The world's about to end and everyone knows it. It's a pretty nifty concept for a work of SF and surely must have been used many times over the years. For some reason, though, I can't seem to come up with any examples right now, aside from a few movies of questionable merit.
Eric Shapiro tackles this particular gimmick in rather adept fashion in this longish novella. As the story kicks off, it's abut 11 o'clock in the morning on what would be a pretty average day, if it weren't for all that pesky "world about to come to an end" business. As luck would have it, a big chunk of rock is about to obliterate the Earth in just about eight hours. Though various governments around the Earth have known of this impending tragedy for years, they only notified the citizenry about six weeks in advance.
The reaction to this...bombshell varied widely, as one might expect. Shapiro does a good job of encapsulating this aspect of the story, but doesn't devote too much ink to it, preferring to zero in on the adventures of Sean, his 23-year-old protagonist.
Sean's goal, and the main thrust of the story, is to make a several hour journey to see his ex-girlfriend Selma before the zero hour, which means that he has chosen not to spend his final moments with his family.
Along the way he rescues a pair of beleaguered women, witnesses a baby being born and helps a group of feisty old-timers tackle a bunch of lions loosed on the world by their demented trainer.
Which all makes for a fairly decent page-turner which incites the reader to think, "what would I do" thoughts along the way. It's also to Shapiro's credit that he doesn't waste much time bludgeoning the reader with the deep and meaningful bits of navel-gazing some writers might have been inspired to turn loose by a topic such as this one.
If you've read this far, then I've pretty much spoiled the whole thing for you already. So I might as well finish what I started by pointing out that Sean achieves his goal and Shapiro chooses to end the story before the world goes "kaboom," a decision that, for me, didn't detract from the story at all.
William I. Lengeman III is not afraid of the world coming to an end. He only hopes it doesn't happen right after he washes the car. More on his writings at http://wileng.home.mindspring.com/.
© William I. Lengeman III
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