Amazon Smashwords now, was BeWrite Books oplus Category:  Science Fiction Publisher: BeWrite Books ISBN-10:  1904492703 Type: Fiction Pages: 207 Copyright: 2004 Just when the end of the world is announced a young woman is killed (The End of Science Fiction was shortlisted for a 2001 EPPIE) Begins with a murder along with the announcement that Earth will be destroyed in a few days. Is the death worth investigating? Does civilisation depend on maintaining the rule of law right to the end? How do ordinary people cope with the unimaginable? Or is it all a hoax or a mistake?   Excerpt "Mass cruelty is inflicted always for The Future, for the Greater Ideal. Most moral and institutionalised cruelty, that enacted by the individual too, all is governed by The Future. Of course there will always be mindless cruelty. that committed out of a lack of compassion, lack of imagination; reasoned cruelty, however, will always be committed for the sake of a future." Barry Popieluszko. Raw As Birth. White Swan. "History is happening every 10 minutes." Imogen Cooper. Concert pianist: interview Radio 4. Monday: 11:33 Leaving the Cabinet meeting Ministers pause to button suit jackets, look to a looped video on the American leak. A young official, tense, trembling, leans towards a reporter's microphone, Capitol Hill in the background. "...responsible to more than a government department. The truth should be told. It affects everyone. In six days the world will end. We have to make our goodbyes. It's the least..." He weeps. The camera turns towards the female reporter turning towards it. Video cuts to interior scene, a function, a drunken white-haired man, different channel logo. The white-haired man is shouting to the camera, "You don't know! You don't know! Over for all of you! All of us. For every goddam one of us..." An elderly woman in a satiny green dress along with a suited young man try to smother him away from the camera. "Game's over!" he shouts from between their shoulders. "Over!" Video cuts to newspaper headline "Rumour Has It. Is this the end of the world? Or yet another tired and emotional outburst from a Kansas Senator already well-known to this column... ...Rumour has it that he's not the only one on Capitol Hill prone to such outbursts these latter days of this increasingly hysterical administration..." Video cuts, loops back to beginning. "...responsible to more than..." "In law the one solid reason for re-opening a case is that fresh evidence has surfaced... To reach any judgement therefore we have to have information (without all of the information any judgement is invalid) ...The media thus has to enlighten us, tell us all, so that we may judge our leaders." Barry Popieluszko. The Watcher. Kerala Books

Inscriptions Magazine
'...His prose is clear, smooth and spare. His dialogue reveals the characters' personalities. Even minor characters feel filled out and whole. All in all, a most professional job./ In a world of book reviews that overstate and overhype, one worries about excess praise, for fear that it will be dismissed. Here I am confounded -- there are no faults, no missed notes, no clumsy moves. As Coleridge said of fiction, one must willingly suspend disbelief, and perhaps for some time the initial premise may stretch credulity. For myself I always give a writer the opportunity to build the world they are trying to create and if they succeed, then the book works for me. In this case, Smith succeeds magnificently.' Miles Archer

Speculative and Dark Fiction Magazine
'....edgy and gripping. Written in present tense, the pace never lets up .... has a satisfying and tightly knit plot, and the fast prose style adds a strong sense of drama. Being a disaster novel, it could have easily slipped in to melodrama, but Smith keeps the story on an even keel which makes it all the more believable. Long after you've finished reading, you can't help but wonder how you would react, if faced with same frightening news.' Ebony McKenna.