The End of the World is Nigh, A fun book before it Ends...

Hello 1000 Bookies:

During my recent vacation I read the book, The End of the World is Nigh by Tony Moyle.  This is the first book I have read from this author.  I enjoyed his very irreverent style of writing.  I also very much enjoyed one of the book’s main characters, Philibert Montmorency.  A fun character is a joy to read in any story.  This novel volleys back and forth from France in the present day to France of the 1500s.  A fairly easy read with a mystery to solve, in the future I am resolved to add more of Mr. Moyle’s stories.  The book won’t cure cancer or change the world, but it tells a fun adventure story. The End of the World is Nigh a great book to sit on the beach with which I did. 

This book revolves around a previously unknown prediction written by Nostradamus.  Michel de Nostredame was a French Astrologer, physician, and seer.  He is famous throughout history for seemingly to predict historic events--from the rise of Hitler and Napoleon to the attack on the World Trade Center.  The parts of the book dealing with 1500s France were the most interesting.  I was a student of French history both in high school and in college.  The time of Nostradamus was a turbulent time in France because of the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.  The King of France had the title bestowed on him by the Pope—of The Most Christian King.  However, the rise of French Huguenots led to small religious wars and skirmishes within the country, one of the most famous was the St. Bartholomeus Day Massacre.  The Catholic faction were led by the Guise Family and the Huguenot faction was led by the Henri, the Duc of Bourbon.  The Valois Dynasty and the country of France were held together by the Queen of France, an Italian noble named Catherine de Medici.  The wife of one king and the mother of three—she ruled France often ruthlessly.  And Catherine was the patron of Nostradamus.

When reading this book and the character of Catherine and her son Charles, I kept being reminded of Cersei Lannister and Geoffrey from Game of thrones. Like Catherine, Cersei was the wife of the king and the mother of two kings.  Like Cersi, Catherine was ruthless.  Charles was the middle son but is portrayed in the story as almost as bloodthirsty and ruthless as Geoffrey.  Catherine was so determined to keep her family in power that she married her daughter Marguerite to the Duc of Bourbon in direct contravention of the Pope’s ruling. 

The story revolves a recently found “lost prophecy” of Nostradamus in which it predicts the end of the world.  However, what we see in the back story is that Nostradamus did not divine the prediction, his sometime apprentice did, Philibert.  Philibert is an amiable rogue and conman. His family dies of plague and he meets up with another charming rogue.  Phil has a great life till he lands in Marseilles and meets Annabelle, a member of the Protestant Nobility.  Annabelle’s father decided to use Phil as a spy but through his apprenticeship with Nostradamus he becomes a favorite at court.  However, Nostradamus wants to place the prophecy in his book about to be published.

Flash forward to the future, where we meet Dr. Ally Oldfield, a Nostradamus authority who knows this “lost prophecy” is probably a fake and is determined to prove it.  When a lethal strain of flu begins to spread—could the prophecy be true?  Dr. Oldfield teams up with a rich descendent of Philibert’s and a survivalist French millennial to find out the answers.  As the dog days of August arrive, take The End of the World is Nigh to the beach with you before the world ends. 

Keep Reading My Friends!!