Waiting for the End of the World

by R.B. Russell

Elliot Barton is haunted by a tragic mistake. At the time it seemed like the end of his world, but somehow he has managed to rebuild his life, and now lives happily with his partner, Lana, in their house on Sapphire Street. But Elliot’s good fortune threatens to implode when his old school friend, Vincent, reappears. He has become a Christian, and wants to tell the authorities what happened so many years before. Rather than simply following the teachings of Christ, however, Vincent also claims to have met him. Elliot becomes involved with Vincent’s millennialist church, which prophesied that the world would end in the year 2000. But what happens to the Messiah and his church when that prophesy does not come to pass? And can Elliot navigate his way through the chaos of incredible experiences back to his happy existence on Sapphire Street?

284 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2020

About the author

R.B.RUSSELL has only recently started writing fiction seriously, having previously written lyrics, composed music, and drawn in pen and ink for his own amusement. He runs Tartarus Press with Rosalie Parker from their home in the Yorkshire Dales.

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

so -- my rating is between a 4 & 4.5
full post is here:
http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2022...

If your only connection with R.B. Russell is the truly great work he does along with his partner Rosalie Parker in publishing books at Tartarus Press, you should also be aware that he is also an author and a pretty damn good one. The last book I read by R.B. Russell was his short-story collection Ghosts, and when I finished that book one of my first thoughts was that I need to read more by this man. Off to the online realm I went for more, and I picked up two Russell books, Death Makes Strangers of Us All and this one, Waiting for the End of the World. After reading this book, I enjoyed it so much that this morning I bought his The Stones are Singing. I mean, I knew after Ghosts that he could do great short stories, but maintaining cohesion and tension well enough to last the length of a novel is another thing altogether. Some writers just aren't able to bring it, but that's certainly not the case here.

Waiting for the End of the World is the sort of book where you don't realize until toward the very end that you've been given signs along the way as to what's actually going on. Even so, I didn't actually understand that until this morning when going through all of the pages I'd tabbed; suddenly all of my synapses were on fire as I made connection after connection. At that point it became not just a good read, but an eye-opening, crazy good read.

As I noted in my initial thoughts about this book, while reading I kept wondering to myself what all of this was leading to. Let me just say that there came an OMG moment toward the end where I not only realized what was happening, but when I also realized that everything that had come before has suddenly taken on momentous significance.

Among other fascinating topics, within Waiting for the End of the World the reader will discover a focus on the nature of belief and disbelief, the nature of reality and time as well as what there is about the need for a Messiah that drives people to gather around a particular individual to wait for the apocalypse. There is also something to be said about the importance of dreams and the idea of one particular event that can unknowingly and unwittingly change the course of things. It's an amazing book, and the writing is utterly fantastic, drawing you in slowly until there comes that above-mentioned moment when everything just explodes. On top of everything else, I've also made note of all of the book titles that the author included in this one, and I was so pleased to see Machen's Hill of Dreams listed among them.

Very nicely done, and my advice for readers who at some point feel like you're wondering where this story is headed is to just be patient and enjoy the ride, but to be sure to pay attention along the way. In this book, things have a habit of turning up again when least expected. This one I can certainly and very highly recommend. Like all of my favorite books, I can honestly and without reservation say that I've never read anything quite like it.

[Mario Guslandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of a man, whose past hides a terrible secret, is disrupted by the reappearance of an old mate who was witness of that episode. Turned into a religious nut the friend plans to reveal everything to the police. The story is told by RB Russell jumping back and forth from past to present and adding suspense at every step. The novel, thanks to the author’s enticing narrative style has no moments of boredom ( not even for me whose suspension of disbelief is often challenged by long fiction) but keeps the reader hooked throughout the whole narration.
Extremely well written and entertaining.

[Catherine Cavendish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A murder, wrapped in a mystery, served up with a healthy dose of suspense. This is the gripping tale of Elliot Barton, whose life was turned upside down many years ago as a result of a fatal mistake. In the intervening years, he has built a new life for himself but, of course, that's not going to be allowed to continue unchallenged. And when an old friend comes back into his life and reveals his plan for the future, all the old ghosts of his past come back to haunt Elliot, but the future is much more precarious than that, as he is about to discover. This is an unusual and intriguing story, well told, and the kind of book you resent having to put down. My favourite kind!