In the future, scientist Stan Gertrude discovers the Sun is expanding so rapidly that its heat will consume the Earth within a few generations. After years of ineffective action, the Warming forces all underground, where the survivors can only await the Gertrude Threshold, the day humanity will meet complete destruction.
The point of view alternates among Brandon King, elderly, bedridden; John, his middle-aged stepson and a talk therapist; Ellen, John’s faithful wife of thirteen years; and Ky, their naïve five-year-old son. Despite the oncoming cataclysm, the family spends their last days divided. The adults contemplate the state of humanity, which has given in to neglect, looting, indulgence, senseless violence, and cannibalism. And they recall the history of ironic rifts in their family.
Author Christopher Brooks writes with an impressively literary style rare in science fiction, conveying all the mental anguish of the human condition. John, Ellen, and Brandon ponder the most basic existential questions: With the end looming, does morality still matter? Does God exist? If so, why is God doing this and will he save the righteous? Is it wrong to birth a child fated to an early death? What, if anything, should John and Ellen tell their child about the nearing end?
John also has a personal dilemma. Though he denies it to himself, he’s physically attracted to his male patient Daryl, with whom he spends his last hours. John’s inner tension over his feelings between Ellen and Daryl provides an engaging gay element.
Although Brooks writes with literary gravity and occasionally beautiful prose, his style could use polishing. Sentences are often laconic, possibly aiming to portray the effects of a stale environment on the mind—but varying sentence structure would make the writing more enjoyable. Dialogue stutters at times.
The science fiction is soft, with description of the technologies keeping humanity alive very limited. It’s mentioned frequently that humanity lives on meager rations, but without mention of ingredients. Details would greatly strengthen the realism and appeal. And although the style is soft sci-fi, explaining GT in more scientific terms would have been more interesting— like how the Sun’s “burnout” means it’s evolving off the main sequence into the red giant phase.
THE GERTRUDE THRESHOLD is a poignant, pensive story of the human condition and the end of the world.
~ IndieReader.