Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

“We as a species have a deep need to believe that there is a purpose to our lives, something greater than ourselves.”
- Shepherd Arcus

Death. It’s not a pleasant topic under even the best of circumstances. And even though we all know we’re going to die eventually, the idea that there are things we can do to live healthy and prolong our lives gives us at least some feeling of comfort and control.

But what if you knew exactly when you were going to die? Not only did you know, but that it was exactly 1 year away and there was absolutely nothing you could do to prolong or prevent it? That’s the situation facing the “Clocks” in author Sean Cregan’s The Razor Gate.

Someone in Newport City has developed a powerful new medical technology, and unfortunately for the populace it’s being used in a terrifying way. People are being randomly taken, injected with a fatal virus, and returned. Sometimes they’re returned to where they were taken from, other times they wake up in a random location. Always, however, they find a note informing them they have exactly one year to live, and that their countdown to death is irreversible. They have been given The Curse. (more…)

I first read Sean Cregan back in 2004, Winter’s End, though at the time I didn’t know it was Sean Cregan. To be fair, he didn’t know he was Sean Cregan at the time either. What? Sean Cregan is the pen name of author John Rickards, who writes a wonderful crime fiction series featuring the character Alex Rourke. Somewhere along the way John decided he wanted to write something a little different, and with that new direction came a new pen name. Sean has released three books, The Levels, The Razor Gate (which I will be reviewing tomorrow), and most recently the novella All You Leave Behind, and today I am happy to welcome Sean/John to talk a little about his work.

Christ. The Razor Gate. Guest blogs. Books.

Focus, mate. Think about death.

Imagine you know, to the day, the time of your death. You know there’s nothing to be done about it. And it’s coming in a year. What would you do with your remaining time? I can’t imagine there’s too many of us who haven’t wondered something similar in the long dark of the night, whether as a result of idle (if morbid) insomniac speculation, or in the wait for bad or good news, test results, probabilities.

I would imagine that people with that kind of knowledge would fall into three broad camps – those determined to make the most of their time, those spending it in a sort of drunken or drugged haze, living it up while they can, and those angry at the unfairness of it all, raging at the world. And a fourth camp: those who end it all themselves before their time’s up.

Many stories feature people struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds or fighting to survive in the teeth of almighty whatever. I wanted to write one where people do, but where their fate is absolutely sealed. In this case, not only sealed, but with a very specific and sudden cut-off date. Nothing that happens over the course of the book can change this. Which, I guess, if you were one of those affected would be horrible, but it’s largely the point. (more…)