The End Specialist

A few days ago I found a book tucked away on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. It was a novel, called The End Specialist, written by an author named Drew Magary, and I had never read it. I had picked it up from Waterstones on one of my trips into Liverpool and never gotten around to actually reading it. So, since I didn't have much else to do, I opened it up and started to read. I'm glad I did.

The End Specialist is the kind of story that takes a big, world-changing science fiction concept - what if a cure for ageing was invented? - and runs with it, spinning a tale of how the human race adapts to this new development. On this occasion, the story is delivered to us from the perspective of John Farrell, an everyman who begins the story by receiving the cure. The book then follows his life over the course of more than sixty years, as the cure spreads and the world's population balloons in size.

The most interesting thing about The End Specialist is the way it's presented. The story follows a blog format, with each chapter taking the form of a new post on John's blog. The majority of the chapters are from John's perspective and are tell the story of his day to day life, which is the main meat of the plot; however, several of the posts are links to interviews or news articles, and in these chapters we gain a wider insight into the world John is living in. The interviews range from scientists and politicians to pro-death terrorists and followers of a new religion, the Church of Man, which has sprung up in the wake of the cure. The news articles cover everything from wars and bombings to epidemics. It's very similar to the wide-reaching style of World War Z; however, because the central strand of John's life remains throughout the book, it gives the plot a structure, a sense of order that World War Z lacked. Because we keep intercutting from the zoomed-out, detached overview to a more personal perspective, the whole thing feels very interconnected, and you really feel like all of these different events are taking place in the same world.

Though the real advances in the plot often come in the wider form of news stories - the post-cure expansion of Russia, a theme which runs throughout the book, is rarely mentioned by John personally - John's story is still fascinating and entertaining. The book comes in four main phases; 'Prohibition', 'Spread', 'Saturation' and 'Correction'. Each phase is very different in terms of subject matter and tone, but as I said above, the recurring narration from John keeps the novel stable. 'Prohibition' deals with John receiving the cure while it is still illegal, and his reaction to that; 'Spread' shows how the human race begins to adapt their way of life to deal with an ageless world; 'Saturation' focuses on John becoming an End Specialist - this is an occupation which John takes up during the second half of the novel, and while I won't spoil what exactly that job entails, suffice to say it's an interesting and unique position, made possible by the cure. The book's final phase, 'Correction', sees the story take a dark and unexpectedly grim turn, as the vastly growing population begins to drain the Earth of its last resources. It's an unusual way to end a book, but it works, and it really serves to round off the theme of death that is omnipresent in the story.

In terms of characters the book is pretty mundane; John, while his motivations and personality are interesting and believably written, is not a particularly original character. None of the other members of the supporting cast jump out at me, except perhaps Matt, John's boss, who provides dark comic relief and several laugh-out-loud lines. Apart from him, though, many of the characters fit into basic archetypes. The worrying sister, the childhood sweetheart, the energetic best friend, and so on and so forth. It doesn't damage the story too much because of the wide, planet-spanning scope of the tale, but it would have been nice to see a few more creative characters in there somewhere.

Bits and Bobs

• The book was originally released in America, and I only found out after reading it that the novel's official title is actually The Postmortal. Both are appropriate titles, but because the English release was titled The End Specialist, and because I think the latter is a much cooler name for a book, I've stuck with that title for my review.

• I don't usually comment on a book's cover in these reviews because that's not really what books are about, but I just have to mention the image of the Grim Reaper, impaling himself on his own scythe, that appears on the front of this book. Not only is it mentioned in the story (John sees it in graffiti form, spray-painted on a wall somewhere early in the novel), it's also one of the cleverest visual metaphors for overcoming death I've ever seen. The whole reason I bought the book in the first place was this cover, which jumped out at me while I was browsing, so I suppose it can take the credit for finding me this novel.

When all is said and done, The End Specialist really is an excellent read. It gives us a strong central question, and succeeds in delivering on the answer. I haven't really gone into detail on how the introduction of the anti-ageing cure affects the world, but rest assured it's an intriguing and most likely accurate depiction of Earth following such a discovery. Yes, there are parts that fall a little bit flat, but as a whole it's a thought-provoking book, and an entertaining one. I definitely reccomend picking up a copy if this sort of high-concept science fiction is your thing.

Until next time, whenever that may be, thanks for reading my blog!