Ben H. WintersRessenyes

For me, this is a one-joke novel. It may appeal most to those who love or are deeply familiar with the original. #DNF

I picked up Self Help because it was written by Ben Winters and I enjoyed his The Last Policeman trilogy about the end of the world, it was narrated by two star narrators, Will Wheaton and Ron Perlman, it was short (3 hours 46 minutes) and it was included in my Audible membership.

It should have been a perfect listen for this sunny afternoon.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. I’m setting it aside a third of the way through because the humour doesn’t work for me. I don’t care about the world of Hollywood wannabes that it describes or the wimpy, can’t-get-his-act-together main character.

When the book failed to raise even a smile after the first ninety minutes, I gave up.

I’m filing it in that familiar category:

“It’s nice work if you can get it…but I don’t get it.”

A briskly moving story about a woman who’s kidnapped away from her infant daughter—except that she starts having memories of a different life entirely, perhaps related to a strange drug port on her chest. An FDA official tasked with investigating the source of the port becomes involved—as does the woman who did the initial kidnapping. Very noir ending.

The premise teeters on the edge of ridiculous, but manages to stay on the credible side. The descriptions of the slowly dissolving institutions bolster the plot. A fun ride; I look forward to reading the second book.

Wow.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. This was ridiculously good. I always enjoy alternative history, but this made you think of all sorts of sociocultural/political/economic aspects that hadn’t occurred to me. The Civil War doesn’t happen, so slavery is still legal in the US (it’s of course here now, anybody eat commercially grown tomatoes, for example?)
And believe it or not, I enjoyed the audio. And I hate audio books. But William DeMerritt was brilliant in his narration.

A reimagining of the world where slavery still exists in four states. Underground Airlines is the modern Underground Railroad and our story revolves around one escaped slave and the people trying to find him.

Recommended on two very different podcasts.

What a great trilogy! If you've already read the first two you won't be disappointed in this last one--a terrific end to the story. Scary, thrilling, funny. A unique series that has something for any reader.

A great sequel to The Last Policeman. I found the crime itself a little contrived and confusing, but the collapse of society rang true. The question of what we would do in our own countdown to death continues with extra blood and horror. It also continues with Palace's single-minded quest to follow one question to an answer.

The middle dragged a little, but only because Palace's mind was in a very confused place, which brings us to the heart of the book.

It's funny, he's both a reliable narrator and an unreliable during his investigation. You get all the facts, unvarnished and straight because of his overwhelming need to solve his "case" of the missing husband. But when he's confronted by people who ask him why he's trying to find one missing husband among the thousands/millions of missing people who "went bucketlist" he gets confused and you get pieces of information that aren't really relevant to anything.

In his heart he knew that what he was doing was nonsense. He saw everything in front of him clearly. But, he couldn't help wanting to get the answer that no longer mattered. He was getting other people hurt. He was putting people at needless risk, including his incredibly faithful dog, Houdini. (I love that dog way more than Palace.)

He continued his feckless search for the truth til the he got his small answer and saw that it led to the destruction of person's last scrap of hope in the world and their voluntary doom within their own family. His answer wasn't helpful or positive in any way given the situation of the world. It was more than a waste of time that he could have spent with people he cared about and who cared about him in return. That option had already flown away.

The book is brilliantly written but is a little harder to follow than the first. Palace is a more complicated character, the world is more complex.

Did I mention how much I love Houdini? I hope there's a hand-of-god multiverse hole that opens up for good dogs like Houdini and they are saved in the end. I don't think that's going to happen though. It makes me

3.5 rounded up, because I'm intrigued and want to see what happens in the remaining six months (enough for two other books/cases, apparently).

Biere Library Storytime Book Club's October/November 2023 pick for the pulp/noir genre! It definitely fits the quick read I'd associate with pulp, along with being a detective story that has red herrings and a dame in distress (kinda, I'm sort of counting Nico's calls to her brother and Naomi here). The asteroid is a looming presence which makes this feel like near-future sci-fi, and I'm still wondering about the calculated number Hank finds.

I definitely am interested in seeing more of how people respond when they definitively know that there's a finite end, along with the implications and repercussions (or does anything matter? Or maybe if nothing matters, what you do with your time matters more?)

