The Effort

By: Claire Holroyde

Narrated by: Jay Ben Markson

For fans of Station Eleven and Good Morning, Midnight comes an electric, heart-pounding novel of love and sacrifice that follows people around the world as they unite to prevent a global catastrophe.

When dark comet UD3 was spotted near Jupiter's orbit, its existence was largely ignored. But to individuals who knew better - scientists like Benjamin Schwartz, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies - the threat this eight-kilometer comet posed to the survival of the human race was unthinkable. The 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs ended when an asteroid impact generated more than a billion times the energy of an atomic bomb.

What would happen to Earth's seven billion inhabitants if a similar event were allowed to occur?

Ben and his indomitable girlfriend, Amy Kowalski, fly to South America to assemble an international counteraction team, whose notable recruits include Love Mwangi, a UN interpreter and nomad scholar, and Zhen Liu, an extraordinary engineer from China's national space agency. At the same time, on board a polar icebreaker life continues under the looming shadow of comet UD3. Jack Campbell, a photographer for National Geographic, works to capture the beauty of the Arctic before it is gone forever. Gustavo Wayãpi, a Nobel Laureate poet from Brazil, struggles to accept the recent murder of his beloved twin brother. And Maya Gutiérrez, an impassioned marine biologist is - quite unexpectedly - falling in love for the first time.

Together, these men and women must fight to survive in an unknown future with no rules and nothing to be taken for granted. They have two choices: neutralize the greatest threat the world has ever seen (preferably before mass hysteria hits or world leaders declare World War III) or come to terms with the annihilation of humanity itself.

Their mission is codenamed The Effort.

©2021 Claire Holroyde (P)2021 Grand Central Publishing

Critic reviews

"Page-turner of the year! In the grand tradition of Stephen King's The Stand, Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, and J.T. McIntosh's One in Three Hundred, this book is the story of a massive comet that threatens to end human existence and those who fight to prevent that catastrophe. Call it a techno-thriller, call it apocalyptic fiction - I call it great writing. This is an important and provocative novel, one that should be read by all who care about the future of the planet and humanity's role in its preservation. Claire Holroyde is an exciting new voice in modern fiction, and we're lucky to have this stirring and fully imagined book." (David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of Winter Counts)

"Claire Holroyde's The Effort artfully mirrors an allegorical warning on the state of our planet's climate with a more imminent threat of complete and total annihilation of the human species. It speeds up the doomsday clock - that's ticking relentlessly on every page - but with a lingering and aching glimpse at everything that's about to be lost. Heart-pounding and heart wrenching all at once, it's ultimately, somehow, a story of immense hope. Just a stunning debut." (Jane Gilmartin, author of The Mirror Man)

"[Claire Holroyde's] prose is measured and clear, and the plot arcs nicely from the scientific issues to more personal stakes. An adept contribution to the realm of apocalypse fiction." (Kirkus Reviews)

Not great, not bad

From the little bit that I looked, this might be the author's first book.

Positives: Overall, ok story. Narrator isn't too bad. I super, super appreciated that the author placed the main events around the current time and didn't go wild making up "alternate history" stuff for the current period. Like, Trump is clearly Trump and we're clearly living in the 2018-2020 era. And by that, imagine a comet is going to hit us sometime while Trump was president. Yes, we would really be doomed and its not really any better in the book.

Negatives: Its a pretty predictable plot. There have been 101 books about asteroids/comets threatening to hit, society suddenly loosing its collective mind, etc. Kinda rote plot points by now. And this story basically hits most of them. To be sure, there are lots of likable characters in here. But after dealing with everyone somehow not being rational scientists and people for the last 2/3 of the book, it wore pretty thin. The story could have been thinned down quite a lot and I think it would have been much more impactful.

I haven't listened to this narrator before. Kind hit or miss. Again, not a bad narrator but not fantastic. He has some range in terms of character voices, but almost all of them ultimately have the same basic monotone going on. It becomes really apparent after hour six or so. Hope the narrator is able to get some more books and work on improving the energy and range of the character voices he does.

To conclude, I can't exactly recommend this book but I can't talk too badly about it. Again, its not a bad story but the topic is somewhat worn thin these days and this book doesn't add anything to the genre. Narrator isn't bad but needs some refining.

Alot of flash forwards

The story flashes forwards alot and leaves alot of the characters stories unfinished so your left with a lot of questions about what happened

Believable apocalypse

a believable story about the the fragility of the thin veneer of civilization when the idea of tomorrow no longer is a certainty and the hard decisions that must enviably be made.

good but wanted more

I wish it was longer. I wish we got full backsotried on each character they followed, rather than getting close to people at the beginning who then became irrelevant? not sure but it felt missing something. otherwise a great read just don't expect as many answers at you want

Ok slow

Moves slow and characters aren’t interesting enough to follow. Storyline gets bogged down with the non interesting characters.

Quite a journey...worthwhile?

OK, this one I am mixed on. Decent concept, solid characters, and a strong performance from Markson. So why didn't it warrant higher review marks? Something was just missing. A spark, perhaps a dramatic hook, not quite sure what it was but there is something a bit off. I will say the multiple story arcs are refreshing, and the characters themselves are well-drawn. On balance, for somewhat of an "end of days" story, this is a solid offering, just note as good as I feel it could have been. Recommended with reservations.

Save Earth go back to the stone ages

Sum up the story a comet threatens Earth so we kill each other enough to end civilization and go back to the dark ages. Typical answer of how to save the planet.

Starts off strong...

Then it wanders off the tracks with unnecessary conversations and meaningless plot points which do nothing to move the plot forward.