Who will live and who will die?
The third volume of the Last Survivors brings us full circle as Miranda's father returns home, bringing with him his wife, their son, and three strangers; a man called Charlie and two siblings, Alex and Julie. Adding all these people stretches already strained resources to breaking point, and Miranda finds that their strange half‐life can't last forever...
This World brings together Miranda and her family and Alex and his. It starts on April 25th, more than a month since we've last seen Miranda and four months since Alex and Julie left New York. They've all grown in the interim; Alex and Julie are much more of a team, and Miranda has grown out of her teenage all‐about‐me stage. It's back to diary format, too, which makes it interesting; Miranda can only judge Alex and Julie on what she hears and sees, while we know more about them.
While a lot of the book is taken up with the scramble for resources we're familiar with from the first two, there are some huge set‐pieces towards the end, and some painful decisions are forced on Miranda. She copes admirably, in a way she couldn't have in Life as we Knew it or even at the start of This World, proving how much she's grown and matured through her experiences.
It's interesting, too, to watch Alex‐who's kept his faith through everything‐talk with Miranda, who gave only lip service to religion even before anything happened. Their individual points of view are very well represented without either side coming across as too preachy.
I could happily read another twenty books set in this world, but if this is the end, it's a perfect place to stop. Things have gone wrong, but Miranda has learned to look for the good in everything and as long as she has people she loves, she'll survive.
'You have to believe in the future,' Alex said. 'Otherwise there's no point in being alive.'
'That's easy for you to say!' I cried. 'You have your faith, your Church. But I don't believe like that. Maybe I used to but I don't anymore.'
I thought Alex would get angry at me then, but he didn't.
'You don't have to believe in the church,' he said. 'Or even in God. Believe that people can change things.'
'No,' I said. 'I don't know that anymore.' My mind flashed back to the dead man with his dog lying beside him. 'We're all helpless,' I said. 'There's nothing we can do. There's nothing left to trust in.'
'Trust in tomorrow,' Alex said. 'Every day of your life, there's been a tomorrow. I promise you, there'll be a tomorrow.'
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