My Last Friends on Earth by Pete McCormack is a young-adult sci-fi novel about the last human on Earth, who escapes a lab and his captors, finds some unlikely friends, and defeats (or at least survives) an army of bots and aliens who are seeking to destroy him.
The novel opens with humanity on the brink—actually, past it. A devastating alien invasion has wiped out most of the population, but 15-year-old Harlo Kanu is the last human left inside a data lab. He’s kept his head down to avoid attention but suddenly the lab data on his brain shows that there’s intel there that Tri-General Nezkaban wants destroyed. Harlo doesn’t know what’s in his data, but he knows that his time is up. With the help of two of his captors and a mutant creature, Harlo is able to escape the unescapable lab.
That escape kicks off Harlo’s awareness of a small resistance group. He meets a former Queen, a fierce warrior, a brilliant 9-year-old weapons designer, a techni-colour dreamcoat scientist, and a mysterious collective known as the Council of Many Sizes. It’s quite the cast of characters!
What follows is a fast-moving fight not just for survival, but for truth, connection, and the possibility of a future.
YA sci-fi is not my usual genre—but author Pete McCormack is my friend and I can absolutely see why this book is finding readers.
It’s imaginative and energetic, with a clear sense of stakes right from the start. There are plenty of exciting moments, near-misses, and cliffhanger-style turns that make it easy reading. The world-building here is big, sweeping, and ambitious—at times it reminds me of a younger, more accessible Dune, with layered systems, factions, and a sense of a much larger universe beyond the page.
The heart of the book is about friendship, resilience, and refusing to be broken.
If you like scrappy heroes and strong found-family vibes, this will hit the mark.