The Dust of Dawn, Eloise J. Knapp

Rating: 5 Stars 

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Sci-fi

Tags: Sci-fi, Apocalyptic/Dystopian, Graphic Content

Length: 273 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At:   amazon.com

Synopsis:

Zabat’s Comet promises a stunning astronomical display as it narrowly passes our planet. Then a solar flare nudges it hurtling toward Earth. Humanity crumbles during the countdown to Doomsday.

But Zabat is more than just a comet. The impact brings not swift extinction but a massive cloud of dust that appears to have a mind of its own. A sinister intelligence. A force that Zabat’s Comet promises a stunning astronomical display as it narrowly passes our planet. Then a solar flare nudges it hurtling toward Earth. Humanity crumbles during the countdown to Doomsday.

But Zabat is more than just a comet. The impact brings not swift extinction but a massive cloud of dust that appears to have a mind of its own. A sinister intelligence. A force that threatens to change what’s left of humanity.

Jack, Colleen, Lara, and Dan survived the violent chaos of the countdown. They survived the threat of extinction. Now they’re about to find out that after Doomsday, there are horrors even worse than death.

Review:

The most disturbing aspect of this novel is how realistic it is, not for it’s apocalyptic plot, no, but for they way it predicts the likely behaviours of individual humans if/when law and order breaks down.

The tale is set in present day and involves the developments in the lives of a group of individuals following the discovery of a three mile wide “comet” that has it’s trajectory altered to intercept Earth and the aftermath of that interception.

The world building is excellent and at times quite chilling. The character development, likewise, is also excellent and it, at times, can be quite graphic. For example, here’s a couple of snippets regarding a sociopathic character in the book called Dan.

Dan moved away from the window and collapsed on the bed. Beside him, Chrissy’s body remained motionless. She’d been dead a while. He wasn’t sure if he fucked her to death or if she’d finally starved. Either way, he was pretty hungry himself and was considering whether or not he could eat her. She was a skinny bitch, but he was sure she still had some meat on her.

– and then a little bit further on in the same chapter;

He shoved Chrissy off the bed. Her body hit the ground with a loud thud. The movement sent a wave of pungent odor off her.
She’d shat and pissed herself. Hopefully the meat was still good.

As I read, I continually kept hoping that the author would have this hungry charmer “eating a bullet” or three.

About the editing, the book’s continuity is generally excellent, the grammar, however, not quite so. I found only a couple of errors. Towards the end of chapter 23 (Craig) the author wrote, “… Except for you for guys”, where I believe they meant to write, “… Except for you four guys.”. Two-thirds of the way through chapter 24 (Jack) the author wrote, “… could be the different between life and death”, instead of “… could be the difference between life and death”.  Given the length of the novel it’s forgivable but they’re simple things that shouldn’t happen and they disturbed the enjoyment of my reading.

Overall, The Dust of Dawn is an excellent read and promises to have an interesting follow on, The Dust Of Day, due out in 2019. I found it to be very good value at just over AUS$1.00 and I highly recommended you give the book a go, but, only if you don’t mind reading things that are on the dark and gritty side of human behaviour.