One of the most memorable of the continuing stories in this trilogy. McGuire created a complex, rounded main protagonist, and OCD lesbian biochemist, and a quite different apocalypse – a strain of flesh-eating fungus has escape the scientist’s lab, and we follow her struggles in the first two stories to protect her wife, and her daughter. (Spoiler : she fails!)
The second story closed on a cliff-hanger, with the grey fungus having claimed, horribly, her daughter, who has paid the ultimate price for being a teenager (not following mom’s instructions, which were given for very, very good reasons) and the spores claiming her.
I was on tenterhooks after that last instalment, and was pleased with the way this one works out, as there does appear to be a way out for the scientist (clue in the title!), and we get deep into her obsessions and compulsions, in a story that is strong on the human element.
More from The End Has Come here