This one set on my TBR list for a while, and in all honesty, I maybe should have left it sitting there. But then I’ve been a fan of Lebbon for a long time and was curious what he’d been up to. Apparently, this climate disaster of a novel. Which objectively isn’t a disaster of a novel, but it does leave a lot to be desired.
Outside of occasional odd word repetition (which should have been dealt with in editorial), Lebbon is actually a very good writer. It’s what attracted me to his books in the first place. Literary, in my books, is the best horror, and Lebbon goes for literary. Character driven, well described, all that.
What’s missing here is on the plot side of things.
Droughts had turned a significant swatch of North America into a desert. It could use some rain. And, conveniently enough, the is a Rainmaker available. Only he doesn’t do that anymore and has done all he could to stop his daughter, who intertied his gift, from doing it too.
As it turns out, when one makes the rain, they bring down more than just water. No idea why. None is this is really explained. The Rainmaking thing isn’t really explained either.
The author chose to focus on the actual play-by-play of the chase (two chases, technically) that’s at the heart of this novel. It unravels in almost real time from multiple perspectives in minute detail.
Lebon is good on detail, but at some point it becomes glaringly obvious that the entire novel is just people driving and shooting in the desert. It overrides everything, even the characters. Not to mention, the multiple perspective thing is drastically overdone with a dizzying amount of switches. People, tenses, etc. It’s way too much.
It’s almost like there’s all this descriptive writing and narrative trickery to distract you from how thin the plot actually is.
So, overall, it reads easily and quickly and is technically accomplished, but doesn’t really engage. I was trying to figure out what to rate it and decided to generously round it up. But this was likely one of my least favorite Lebbon books. Interested to see how he does on the next one, where he goes from dust to snow. Thanks Netgalley.

This was okay. I think I expected a little more horror, and there were elements of that, but it felt more like a fantasy adventure than anything else. Still interesting enough to get through to the end, even if I eventually found myself skimming a bit.

Another entry in the ever-expanding climate fiction canon, The Last Storm manages to get a lot right but not quite perfect. Its setting, a near-future dust bowl USA, is perfectly believable, if a little forgettable. Its characters are reasonably distinct but often not all that likeable, making it difficult to get terribly invested in their fates. There's little to no explanation about how Jesse and daughter Ash came into their powers of rain making, an ability which seems to be widely known of. Their forays into the place from which they draw the rain are nicely creepy, however, and the tension ramps up towards the end of the book for a strong finish despite the journey around the houses that leads to it. A solid if not spectacular read.

Stars: 2 out of 5.

This book tried to marry two different ideas in the same story - a climate disaster story and a story about people with a special ability that ties them to a different world/dimension. I think the author wanted to pay homage to Stephen King and his many books that did the same thing.  Lisey's Story comes to mind. That was one creepy and fascinating book.

Unfortunately, where Stephen King managed to marry the weird and the mundane into a seamless buildup of creepiness, this author failed, in my opinion. I think it stems from the fact that the power the Rainmaker family has is never truly explained or explored other than as a tool to rain disaster and death on an already ravaged country. That and the fact that it is described almost like a drug, an addiction, makes it really unpredictable and unattractive. 

Also, it is never truly explained how that power is tied to the horrible draught that is killing a vast part of the States, of if there is even a connection. And if there isn't a connection, then what's the point of this power in the story?

My other issue with this book is that all the characters are unlikeable, especially Ash. I mean, I was pretty interested and invested in her story while she was on a quest to assemble her device and make it rain... Until at about 61% in the book where she unleashes rains of blood and horrors upon this town, kills several people... and has absolutely no remorse about it. That's where she lost all my support, as well as my desire to continue following her story.

I also don't understand why everyone else is making excuses for her behavior. Oh, she is so special. She can make rain out of a clear sky... Yes, she can also unleash venomous creatures that attack everything in sight along with that rain. Oh, and by the way that rain will turn into a deluge that will make matter so much worse. 

Of the other protagonists we have Ashe's father, who is a coward who's response to a traumatic even had been to hide his had in the sand for almost a decade. Her mother who turned her whole life into an obsession. An ex-addict turned into Ash's insta-groupie. And a psychopatic killer. Honestly, not a single one of them is likeable or even relatable enough follow into the story. 

I think I would have enjoyed this more if Ash wasn't such an unrepentant addict who made excuses every time she messed things up. Or if the supernatural element was better tied into the rest of the story.

PS: I recieved an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating 2.5/5 stars.

