The Boy at the End of the World Review

The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout This is not usually a book I would pick up on my own to read. I had to think about this book after I finished it because I wasn't really sure how I felt about the book. This book really stuck with me and I am still thinking about it after a week. It is a mix of The Matrix, Terminator, and The Wizard of Oz and that may seem like a really weird combination the book does have elements of those movies. It takes place after humans are no longer on Earth. Humans got to a point where they could not reproduce and survive in the world they had altered. So what they do is create several Arcs. In these arcs they have frozen people, animals, and plants that will be woken up when the Earth is habitable again. Something attacks the Arc Fisher is in and as the only survivor the robot in charge of the Arc selects a personality profile and awakens him. This book is about Fisher's journey to discover if he is the last human on the Earth or if there are others out there. This was a very fast paced book and kept a pretty steady momentum through the story. I also enjoyed the characters. As Fisher travels he meets different animals and the author paints a world in which nature has taken back the Earth. It was a very interesting look at what could happen if humans are not more concerned with the choices they are making. I think books like this are good for kids to read. It allows them to think about their actions big and small and how they do effect people.