In this debut novel, an aging astronomer named Augustine refuses to abandon his work in the Arctic during an emergency evacuation and finds himself all alone but for a mysterious child, Iris, when the airwaves go silent. At the same time, Mission Specialist Sullivan is aboard the Aether on its return flight from Jupiter when Mission Control falls inexplicably silent, and she and her crewmates are forced to wonder if they will ever get home.
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton is a beautifully written, sparse post-apocalyptic novel that explores memory, loss and identity. The narrative moves seamlessly ... . Fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora will appreciate the Brooks-Dalton’s exquisite exploration of relationships in extreme environments.
What particularly undermines the high-concept story is writing that calls attention to itself. It pulls the reader out of what novelist John Gardner called the dream ... The narrative dream of Good Morning, Midnight is intruded on by logically incoherent sentences...prose that veers toward purple, and metaphors that try too hard or else are oddly anthropomorphic ... Ambiguous syntax is unintentionally hilarious ... This is not to say the book isn’t worth the effort, but it could move more. Obstacles arise, such as a severed communications antenna, but they are too easily solved.
Beautiful descriptions create a sense of wonder and evoke feelings of desolation while Brooks-Dalton’s heartfelt debut novel unfolds at a perfect pace as it asks readers what will be left when everything in the world is gone.