North America has been ravaged by famine and drought. Ash, as a Rainmaker, could be its saviour. She also could be its undoing, brining down more than just water from the heavens.

The concept for this novel intrigued me, despite my pickiness with apocalyptic fiction and initially I was invested and intrigued. Ash's character was interesting, as were those of the parents searching for her. I soon felt, however, that a lot of travelling was done by the three perspectives and the novel always felt in a state of motion with little actually being achieved. I did admire the emotion that exuded from the page and how authentically I felt that this dying world was conjured, these characters crafted, and their abilities manifested. I desired something more from it, overall, however. I'm not sure what it was missing but whatever it was stopped me from bonding with everything depicted, unfortunately.

The Last Storm, penned by Tim Lebbon, is an enthralling and nail-biting novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The plot unfolds in a small coastal town that finds itself in the path of an imminent, catastrophic storm. Lebbon's writing is evocative and immersive, painting a vivid and horrifying picture of the impending disaster. The characters are well-crafted and authentic, their struggles and apprehensions intensifying the thrill of the narrative. The Last Storm is an electrifying page-turner that will captivate those who enjoy survival and disaster tales.

I enjoyed this one.

It’s definitely a bleak read and it didn’t really end the way I wanted to, but I was riveted all the say through.

While I didn’t love Ash as much as I’d expected to, I found myself definitely wishing the best for her.

A unique and compelling story.

The premise was intriguing, but the execution didn't work for me. I never got fully invested in the story.

I read The Light Pirate recently and it had more resonance with me as a climate focused post-apocalyptic story. Unfortunately this one felt too over the top for my taste.

Great read! This book is an action packed eco-terror/post apocalyptic story of a world decimated by global warming where water is the most sought after resource.

Certain people, rainmakers, have the ability to cause rain, but it comes at a cost. At the heart of this story is a mother seeking her missing a daughter, a father dealing with guilt of a decision he made, and a cast of characters struggling to survive in a barren wasteland.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book took me so long to finish because the first 20% or so was a little slow going. But wow, after that it got really good, and I ended up finishing it in only a few days. The Last Storm follows the POV of several characters: Jesse, a Rainmaker. Katrina, Jesse's wife. Ash: Jesse's daughter, who is also a Rainmaker. Cee, a woman who befriends Ash, and Jimi, a son of a murdered man out for revenge against Jesse.

I loved the characters in this book. Jesse, a Rainmaker who gave it all up when his gift accidentally killed three people. To make rain, Jesse plugs himself into an "apparatus" of his own construction, transporting him to what seems to be an alternate reality. From this reality, the rain is brought to our reality through Jesse, as though he were a conduit of some sort. In his last attempt it all went wrong, and creatures came with the rain. He tried to teach his daughter in the ways of Rainmaking, to avoid the same mistakes, but when she started to bring down creatures, just as Jesse had, he became afraid. "What if it got much, much worse than anything [he] was ever capable of? What if she did that in a city?"

Jesse injected her with a serum, trying to suppress her rainmaking abilities. "She was far more dangerous than me, even at that young age. What happened to me was worse than anything my mother brought down, and her father before her. It's a pattern, a degeneration that seems to follow what's happened here to the climate. The effect we've had on the world. I believe it was reflected in my place, the Shore. Maybe Ash's Skunkville is even more affected. And no on can control that."

Mistaking it for attempted murder, Ash ran away -- and did not come back. For nine years Jesse lived alone, apart from other humans, tortured with the guilt that he had killed his daughter. His wife, Katrina left in search of Ash, and followed her without success for nine years. Hardened by her time of the road, Katrina is barely recognizable to Jesse when she appears on his doorstep. Ash is trying to assemble another apparatus to start bringing down the rain again, and her parents must find her before its too late. Will they succeed? Or will Ash bring down unimaginable terror with the rain?

Rainmaking is in Ash's blood and the storm is calling for her. When she's trapped in the tumult she blacks out for days, weeks, months at a time, finding peace only in the eye of the internalized storm. Ash needs to get it out, but at what cost? She thinks she can control it with the help of Cee, a woman she finds on the road, but she will soon realize that the storm is just too dangerous.

Jimi, the son of the one of the three people Jesse killed all those years ago, thought that the Rainmakers were gone. When he finds out that Ash is alive, he seeks her out to exact his revenge of her and Jesse. 

As the character's paths come closer and closer to crossing, the tension mounts, making for a fantastic page turner.

