The Cleansing – Anton Eine

When Anton Eine approached me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing his book, I was a little unsure. Although I dabble in sci-fi, this sounded like a fairly full on space adventure, and I tend to lean away from aliens. It was also a short story, which is another area that I shy away from. However, when Anton told me a little more about it, the story really caught my interest, so I thought I would give it a shot. Many thanks Anton for providing me with a copy of the book.

BLURB:

Will beauty save the world? Not this time…
This sci-fi short story gives us a view of our world from perspective of alien invaders that just arrived to destroy any life on Earth. Can we do anything to save our fragile peace, to protect our home and the very existence of the humankind?

PURCHASE LINK:

Amazon UK

REVIEW:

I know the blurb sounds like standard end of the world, alien invasion fare, but what really struck me about this short story was the style in which it was written. Told entirely through the dialogue between the mysterious occupants of a space craft that is travelling the universe cleansing it of all life forms, the total absence of narrative or description allowed my imagination to run wild. Even without knowing anything about any of the characters other than their rank or job title, I found that each of them had a distinctive voice and personality – something that is not easy to achieve in just eighteen pages! Just through the way they communicated with each other, and through their observations of Earth,  I was able to build my own image of the appearance of the characters and their space craft, and I even started imagining the back story to their mission. I am not sure that a story told purely through dialogue would work in a full length novel, but I really enjoyed it in this short story.

I will leave you to discover the finer details yourself, but I must tell you that there were a few observations made by the characters that, when they clicked in my head what it was they were seeing, really made me chuckle.

If you are looking for a fun, quick read between heavier novels, fancy dabbling in sci-fi, or want to try a writing style that I know I haven’t come across before, this book is definitely worth a read.

You can find out more about the author and his other work here.