The last town by Blake Crouch

As the final part of the trilogy, Last town answers many questions that arise after and while reading the previous two parts. Gathering the remaining population of the town, how Ethan manages to save them from the marauding abbies forms the crux of this story. He breaches the lab where Pilcher, the person responsible for creating the town and all the mess associated with it, resides along with his team. He wins over the support team of Pilcher by showing his evil side where he goes to the extent of murdering his own daughter just to ensure his way of getting things done succeeds. Eventually, Ethan manages to re-electrify the fence, keeping the rest of the remaining population bit safer. In between, there is a K.Balachander movie like love triangle involving his wife and his ex-boss from 2000 years back. After a minor scuffle and some soap opera moments, the ex-boss unites with Ethan's ex-lover while Ethan wins back his family. Not having enough food or rations to sustain them beyond couple of years, they all decide to go back to cryogenic sleep and Ethan after wishing his family good bye, not knowing when or whether they will survive this time, wakes up from the sleep after 70,000 years. The story ends there.

For a story that is quite different from what i've ever read before, there are many queries that it raises for the readers. The intention of Pilcher in creating a town that would withstand millenias in itself is far fetched. But the fact that the does manage to recreate the setup like how the humans from 2 millenia back were accustomed to is in itself leaves lot of gaps. Where there internet? communication devices? TV programs? Movies? Entertainment events? every time when someone wakes up from the deep sleep, they feel as if they are dead and are in after life. In fact, Pilcher's evil associate, the wicked nurse, even encourages people to think that way. And Pilcher doesn't quite justify his reasons for not revealing the real reason behind the fence. His justification being that, when he told the town folks the real reason, many committed suicide or killed themselves!! But in reality, if we are being told that, we are the last surviving members of the entire human race is that how people will react? That too when they are made aware that the life outside of the town is near death with murderous carnivores in millions awaiting their prey? And the fact that, those creatures are nothing but humans evolved or devolved rather, in that way? Wouldn't anyone feel gratitude towards Pilcher for saving humanity as it is, leave alone is megalomaniacal quest for playing god and even wanting everyone to thank him as their god by obeying his rules and regulations? In a way he does deserve credit for what he did, but may not be for the way he implemented it down the line. But again, any good deed that begins with an idealistic notion, ends up as the most tyrannical one is what humanity has taught us time and again. While putting people in cryogenic sleep is a way to extend their life means, who takes care of them and how such structures and processes survives several millennia may beg a query, if you accept those logical loop holes and see beyond them, the story is actually quite engaging.

After reading the trilogy back to back, i felt it could've been a 2 part book or at best a 500 pager single book. Almost the whole of third part can be cut short into a couple of chapters. The love triangle or quadrangle between Ethan, his ex-boss, his wife felt unnecessary and could've been removed. The number of times the abbies attack and the different people who gets killed each time felt more than repetitive and began to bore after a while. No wonder they didn't make it beyond 2 seasons as a drama series, for the whole plot is revealed the moment Ethan manages to escape the town for the first time. Beyond that it is just a repeat of the same situations and once the secret behind the fence is known, there is hardly any scope for surprise or keeping people engaged. It is like scoring 150 in the first ten overs only to fold for under 250 in next ten in a t20 match. As thala mentioned in his previous comment, this author and his thought process of picking weirdly dystopian ideas is quite interesting for me and the next book that i am reading is definitely a stand alone one. Recursion seems to be a slightly upgraded version of Dark matter, up till now. Will share the review in upcoming post.