I loved it! Easily one of the best I read this year. Beautifully written and absolutely dreadful, you can feel the horror and hopelessness in every scene, and the depiction of the martians, their weaponry and how the pinnacle of human defense forces can barely tickle them creates a giant pit on your stomach. The reaction of people, some in denial and still clinging to their possessions and comfortable lives, some embracing death and a “new order of things”, some seeing going crazy with religious interpretations, was very realistic and pretty much exactly what I believe a black swan event like this would look like.
The ending was my favorite part. Following the protagonist in his journey from desperation in the rubble, to nihilism and conformation to live “as a rat” in the sewers, to hope and resilience at the end of it all was beautiful and honestly made me teary. I’m huge for active optimism and it irritates me that so many stories go for an honestly lazy grimdark “nothing matters and life is horrible” message. Getting to the end and seeing that the creatures were, in fact, not all powerful or all knowing was such a breath of fresh air. The image of the city rebuilding itself, of people getting together and selflessly helping each other and the message of “man neither lives nor dies in vain” will stick with me for a long time.
by Leticia_the_bookworm