The Calendar

Strap in for a nail-biting race to save the world. The Calendar delivers all the thrills and chills you’re looking for in an exhilarating summer read.

Scientists around the world concur that a massive asteroid is headed towards the planet. World leaders and scientists strive to explore solutions to save humanity—some with altruistic intensions and others with a selfish desire to crush everyone in their path in order to gain the upper hand. Alternately, the author also shares vignettes with average citizens to explore the various ways people deal with their fear in the face of such a monumental crisis.

What would you do if you learned the world might end? Would you get lost in yourself, would you look for someone to blame, would you pray, would you rage, would you try to pretend you didn’t know? WM Gunn has crafted an action-packed thriller with a serious side. As we follow main and side characters through the events of one year, we also explore the psychology of the human mind and the various ways people tend to deal with tragedy. The author returns to this theme throughout the story while deftly maintaining the tempo.

In such a global story, I expect the cast of characters to be large, and it is. President Carter was exactly the guy you’d hope America had at the helm in a time of crisis. Honest and earnest, a true friend and loving husband. As his friend struggles to face the real possibility of the end of everything, Carter prompts him to consider, “Have we done more good than evil, have we given more than we received, have we loved more than we hated?” Questions we hope guide all our leaders, to be sure.

What thriller would be complete without a female scientist being ignored by the men around her? Dr. Hinton is perfect in the role. And since she loves Modelo Negra beer as much as I do, how could I not approve? Gunn’s use of her character to craft the suspense near the end of the book (no spoilers) is nicely executed. I also enjoyed Richard and Bailey, two of the ‘everyday’ characters we meet along the way. Richard’s tender care for Bailey as she struggles to keep her grip on reality is touching and nicely portrayed.

There were a few instances of missing quotations marks and an instance where the word ‘windows’ was used instead of ‘wind’ that momentarily took me out of the story. However, these minor errors didn’t detract from my enjoyment in any measurable way.

If you’re a music lover, you’ll appreciate the careful use of song lyrics throughout the story along with their acknowledgements at the end. I pulled up a few to listen as I read, enjoying a return to songs I hadn’t heard in years and hearing them in a new way as well. How many songs do we ‘know’ without really thinking about what they are saying? It was a fun side quest on this compelling adventure.

Thoughtful and entertaining, hopeful and tense, The Calendar dances along many themes while delivering a story that will keep you locked in the action. Although I admit I’m a pretty fast reader, I devoured this one in a day. A compelling novel you won’t want to miss!

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.