Regular Linda’s Book Bag readers will have spotted that I almost never feature science fiction, but when Anton Eine got in touch and said The Cleansing was a short story of only 18 pages I thought I’d give it a go! I’d like to thank Anton for sending me a copy of The Cleansing in return for an honest review.

The Cleansing is available for purchase here.

The Cleansing

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?

My Review of The Cleansing

Aliens arrive to ‘cleanse’ Earth of any life.

There’s a really interesting structure to The Cleansing as it is written entirely in dialogue so that it feels quite futuristic and I think it would translate extremely well into a radio play. Equally, it would support a longer narrative with more description and development too as it is an interesting concept.

There’s little character development or conventional setting as befits the structure of the writing, but what is fascinating is the exploration of themes and concepts in The Cleansing. I thought the presentation of life on Earth as a kind of computer simulation was very interesting and the references to both God as a ‘Pre-Eternal creator’ alongside science as the rationale for Earth lead to some though-provoking ideas.

I felt we could learn a lot from The Cleansing. There is a clear message that humanity does not learn from its mistakes in history. The aliens contemplating whether they should eliminate Earth give a salutary lesson that humans are not as important here on earth as they might believe.

I don’t read science-fiction usually, but I did enjoy Anton Eine’s The Cleansing. It makes a great read for a lunchtime break or as a palette cleanser between other genres and I recommend others give it a try.

About Anton Eine

Anton Eine is an independent author and you can find out more by following him on Twitter @AntonEine, finding him on Facebook or visiting his website.