I also loved the world building in this book  -- near future US where climate change has reduced parts of the country into desert -- basically wastelands where only the most hardened of people can survive. I also really loved the alternate reality, different for each Rainmaker. A place of tumult and creatures, waiting to use the Rainmakers as a gateway into our world. Will Ash be the Earth's salvation, bringing only the rain? Or will she instead bring destruction? 

I highly recommend this book.

The Last Storm
Author: Tim Lebbon
Release date: 19th July 2022

I have been anticipating this book for ages, since I first saw the lush cover and it's desert-vibe dystopic feel.
The main reason of course, is that Tim Lebbon is a horror and SFF Legend, and it's about time the world recognised this.
The novel starts 'twenty years ago', and Jesse, holding an old wooden box, is standing over a dying poppy field in a desert world; his talent will bring the rain to save the crops, so he can take the money and run back to his family.
Then we meet Ash-not-Leigh, who's been travelling the desert land for nine years, picking up pieces of old electronics or wiring, to fill the empty guitar case she was drawn towards.
The drought-ridden world Lebbon creates, through dark metaphor and dusty similies, creates this Mad Max meets The Stand atmosphere - of blight, famine, death and unbearable heat. I kind of wonder if Lebbon was prescient given the ridiculous levels of heat we're facing in August 2022, with Britain reaching a high of 43°.
Ash has periods where she is "in the eye" ; she can't remember what she did, what happened, but she'll notice her case gets heavier and if she's been fed or taken care of by someone.
And when news of her survival reaches Jesse, and his wife Karina, he knows it's time to do something. And he's not the only one hunting her.
This is a massive book in terms of story, character, metaphor and world building.
It's gripping and immersive, and I'd be very surprised if it isn't turned into a TV mini series.
Lebbon's writing always has a wonderfully cinematic feel to it; I can almost see his inner cinematographer rubbing his hands in glee.
This is huge, in many ways, and a book you want forget - especially in the midst of today's climate change crisis.
Gold star Mr Lebbon.

An eco-horror that I found really terrifying and this could be our future. It's a well plotted story, I appreciated the characters and the world building.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the blog tour and sending me a physical copy to review. I greatly appreciate this opportunity and dipping my toe into some eco-horror.

3 stars. There were some things that I liked a lot about, like the cultural commentary and exploring eco horror in a post-climate change and nearly destroyed America. However, the multiple POVs didn't work and I felt the characterization was lacking. I didn't care about the plot or the characters enough to want the ending to happen or something big to go down. I was a part of the blog tour for this novel and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Check out my post where I recommend ten books to see if this is a book for you blog post. Full review to come later.

The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon had all the elements of an immersive eco horror, apocalyptic/dystopian horror and family drama rolled into one.

Jesse is a rainmaker. As he’s ancestors before him were. As his daughter Ash is. Although it can be amazing, spiritual and useful to be able to create rain, it can also have catastrophic consequences.

This is a tale about Earth’s resources are our plundering of them. What would happen if we ran out of fresh water? Clean air? Who would we turn to for help? Would we rely on magic to get us through?

I’m a huge fan of apocalyptic/dystopian novels and this one took the story in a direction I hadn’t seen before. For fans of Eco Horror and Dystopian novels.

Set in the near future, where the world’s climate has continued to erode, humans now live with the results from that change. A large section of America is now deemed ‘The Desert,’ where it is always scorching hot and dust storms rage. As well, a large portion of the western side is burning up, wildfires rampaging and destroying most of that side of the country.

In this new world oder we have the Rainmakers, a familial trait that allows certain people to be able to conjure storms and cause it to rain.

In this particular story I felt like it was more of a character driven plot. I do tend to love character driven stories but unfortunately I could neither connect nor relate to the characters which made it difficult for me to be invested in the overall story.

Post-apocalypse novels – they’re all the rage at the moment, aren’t they?

It seems that whenever things are tough, we like to indulge in some sort of “life’s-bad-but-it-could-be-worse” situation. Whether it is as a consequence of COVID-19, or some other factor, it seems to me that they’re back in fashion.*

Whatever the reason, dealing with global life-changing events seems to be a thing - and popular. To this list we can now add Tim’s latest. He’s not a newcomer to this sort of thing, though – you might know him because of his book The Silence (2015) which was made into a very successful Netflix film starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka and involved strange creatures that reacted to noise. He’s written other books of a similar nature as well.

This one combines a Mad Max style desert environment created by global warming with an element of Ray Bradbury theatricals and even a touch of Stephen King horror – possibly even Lovecraft as well, whilst we’re at it.

