The Effort

October 12, 2020
Holroyde’s twisty if uneven debut centers on an asteroid’s threat to human life, and a NASA scientist who races against the clock to save the planet. In the near-future, asteroid hunters are stunned to spot a dark comet that’s only discovered when it’s dangerously close to Earth. Ben Schwartz, who heads NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, is tapped by an international group to assemble a team whose impossible mission is to develop a plan to deflect the comet from its path in less than a year. The deadline is too short for one country to build an intercepting spacecraft from scratch, meaning they must win cooperation of other nations’ space programs to accomplish the ambitious goal. With the U.S. led by a Trump-like president, not every country ends up going along, and as the comet gets closer, panic and societal disruptions around the world complicate Schwartz’s work. The prose is sometimes clunky (“Thick spectacles magnified red-veined eyes draped with lids like unfolded origami”), but Holroyde displays a keen vision of societal and diplomatic breakdown amid imminent disaster. The deeper themes about human nature make this apocalyptic thriller more than escapist reading, though the execution could be stronger.

November 1, 2020
A comet called UD3 threatens to wipe out the human race, and a ragtag team of scientists from all over the world rushes to find a way to knock it off course in Holroyde's debut. Dr. Ben Schwartz of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is woken in the middle of the night by a call from a famous astrophysicist. Ben is told that the U.N. has a car waiting for him outside and that he must fly to French Guiana. He isn't told why, only that he must pack a bag and leave, now. His girlfriend, Amy, refuses to be left behind, and when the two of them get off the plane, they learn that a "dark comet" has been discovered coming around the sun and is heading straight toward Earth. Ben joins a group of scientists, including China's brilliant Dr. Zhen Liu, who are working to cobble together something to throw the comet off its course before it can smack into Earth and cause an extinction event. As news of the comet gets out and people panic, society begins to break down, as seen through chapters focusing on a ship sailing through the Arctic Ocean and a woman struggling to survive in a decaying New York City, among others. As time goes on it becomes clear that even if the scientists manage to find a solution, humanity might destroy itself anyway. Fans of similar apocalypse stories will recognize all the beats Holroyde hits here--unlikely romance, friendships forged in trauma, etc.--but what this book lacks in originality it makes up for in proficient execution. The many character relationships would feel more organic with a bit more breathing room, but the 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.

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December 1, 2020
When observers at Spacewatch initially spot a large comet, there is little reaction, until full data about its speed, size, and Earth-aimed trajectory raise the alarm and an emergency response team is assembled under the leadership of dark-comet expert Dr. Ben Schwartz. Working to find a possible way to avoid a catastrophic collision, a variety of experts are invited to join the Effort, a multinational think tank, in a highly fortified compound in French Guiana. As word of the comet and potential global annihilation leaks out, the world descends into hysteria and chaos. Even if scientists are smart, and lucky, enough to reduce the threat of this comet strike, will humankind survive our own aggressions against each other? First-time novelist Holroyde fills this intensely high-stakes drama with intriguing and diverse characters whose struggles illustrate the terror and regrets of a disintegrating society. With fascinating scientific concepts and nuanced situations on both global and individual levels, Holroyde's tale, arriving during a pandemic, will attract fans of end-of-world disaster novels, going back to Lucifer's Hammer and on to Station Eleven (2014).

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