The Calendar

What would you do if you knew the end of the world was coming, and when? In The Calendar, WM Gunn tackles this classic sci-fi trope. Gunn has been on my list of authors to keep up with since I read The Two Terrors of Tulelake, and I was excited to see how he handled this subject. I was not disappointed!

The book opens with the unsettling discovery that a catastrophically large asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, ETA about nine months out. There’s the best case scenario, the worst case scenario, and the middle ground, and none of them are particularly good, unless the science is wrong and the asteroid misses Earth entirely. But no one believes that will happen (okay, almost no one).

The asteroid’s approach is the overarching story, and beneath it, like beads, Gunn strings together vignettes of the choices people make in the face of impending doom. The powers that be must decide whether to tell the world what they know, and if they do, how and when. And when word gets out (because it does), Gunn tells us the stories of people from all walks of life deciding how they want to spend the time they have left.

Some people think only of themselves. Some think, first and always, of others. Some rage. Some mourn. Some scrabble for safety, or at least the illusion of it. Some throw caution to the wind. Some party like it’s 1999. Some turn to faith, or cling ever more tightly to the faith they already had. From journalists to world leaders, from college students to scientists to everyday people, Gunn examines the thought processes people go through, the actions they take, and it’s a deeply thought-provoking experience to read it.

I had a couple of favorites – Mario the pizza maker, who made pizzas and gave them away as long as he could. The only daughter of the president of the United States, whose life turned out to be as good as it could be, for as long as it could be. The president himself and the first lady. And one that really broke my heart was someone who fled a poor choice only to make a choice he might have regretted even more in the end.

Gunn doesn’t go for cheap grace and spring a surprise ending on us where somehow, through human ingenuity or divine intervention, the planet is spared and the day is saved. No, the calendar does indeed roll down to the last day of the Late Great Planet Earth. But in taking us on this introspective, haunting journey that’s somehow heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, Gunn gives us something much better. It’s pretty sobering to think about – how WOULD you spend your last days, weeks, months if you knew the unavoidable end was near? Leave a comment and let me know.

WM Gunn is now a must-read author for me. If he writes it, I’m reading it.

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of the book from Lone Star Literary Life. I was not required to leave a review. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.