From the publisher: “With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth.

Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes and spiders. When his daughter Ash inherited this tainted gift, Jesse did his best to stop her. His attempt went tragically wrong, and he believes himself responsible for her death.

But now his estranged wife Karina brings news that Ash is still alive. And she’s rainmaking again. Terrified of what she might bring down upon the desperate communities of the Desert, they set out to find her. But Jesse and Karina are not the only ones looking for Ash. As the storms she conjures become more violent and deadly, some follow her seeking hope. And one is hungry for revenge.”




So, what we have here is a set of characters, all given short chapters. Most important initially is Jesse, a Rainmaker, who by using a strange piece of equipment has the power to create rain – much needed in this desert landscape. Jesse is estranged from his daughter Ash, who also appears to have inherited Jesse’s powers – although she sees it as a curse. Jesse’s ex-wife Karina is also distant having spent recent years looking for their daughter. When Ash’s powers are shown on television, Jimi – a Soaker (someone who hoards and sells water) - sets off to find her, believing that she will lead back to Jesse, who killed his father in a storm event when Jimi was younger.




Things begin with a very Ray Bradbury-esque beginning that feels both very vaudeville-ian and very strange, with a feeling of decaying Americana. The process of making rain without seeding the clouds acting through people with strange, almost arcane, powers seems like magic in a world where the landscape is dry, dreary and depressing, a near-future with drought exacerbated by climate change. It almost feels like something out of Mad Max, with the Soakers selling and rationing water as they move around the Drylands. The apocalyptic event here is the encroachment of a rise in global temperatures past a tipping point of no return.

However, (and as ever), every miracle of rain has a price and here the consequences of these storm-making events are that the rain brings other things with it. The cause of these strange events means that the story strays a little into Stranger Things territory. Interestingly, the cause of these strange powers is never entirely explained, although there are hints of a long history and various backstories to hint at such an origin.

This complication also allows the development of sub-plots. Add to this the fact that it is these powers that have separated a father from his daughter and caused the breakup of a family and we soon realise that there is a social cost to pay. In addition, we meet a friend for Ash and a desire for revenge on Jesse. The characters are flawed but understandably so and both villain and heroes have their moments of retribution and denial, not to mention redemption.




In order for this to happen, the events and characters are drawn to each other for various reasons, leading to a nicely set-up ending. A little warning here, though – the last part of the book is particularly messy, although fans of Tim’s horror novels will know what to expect and will actually find much to like here.

This is the best Tim Lebbon I’ve read in a while. It is a story with resonance today (I’m typing this on the hottest day in  the UK ever recorded, which seems somewhat appropriate!) and a plot which plays to Tim’s writerly strengths. There are well-defined characters, fast paced action and moments of scary terror that build from a fast-paced start to an effective finish. A great beach read for this year – or perhaps whilst you’re sweltering in the uncommonly high Summer temperatures we seem to be having!







. *(Although some might argue that they’re always around – John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids (1951), Stephen King’s The Stand (1978), Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers (2019), Josh Malerman’s Bird Box (2014) and Mike Carey’s Book of Koli series (2020-2021) are quick examples, off the top of my head.)

