Title: Last Winter Sun
Author: G R Matthews
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Dystopia
Format: Ebook
Release Date: September 5, 2024
Star Rating: 9/10
For those of us familiar with Matthews’ writing, there is an interesting synergy his latest story that does more than merely draw on the strengths of his previous writing. Much as Mark Lawrence has planted tiny threads within his trilogies that have the potential to tie his disparate narratives together (most notably in the enigmatic but ubiquitous personage Taproot), so too Matthews brings not just the flavour of his other series but also the worldbuilding into this latest action fuelled story.
Set in a near-future British Isles, the world has fallen victim to a monstrous apocalypse. Those meddling scientists at Cern and elsewhere appear to have accidentally opened a Rift that has allowed not only the denizens of other planes to invade our own, but also bled magic into the fabric of our world.
The story is carried by a quartet modelled on the A-team. Their leader Caleb is our protagonist creaking into late middle age, where his body is constantly reminding him that it can only be abused so much. They have the gruff Nordic engineer Thorsson who keeps their machinery and weaponry running, there is the enigmatic but diminutive Asian woman Kei – expert sniper and tracker. The eclectic mix is completed by the callow teenager Radley – born into the new world order (or disorder?!) – who has magical skills and raw talent.
The magic system draws on the Asian mythology that Matthews used in his first trilogy The Stone Road. Spells are carried on bits of paper, ready to have their power released in much the same way as one might pull the pin on a hand grenade. As the story unfolds other mystical elements intrude into the foggy hinterland of Southern England – overrun by orks and other monsters.
Matthews worldbuilding imagines a British society forced into steel towns on the coastal margins, hunkering by the protection of seawater which the monsters abhor. There are shades of John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids both in the monsters’ vulnerability to salt water (which was a motif introduced in the film) and in English civilisation’s retreat to a redoubt formed by the Isle of Wight (which is canonical/in the book). The balance of power between humanity and the enemy is a precarious one, – while the orks and other denizens’ bows and arrows may be an ill match for the humans modern weaponry, the enemy have access to greater spellcasters. All in all it makes for an intoxicating maelstrom of magic and mortars, of monster’s and machine guns.
The A-team resonances are reflected in the ex-army past of certain members of Caleb’s team, as well as the slightly episodic nature of the opening with a pair of adventures as the team (in their precious van) tour the countryside fulfilling a couple of mercy errands on commission. These opening salvoes in the story give Matthews a chance to paint a picture of the changed politics and religion of the world they inhabit before the narrative settles down into its main story thread – a coastal disaster followed by a new mission to retrieve information vital to national survival from deep within enemy territory.
As with Matthews’ other books – particularly the Corin Hayes series, as well as Seven Deaths of an Empire, the story is full of action and peril, a succession of near disasters and running combats as the bands heels are constantly dogged by sinister but resolute pursuit. In the book’s core mission the team is paired with an army patrol, and I’m not saying any of them should have been wearing red shirts, but there are some the reader probably shouldn’t get too attached to. That is after all the nature of a story has the sense of running desperate combat you get in the film Aliens. I did enjoy how characters became more fully fleshed out within the army team – I particular appreciated Corporal McStravik’s development.
Matthews brings a geographer’s eye, a runner’s aches, a parent’s insight and a writer’s craft to his characterful descriptions of place and people.
“Roads existed still, if you could accept the risks along the cracked, broken and overgrown lines of dark tarmac which crisscrossed the landscape. Landmarks rather than route ways they attracted bandits and worse.”
“The teenage mind is a fragile thing; little victories are vital and tiny losses are blown up to the proportions of a nuclear explosion.”
“Caleb spoke quietly, memories of family holidays coming to the fore. They had been hidden away, at the back of his mind. Abandoned like the homes around them. No longer seen or used, but there should he go searching for them.”
“The alarm wailed. A song of tears last heard with such regularity back during the Second World War.”
There are also some acute observational lines that can raise a smile and a laugh at
“There was always another threat on the horizon. Usually closer.”
“The brewer had decided to drop some fruit into the barrel to give it a better flavour. To Caleb’s palate, the tinned peaches had done little to improve it.”
“The first sight of the boats elicited a curse from Thorsson and a sigh from the rest. That the masts were attached to the boats was a good sign. That those masts began, for the most part, underwater was not.”
For me though, I enjoyed the observation that – as with all apocalypse stories – the certainties of our economy focussed society and growth fixated politics are all upended in the water. As Matthews’ puts it
“Consumerism had died a sharp death when the rift opened.”
The heady mix of familiar southern England locations, memories of our own time and technology and an influx of strange magic make Last Winter Sun an enjoyable mix of the familiar and uncanny, with scope for Caleb and his team to undergo more adventures in this very changed world.
Julia Kitvaria Sarene