of this belief than actually trying to write.

The Final Six Days is the first novel written by Joe Agster. In his explanation, Mr. Agster explains that he has been working on this novel for five years, taking it from musings in the shower to finished product, demanding substantial critique from family and friends. Because this is a first novel and shows such commitment, I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it did not work for me on many different levels.

The story starts with the mystery of a man who wakes up with amnesia in the Las Vegas desert. He makes his way into an undated future Las Vegas and wanders around Las Vegas until he meets a girl named Cassie. Then, after a short romance between them begins to develop, the president announces that the planet-killer steroid, “Icedragon”, is about to impact into the Earth, directly on Las Vegas. The amnesiac, who has given himself the name “Friend”, marries his new love and they then stay in Las Vegas to see the end of the world from point blank range.

Then, he wakes up again in the sands of Las Vega.

Six days before the asteroid impact.

Friend decides that his life work is to save Cassie because he discerns that she will be important to the world in some way. We follow him through something like ten “iterations” during which he works out how to save her from the asteroid, but saving her kicks off visions that tell him that his job is actually to do something more. He then connects with someone who knows more about his situation, and who trains Friend in superpowers.

And you can read the book for the rest of the story.

I thought this was a story about people dealing with the end of the world. I was wrong. This was clearly a “reset time travel” story of the kind recently done so well by Clare North in [[ASIN:B00ECE9OD4 The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August]]. I'm not suggesting that this story is derivative, but “time travel re-set” stories are definite trope of science fiction with its own rules and expectations. When the story moved from “end of the world” to “eternal recurrence” story, it lost a lot of its interest and edge for me. I knew that whatever happened, the world would reset and Friend would have another crack at running the maze.

The hooks of the story – the mysteries – were moderately interesting, and caused me to skim my way through the book after I had lost most of my interest in it. A problem with the book is that it just went on and on. The Cassie sequence seemed to go on forever, and the final pay-off was to move in a completely new direction.

The characters didn't strike me as particularly interesting. Friend is a cypher who develops superpowers as needed. Cassie is supposed to be important, but we really don't see why, and she comes across as unpleasant in various iterations.

However, a real problem for me was the writing. The story is written in the “perfect present” tense as if the author is narrating events as they happen. Here is an example:

“At about 13: 00 he arrives at the Uvia hotel, waiting patiently in the hotel registration lobby for Max to arrive. He passes the minutes by watching the people scamper back and forth, many of them towing luggage. Many look upset and withdrawn, probably losing at the game of chance and eager to leave. Others look like they just arrive, fresh and ready to try their own luck. Luck, he entertains with a smile at the silliness of the word.”

This is an unconventional tense for telling a story, and I found that it got tedious.

In addition, the writing was off just enough to be grating. Here are a few examples:

“He imparts his final words on her as he stares up at the asteroid in the sky.”

Even my grammar check program knows that it should read “He imparts his final words to her as he stares up....”

Another one:

“Luck, he entertains with a smile at the silliness of the word.

This is going to be pedantic but “entertains” is not the right word here, unless he is showing “luck” a good time. Better words might be “ponder” or “thought”

I don't mean to be pedantic, but this shows up over and over again. A few instances might be overlooked, but after some point I found the experience to be like nails on a chalkboard.

This sentence made no sense to me:

“He has always loathed how the great leaded before him never stood tall as a protector of his people, but respects that he is well regarded in his nation. In one word, he answers the president. “Evolve.””

Not a clue....perhaps “leaded” was “leader.”

Again, for this review, I randomly picked out a few examples, there were many more that I could have picked out.

A lot of effort went into this story, but it could have used an editor.