Jesse is the last rainmaker, the only survivor of a family gifted with the power to summon the rain in a parched world. But Jesse has turned his back on that gift as it was more destructive than nourishing, calling down poisonous insects in the rain. He was so afraid of his power that he killed his daughter, Ash, when she demonstrated a stronger talent for rainmaking than him. He has avoided the world for nine years, wallowing in his guilt.
But Ash survived her father’s assassination attempts and hid in the Dessert. But now, her inner storm is surging, driving Ash insane with the desire to summon rain again. Jesse must find his daughter before she creates a storm that will kill more than it saves, but he is not the only one hunting her. Jimi has a vendetta against Jesse and is stalking Ash, hoping she will lead him to Jesse and he can get his revenge.
Tim Lebbon’s latest cli-fi novel is set in a parched world where a large part of America is just sand and known as The Dessert. Some areas still see rain, but it is destructive, washing away trees and houses and killing people. Rainmaking is the talent of one family who brings rain from another world using apparatus they design themselves from parts that call to them. But with each successive generation of rainmakers, the rain is corrupted by spiders, snakes and scorpions.
Ash has a different approach to her power than her father, Jesse. While he cuts himself off from the world, Ash lives in it, moving from place to place, searching for parts for her apparatus. She believes she can summon pure water rather than contaminated rain, which drives her. Ash wants to help people regardless of the personal cost. I found her a compelling character. She uses the past as a learning experience and is forward-facing, unlike Jesse, who hides from the world rather than face the consequences of his actions.
This difference in how the characters handle the past continues down the gender split. Although Jesse tried to kill their daughter, Karina, Ash’s mother and Jesse’s ex-wife, can move past that for a future where she is reunited with Ash. She hasn’t forgiven him and regularly challenges his decision to kill their daughter instead of helping her. But her end goal is more important than his past mistakes.
Jimi is a character from Jesse’s past. Without giving anything away, Jimi’s life has been shaped by another murderous decision Jesse has made. Jimi is cold and ruthless and will stop at nothing to punish Jesse for his actions, unlike Karina and Ash.
Karina is my favourite character. As a mother, I recognised her all-consuming need to find her daughter again. The day Jesse attempts to kill Ash, Karina leaves because she doesn’t believe he succeeded, and she has spent years searching for her daughter. Karina gives up everything for this search, and both she and Jesse recognises that the sun has bleached out the softer parts of her, and she regularly challenges Jesse on his She is not a lady to be messed with.
The world-building is strong, both a dry, alien landscape and yet very familiar. Jesse lives in a world where violent storms alter the landscape, while Ash’s home is in the Dessert, where nothing grows, and people blister from sun exposure. Lebbon describes a town that was half sacrificed to save people from an uncontrollable bushfire, and the town’s residents have learned to live with the charred remains of buildings. At the time of writing, I’m at the start of a heatwave, the third of the year, and that could see temperature records broken. The Last Storm feels very close to reality.
The Last Storm is an intelligent cli-fi, not quite post-apocalyptic, and certainly not as far removed as fantasy. It’s face-paced, exploring themes of family and letting go of the past. It is realistic and haunting with its powerful warning against ignoring issues before it is too late. If you’re already a Tim Lebbon fan, this is another standout story worthy of adding to your library. If you have never read anything by him, then The Last Storm is a great place to start.

Jesse is a Rainmaker, like his mother before him, and on back through the generations as far as the family can remember. In an America ravaged by climate change with large swathes known as the Desert, Jesse should be in demand. Instead he’s living as for off the grid as he can possibly get, because when Jesse makes it rain, it brings with it strange creatures from another reality. When Jesse’s estranged wife, Karina, turns up at his door, looking for his help to find their daughter – who Jesse believes he killed when she was still a child – he has no choice but to follow her on her mission. Ash has spent the intervening years roaming the Desert, but she’s ready now to make the rains fall again, and this time she’s sure she can do it without shedding any blood.

When it comes to visions of a post-apocalyptic world, Tim Lebbon is the man to beat. He has, at some point in his long and storied career, probably imagined every possible world-end scenario. Now he turns his attention to climate change and presents a very realistic vision of a future where water is scarce and where what remains of America is far from united. Into this challenging environment, Lebbon introduces Jesse, a man who, with the help of a cobbled-together “apparatus”, can make it rain. It’s the perfect match, no? Maybe a little bit too perfect, so Lebbon (never one to give his characters anything remotely resembling an easy ride) throws in a couple of curve-balls – this time in the form of deadly creatures that seem to be conjured from the same fantastic reality that the rain comes from – to keep Jesse and reader alike on our toes. So instead of being a savior and a hero, Jesse is a man keeping his head below the parapet and trying to get on with life.

Jesse’s gift – or curse – is hereditary, so he has passed it on to his daughter, Ash. Discovering that Ash has the same problems, he accidentally kills her when she is nine or ten years old – or so he believes. When his wife turns up a decade later and tells him she has seen a video of their daughter – now a grown woman – on the internet, he is as surprised as anyone. Ash, along with a girl called Cee, whom she has met on the road, is building her own apparatus. Her aim is to head west and try to put out the forest fires ravaging California and bring water back to the Desert. She’s confident this time that she can do so safely, but we all know there wouldn’t be a book if that was the case.

At its heart, The Last Storm is a story about family and loyalty. While trying to save his daughter from suffering his own fate, Jesse has inadvertently torn his family apart. Now he’s been given a second chance and it seems he’s going to grab it with both hands and prove to his wife – and himself – that he’s a good man. On the other side is Jimi, who has spent years working as a Soaker, selling water to the towns he passes through. When Jimi hears rumours of a Rainmaker, she becomes his sole focus: Jimi is out to avenge his own family, who ran afoul of a Rainmaker when Jimi was a boy.

