The Invasion by William Meikle
On a winter’s night in New Brunswick, mysterious green snow begins to fall. As it coats and corrodes all living things it becomes clear that nothing is safe. It isn’t long until images flood in from around the world as it’s revealed this isn’t a localized problem for those in the Maritimes.
To be honest, if not for the fact this was set in Atlantic Canada, I likely wouldn’t have picked up this novella, which would have been a shame considering how much I enjoyed it
I thought Meikle perfectly paced himself in detailing the complete collapse of society. There were certainly passages and scenes that completely unnerved me as humanity helplessly struggled against its pending extinction. As someone who deals with anxiety on a day-to-day basis, the imagery of running and trying to hide from a relentless force had my stomach doing backflips.
There were some elements that I didn’t particularly care for, but I’ll leave those out as they’re rather spoiler-heavy, but they didn’t exactly ruin the experience for me – I would likely have gone in a different direction is all. I appreciated the wrap-up offered by Meikle at the end. While it’s sometimes interesting to leave stories like this open-ended, I find it wholly satisfying when an author will go years into the future summarizing the effect the event had on society and the planet.
The Invasion was a quick, enjoyable read akin to watching a high-stakes blockbuster with butter-soaked fingers.
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