I did not solve the murder before Detective Palace did.

Not memorable at all. Probably great to sleep to!!

I really enjoyed the idea and 3/4 of this book, but the plot didn’t quite make it to the end for me

Enjoyably Good

I loved this book. Part mystery, part end of the world story. This book is going to end up being on my ten favorites of the year and it is only January.

I loved this series. One of the best end of the world stories from beginning to end. A great blending of science fiction and mystery. Be warned though. This is a realistic story. If you are looking for happiness and survival you have come to the wrong location. It is a sad and complicated story. You will not leave filled with pep. You will leave after an incredible journey and beautiful writing. This is the apocalypse done right.

All I can say is... what in the ever-loving fuck happened to the last quarter of the book? The first 3/4 were exceptional! I was drawn in, fully invested, I couldn't put it down. I was so excited to tell everyone I knew about this amazing new dystopian novel I'd discovered. The premise was excellent, and beautifully developed. I liked the characters - Aysa in particular, but Laszlo as well - and I was eager to see how the story would unfold.

And then the "twist" happens, just before Part Three. It comes out of nowhere, despite the fact that Winters has foreshadowed just about everything else, and makes NO sense. Worse yet, nothing's wrapped up. The story veers into an entirely new direction, which is completely out of left field and explains NOTHING. It's worse than contrived. It's nonsense.

I was so disappointed with the end of this novel that it tainted my entire experience of reading it. Needless to say, I won't be recommending this one like I'd hoped, and I won't pick up another Ben H. Winters book for a long time, either.

Full review can be found here

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/bookreviewsense-and-sensibility-and-sea-...

Det står ikke noe nytt her som du ikke har sett på film fra før.

A routine detective story enlivened by an interesting concept, Ben Winters' The Last Policeman is entertaining despite failing to harness its great potential. Hank Palace, its detective protagonist, is investigating a suicide by hanging that he believes is a murder. The world is due to end, you see, in six months – an asteroid has been spotted on a collision course with Earth – and suicides are becoming understandably common.

I'm not a great lover of crime writing, but even so I found Winters' own contribution to this saturated genre rather underwhelming. The suicide/murder is rather banal and lacks mystery, the procedural is uninspiring and hard to follow, and the writing itself lacks twists or pace. The characters are decent enough, but nothing special. Winters' also fails to utilise his small-town-America setting, despite this being the perfect scenario for a mystery story with some strange goings-on.

Nevertheless, while Winters is not the greatest suspense writer, he alighted upon an interesting idea. This is enough to sustain the book through its lesser moments, and it remains an easy and agreeable read throughout. The approaching asteroid is unfortunately under-utilised in a practical sense: as society unravels, no one has much gas, and cellphone service has become unreliable, but such things do not prove a hindrance on the protagonist's investigation. "The very idea of motive must be reexamined in the context of the looming tragedy," our detective muses (pg. 116), but this cosmic game-changer rarely imposes itself.

In a way, it's good that this is the case; The Last Policeman is, thankfully, not a novelty thriller in which our hero is in a superficial race against time to solve the case and save the world. Winters is smart enough to avoid this clichéd trap. Instead, the prospect of the approaching asteroid is always there to provide a useful juxtaposition; an existential undercurrent (unfortunately, again, largely unexploited by Winters) where we wonder why our protagonist is still making such effort to solve a banal crime when, in a few months, it'll all be moot anyway. It's a great theme, and not only makes our protagonist more interesting but provides a different lens through which to view the world.

"People in the main are simply muddling along," our detective observes on page 61. "Go to work, sit at your desk, hope the company is still around come Monday." Is this ennui so different from our own world, only thrown into sharper relief by impending cataclysm? Is its economic ennui so very different from our own, particularly in light of our own real-life cataclysm – the Covid pandemic – which showed just how banal great upheavals can be? The government's actions in Winters' book, suspending habeas corpus, and emergency actions by the IMF also reminded me of lockdown, though of course Winters would not have known this when writing in 2012. "A lot of CEOs have cashed in their chips," Winters writes on page 36, and this also has echoes of our own story, in which giving back to society, or even routine tax-paying, seems to be optional among a certain class. "People [are] hiding behind the asteroid, like it's an excuse for poor conduct, for miserable and desperate and selfish behaviour" (pg. 255), and by writing about such hiding, Winters brings it into the light for the reader.

