Not the End of the World

As an unrepentant, welded-on, dedicated Christopher Brookmyre fan I do have to ration these books a bit. So NOT THE END OF THE WORLD has been lurking here for quite a long time, although I was a little startled to learn it was originally published in 1998. Not because it's been lurking for that long but because the central themes, in particular rabid evangelical religious fanatics, intolerance, insistence, terrorism and short-sighted idiocy works just as well now as it did then. Actually make that less startled, more disgusted.

NOT THE END OF THE WORLD does take a little while to get started, which, (weak pun alert - I tried / can't resist) is not the end of the world. Because the guts of the book made me stop and think, and increasingly show more made me more and more disgusted with the way that the things haven't changed and the lunatics are still out there waving their intolerance in everyone else's faces and shoving their messages down everybody's throats. When I wasn't laughing at their portrayal, I was more than just a little bit annoyed with the sorts of things that Brookmyre was holding a magnifying glass on - right up close and very very pointedly as Brookmyre does best.

This was one of my particular choices for "please myself month". Worked perfectly.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/not-end-world-christopher-brookmyre show less

A book with a tight, but zany plot, characters that felt real. A story with people who have been victims (From loss, from violence, from sexual abuse), but that is does not define. Example, the porn star - Madeline. She is a person distancing herself from her family because of abuse - but she is a full person in this story. The abuse is not all there to her story.

Each character is fully realized, from the detective mourning his son's death due to illness, to the photographer, wanting to see the sites of Los Angeles.

This book was originally published in 1999, just in time for the new year. As a result, all sorts of references to end of the world weirdness abounds in this book, from a research vessel doing a Mary Celeste, to conservative show more Christians making end of the world prophecies. It covers topics from porn stars, to abortion, to child abuse. But, its not a dark book. At times, they rhetoric used by the Christian Sect could be taken directly from any of the right-wing speeches given today. It was an odd feeling.

The writing is tight. The plot is all over the place, but in a good way. It manages to tie together doomsday cults, ancient catastrophes, a Hollywood Film Fair, and a celebrity photographer, and does it in a way that makes complete sense at the end.

Recommended if you like books that are fast paced, zany, and includes dark humor. show less

This is classic Brookmyre - a fast paced thriller, a plot that is both ludicrous but scarily believable, amusing and stuffed with references to the absurdity of religious belief. Unusually for Brookmyre, the plot is set in the US (California), but one of the lead characters is Scottish, allowing the author to pepper the text with his native vernacular. The cast list is imaginative - a Scottish photographer, an LA policeman, a porn actress, a US born-again TV evangelist, a few oceanographers and myriad others. A thoroughly entertaining read.

Not the best by Mr Brookmyre, but still a very, very enjoyable read. I love these Glaswegian characters he creates, and I do share their view of the world, in this case in particular on religion and what it does/did to mankind.If it took me so long to finish it it's only because I struggled a bit at the beginning, not knowing where the story was going. Glad I finished it, though.

Not the End of the World is Christopher Brookmyre‘s third novel and the first one without Jack Parlabane.

Plot:
1999. LAPD cop Larry Freeman (who we’ve met in Quite Ugly One Morning) is easing back into work after the death of his son. He is given what should be a simple task: overseeing a B-movie festival. Unfortunately, right across the street of the festival, there’s a right-wing Christian counter-movement, the Festival of Light. When they start attacking porn-star-turned-actress Madeleine Witherson who is attending the film festival, millenium angst and a bomb threat soon turn the whole situation to shit.

This book didn’t work that well for me, unfortunately. Though it has all the right ingredients, something’s missing. It show more just took me too long to really get invested in the story. Maybe it’s that it wasn’t set in Scotland (though there is a Scottish main character, so be not afraid!).

Read more on my blog: http://kalafudra.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/not-the-end-of-the-world-christopher-b... show less

It was a fun book, though I had some issues with the editing throughout, or perhaps the author’s strange use of certain words. At times it honestly felt more like a means to bash fundamentalism than a cohesive story. Still, I enjoyed it over all.

This book is set in 1999 on the eve of the millennium in LA. When a lot of people were genuinely worried about the World ending.
Scottish photographer Steff Kennedy is on a trip to photograph some B list Actors and Actresses.
There is a big Film festival in town there is also a big Christian Religious festival across the road.
Meanwhile out at sea a Boat has turned up with the Scientists missing presumed dead. Their Submarine is also missing.
This causes a bit of conflict between the 2 groups. A Evangelist minister called Luther St John is causing problems he is calling an ex Porn actress Madeline Whitherson the whore of Babylon she is trying to go mainstream she gets photographed by Steff who falls in love with her.

There is a bomb show more planted on a pleasure boat all the Film Executives go on. The deal is their lives will be saved if Madeline kills herself. She pretends to do it. The Police and FBI flush out the Bombers and its all linked back to St John who has got his hands on a 3 Nuclear bombs he wants to create a big tidal wave and wipe out LA. He got some Red neck militia men to assist him and wants to take over the World.

He gets found out though and his plans fail.
Good silly story this. show less