The Last Storm starts slow and ramps up, as various pieces fall into place, accelerating towards a tense – not to mention extremely intense – climax that is guaranteed to keep you glued to the page. Lebbon has created an entirely believable – frighteningly so! – vision of an America ravaged by climate change, its people beaten but, for the most part, unbroken, and law a part of a dimly- remembered past. Into this he introduces these people with an extremely rare talent that gives them a window on a different reality, one much more frightening even than our own near-future prospects. It’s the characters that drive this story: Jesse with his need for redemption; Karina’s need to have her family back; Jimi’s need for revenge; and Ash’s need to fit in, to be a normal person and to use her gift – for that’s how she sees it – to help a slowly-dying world. Once we’ve met this crowd, we can’t help but need to know how it all works out. Be warned: Lebbon will make you work for that knowledge; he’ll put you through an emotional winger before you reach the end, and you’ll be glad you followed him on this dark and all-too-real journey.

With The Last Storm Tim Lebbon proves, once again, that he is one of Britain’s greatest genre writers. It’s a story at once gripping and horrific (on many different levels) but with a solid core of humanity that gives us hope in a world that seems to be growing bleaker by the day. This one will keep you hooked throughout – and released in perfect time to help you pass a long flight. Cerebral horror that is in a class of its own. The only question now is: why haven’t you bought your copy yet?

The Last Storm is a fine combination of the apocalyptic (not 'post', it's still proceeding), cosmic horror and survival. For me the impact was heightened by reading it as the UK cooked in record summer temperatures.

In a near future USA, climate change and global heating has devastated large parts of the interior, producing a desert that is not only waterless but lawless, inhabited by townspeople just clinging on, water pirates ('soakers'), religious fanatics, the ill, the old. There is civilisation clinging on here and there - this isn't a novel about what happens 'after', the crisis is still going on, still getting worse year on year. When it's not heat, it's torrential floods, or hurricanes which devastate the coasts.

The story is focussed one family, a family with rather special talents. Jessie and his daughter Ash are rainmakers, gifted with the ability to plug into an alternate reality and bring a downpour. Seemingly beneficent, it is though a skill or craft that seems to bring no good. Perhaps it once did, but as humanity has poisoned and burned the Earth, the rainmakers' power seems now to access a strange, blighted and dangerous realm with scorpions as likely to fall as water. Yet the skill is still whispered about, and there are those who seek out rainmakers, for a whole mixed bag of reasons.

Against this background, Ash has gone missing, off into the heat. Karina, her mother, spends years searching for her, while Jessie, believing her dead, retreats and broods in a remote compound, seeing almost nobody, accompanied only by his old dog, Rocky.

When the story really begins, Karina has picked up Ash's trail and returns to demand that Jessie come with her to follow it. Watching the corpse of their broken relationship between twitch and spasm - overseen only by a puzzled Rocky - was very moving, Lebbon's nuanced animation of it creating a true and convincing depiction of two people who had spent so much time together - with shared moments, shared joys and sorrows - and then so long apart.

And when you understand things from Ash's point of view, you'll see why they did that. Ash is also portrayed very effectively, a troubled young woman who has a storm raging in her very self, a storm that, when it catches her, leaves her absent, away and vulnerable. She has a sort of quest as she ranges across the desert, collecting odd scraps of this and that from which to build a new 'apparatus'. In chapters following Ash, Jessie, Karina and others I won't say much abut (spoilers!) we're gradually shown how mucked up this world is, and what dangerous people are in it - as well as that hope endures and love can flower even in the desert, given a little rain.

This is an entertaining and gripping read, with a variety of characters drawn in shades of grey, all flawed, twisted and in varying degrees, failing. There is one deeply unlikeable and unpleasant person here too, yet even they have convincing motivation rooted in loss and inadequacy.

I should also say there are some truly violent and bloody scenes here, especially those driven by one of the Soakers, a man bent on revenge (against who? and why?) and it soon becomes clear that on The Last Storm, we're totally beyond the reach of human justice and pretty much beyond and human support, though mutual obligations and decency do still exist.

The Last Storm is a maelstrom of guilt, love, hate, determination, new hopes and old fears.

And it HAS A DOG!

STRONGLY recommended.

An apocalyptic tale of global warming? Tim Lebbon is in a class of his own, loved the book great story, characters, could not put it down.
I received this book from Titan books and Netgalley for a review.