SPSFC4 Review: A Country of Eternal Light by Darby Harn

Blurb:

A black hole is tearing apart the solar system.

Mairead's life is already in pieces.

The Earth has less than a year to survive.

Asteroids rain hell; earthquakes rattle cities; manic tides swamp coasts. Mairead intends to give herself to the erratic waves that erode her remote Irish island, the same that claimed her child. When Gavin, an American, arrives to scatter his father's ashes, she becomes torn between wanting for life and death.

Despite the tides, fuel shortages, and closing borders that threaten to trap him on the island, Gavin can't seem to scatter the ashes. He doesn't know how to let go any more than Mairead does and they find a strange comfort in their confusion.

Their affair draws Mairead back to the world of the living, but the longer Gavin stays, the more it seems there might be a future for them. There is no future.

Life closes down around them. The world they know shreds. Life drains into an inescapable abyss. And yet Mairead fights, both the gravity of her grief and the restless, dissonant desire to find some kind of peace no matter how brief.

Review:

So… this was an interesting read. Not really science fiction, but still fiction in a sense. There is futuristic tech, but the main selling point is an asteroid.  And a short love interest. This being the third entry I’ve read for SPSFC, I’d put this above my rating for the second one I read (for various reasons: review here), and it was on par with the first (review here), it still had a flaw or two.

To sell this to people, I’d give them something about Mairead, the main character, just existing on an island, living her life away, watching as everything falls apart and nothing works anymore. She’s got her trauma, and is just sitting there, watching the ocean, when she meets a tourist - the first in a long while… However saying that and leaving it there, especially for a competition, to me it feels like more is needed. Without much ado, let's first take a look at…

Mairead, the main character and the narrator of the story. Is she reliable at narrating? Short answer, yes. Long answer, also yes but with a caveat - one has to understand her thought process in order to get what she is saying. Her whole life is basically moving from one thing to the next, but with the world ending, why bother moving at all? That’s Maireads thought process, until she wants to go meet up with a new boyfriend, one who has given her a new drive to get through life. She’s… depressed, to say the least, always talking to someone, presumably someone she lost. Her character growth is basically coming out of her depressed shell and trying to be of help to her small island that is small enough you can walk everywhere.

From there, well, the plot of the book is the world ending. There is no elaboration needed there, however… Mairead is telling us about everything she’s experiencing on an island, before moving on and showing us what the rest of her country looks like. It’s somewhat a romance plot, but, also, not really. Looking back on the fever dream of a read that this book was in the free periods at school, it’s that mixed with a journalistic journey to the final countdown, the final shebang. Does anyone survive? Do they all die? One has to read to find out! Despite the tropes being reused, in a way, it works because of the narrative. The plot is hidden in the weird narration. And with that weird narration, the plot just vibes, goes around, and dances whilst the reader deals with the narration, until things click and you realize what has been going on the whole time.

Lastly… the world building is the world itself. Not much sci-fi, as I’ve already stated, but there is death hurtling towards earth and Mairead is on an island, near another, slightly, well, actuall, a much bigger island. That’s about it with world building, except for some futuristic tech, aka doomsday watches . Everything else is what one would find in an everyday store. 

All things considered it's been a while since I’ve touched upon the memories that this book is in my head, and I’ve read some other books (my first review picks, still need to get to the second picks), and I only have one thing that bugged me the entire story long. Not the weird narration that works in connection with the plot, not the depressed character trying to keep things running on her island, no… It’s the lack of sci-fi. I came into this expecting some more sci-fi, not bare minimum. Does that contrast from the book as a whole? Not really, however, it didn’t fit what I was looking for in the sci-fi area, more in the apocalyptic doomsday “oh god we’re ALL dead” genre. That’s just my jive though, you’d have to read it to see for yourself. 

If you’re looking for character narration on psychedelics, a doomsday scenario and light romance, “A Country of Eternal Light” by Darby Harn is for you.

As usual, if you’re here at the end of the review, thank you for reading it, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we’ve got plenty of reviews here, including a random one over here, might be to your liking, might not.

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!