THE LAST MAN

The year is 2092, and humankind has been beaten down by pandemics, floods, fanaticism, isolation, and wars. Narrating in a measured aristocratic tone, Justin Avoth channels the voice of the last man alive as he lays out Mary Shelley's 1826 dystopian vision of the future. All begins happily enough with young love, ambition, and the rise of kings, but constant war, a failed attempt at a British republic, and never-ending plagues and natural disasters drive what's left of humanity to the brink. Lucy Scott takes a nice turn delivering the original introduction, and Avoth is especially adept at untangling Shelley's sometimes ponderous nineteenth-century prose. But as is the case with FRANKENSTEIN (1818), it's the relentless and predictive originality of Shelley's world-building that takes center stage. B.P. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2025]