This, then, is the great appeal of a book that, while perfectly serviceable and easy to read, is otherwise unremarkable. The Last Policeman might not be engrossing in its central crime mystery, nor even in its approaching asteroid apocalypse, but the concept does give us a perspective that is quite unique and singularly interesting – and Winters does not fumble it. His detective protagonist fascinates despite his and the book's banality because as readers we instinctively admire someone who goes about their business quietly and decently. The charm of this book, which elevates it far beyond its objective quality, is "the perseverance in this world, despite it all, of things done right" (pg. 86). It's someone just trying to do the right thing, thankless as it is, in a world of economic ennui, societal self-centredness and any excuse for drug-taking or not doing one's bit. Gods, are we sure this should even be marked as 'fiction'?

I didn't actually know what to expect with this book - turns out it was very good. Strong narration, decent characters, interesting story line.

Very well done alternate version of today. Makes one think.

I actually looked for more books by Ben Winters based on how much I enjoyed this one.

You might notice that the reviews are nearly equally mixed: hate it - love it. Not even gonna attempt thinking about why that might be...½

I distinctly remember watching "Don't look up" and contemplating what I would do if I knew for certain that our world was ending in a few months (and what I'd do if half the population refused to believe it because...fake news. *sigh*). I have a list, I edit it once in a while but it's not a Bucket List. This book reminded me that I need to add "moving to a tropical climate" as a final stop so I can go out with a view of the great blue ocean just before some massive fireball touches down on us. I hate winter....and Autumn so I would rather just bake my way to the apocalypse. The argument for "The Bad Place" gets easier if you tell me it's warm down there.

Okay so first things first, what I found strangely enjoyable was that the names in this book are absolutely bonkers for both people and places. I found myself literally pausing to go "wait huh? Okay cool" whenever a name would pop up. Let's take a gander at people shall we: Henry Palace, Mr Victor France, some guy named Dotseth, Another named Mr Gompers-, and Eric with a K who didn't immediately appear to be the devil as with all Eriks (but wait, turns out he was a bit of a doomsday religionist so...50/50 living up to the K in his name). I spent a quarter of the time reading these names like "Hmmm, is Winters playing a word game, some hidden code because no way does every name sound so ridiculously unreal." And the places. There is a street called School Street but no school, and a neighborhood called Pill Hill and there may have been pills there who knows- come on this has got to be an inside joke between the author and someone.

Anyway, to the Last Homicide Detective in a world that has given up, thrown in the towel and is actively counting down the few short months to annihilation.

To say that this book is a unique approach to the end of the world feels like an understatement. Here is a newly promoted detective, tasked with rubber stamping inevitable suicides as the mental health of the planet's inhabitants takes a beating with the knowledge that it all end in 5 short months. Yet here is detective Henry Palace (focused, careful, neat and has a thousand blue notepads) and he's caught a murder. Nobody cares, dead now or dead in 5 months, the outcome is the same. Murder, Suicide or flaming asteroid with no regard for the planet in its way - the outcome is the same. Everyone winds up dead. So why does he insist on following the motions of "investigating" and asking questions? A part of me thinks it's because he is newly promoted, and it's his first murder case - but nope, I think Palace is wired to follow through in an almost militaristic way. He doesn't just go through the motions passively - he is active (don't mistake that for energy) and thorough.

Perhaps that is how he wants to go out - as the detective who solved the last open murder case in the world.

Scenario: an extinction-scale asteroid is going to hit Earth in six months. Why would you bother continuing to carry on working, especially when everyone else seems to be giving up? A totally intriguing premise, however I found that the police procedural that makes up the bulk of the story didn't hook me that deeply. Still worth a read.

With only a few months to go before a surprise!asteroid takes out Earth, most people have more or less given up any pretense of normal life. But one recently minted New England police detective doggedly investigates a seeming suicide, convinced that there something not right about the death.

A really good mystery with the overhanging pressure of the impending end of the world. Loved it.

So, so good. Just all kinds of excellent. I cannot wait for the final book to come out in July. :)

That was just excellent. A wonderful ending to a fantastic series.