It is the year 2288, and Earth is reeling from the most horrific terrorist attack it has ever endured.
The Quest, a pseudo-religious faction, have claimed responsibility. Their act was a statement against what they saw as the Earth Alliance's fascist like grip of the planet.
Youssef Haseem, now the highest-ranking official within the EA, must build an elite team to counteract The Questâs threat of total annihilation if their demands are not met.
When the leaders of The Quest disappear, a series of historical events are triggered in the year 1888, creating a centuries old enigma; a mysterious stranger stalking, and viciously killing women, on the streets of Whitechapel.
A battle of wits against time itself ensues. A fight to be played out in the past, and in the present. At stake is the fate of all humanity.
Some legends are timeless!
It is the year 2288, and Earth is reeling from the most horrific terrorist attack it has ever endured.
The Quest, a pseudo-religious faction, have claimed responsibility. Their act was a statement against what they saw as the Earth Alliance's fascist like grip of the planet.
Youssef Haseem, now the highest-ranking official within the EA, must build an elite team to counteract The Questâs threat of total annihilation if their demands are not met.
When the leaders of The Quest disappear, a series of historical events are triggered in the year 1888, creating a centuries old enigma; a mysterious stranger stalking, and viciously killing women, on the streets of Whitechapel.
A battle of wits against time itself ensues. A fight to be played out in the past, and in the present. At stake is the fate of all humanity.
Some legends are timeless!
PROLOGUEÂ
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND pods were deployed; placed in strategic locations around the globe. Containers, filled with death, hidden within plain sight. Each pod was specifically designed to hold the purple mist that resided within them. Every one of them programmed to open at a designated time, to release their deadly cargo. A mist that had been cultivated, meticulously, for at least three years.Â
Europe, America, South America, Asia, the Middle East, Australasia. Each location carefully chosen for maximum impact.
Death and destruction would be prevalent in its wake. It would tear away the fabric of natural life, replacing it with basic and generic elements. A rolling death would stalk the land, devouring everything in its path. The mist could be contained, but once released, it could not be stopped. Everything it touched would be gone.Â
When the time came, the five hundred thousand pods would beep. A red light on the casing of each pod would flash five times before turning green. The green light would be accompanied by a hiss. An ugly white noise would precede the release of the purple death.Â
Once free of the container, it would fuse with the releases of the other containers and encompass a large percentage of all habitats on the planet. The death toll would be catastrophic. The destruction of the Earthâs resources would be calamitous.Â
This was all by design.Â
It was a terrorist attack. The most successful and evil terrorist attack in Earthâs chequered history; all done by design.Â
There would be no warning. No time to run, nowhere to hide. The attack was inevitable, imminent; the attack to end all attacks.Â
The year was twenty-two-eighty-eight, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.Â
Youssef Haseem might be in over his head. After a terrorist attack by a group called The Quest wipes out half of the human population on Earth, he finds himself the de facto leader of the Earth Alliance. To make matters worse, The Questâs leaders have vanished, leaving only an ultimatum. Youssef has precisely one year to either surrender what remains of the Earth Alliance to The Quest or see the rest of the world perish...unless he can stop the leaders from coming back. Meanwhile, a group of mysterious women arrive in Whitechapel, London, 1888, unaware that they are being watched from the shadows.
Part science fiction, part historical thriller, this book was hard to put down once I started! The book cleverly ties together the events unfolding in Youssefâs time (2288) and the brutal Whitechapel murders of 1888 attributed to âJack the Ripperâ. I love how McClusky was able to weave in a lot of the details from the real Ripper murders and investigation in this fictional retelling. Even though the heart of the story is in 1888, the historical sequences are well balanced with the sections featuring Youssef and his team as they try to prevent another disaster. I found both storylines intriguing and couldnât wait to see how everything would fit together in the end.Â
Though I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the storytelling focuses almost exclusively on driving the plot forward. Sometimes, this results in sudden jumps in the narrative that were a little confusing and/or made me feel I was missing something. Additionally, a lot of details either feel ignored or substituted by âdetails of convenienceâ that prevent deeper exploration and are occasionally immersion breaking. Where many of these details are not central to the plot, their absence results in the characters and settings feeling a little flat.Â
Overall, I think this is a very enjoyable read for those looking for a casual science fiction book and/or a light thriller. Though the Ripper murders are known for being gruesome, I do not feel that they are described in an overly gory fashion. Both the future world that McClusky creates and the historical setting he reimagines are compelling without getting too technical or detailed. However, if you are looking for a hard science fiction, historical fiction, and/or thriller, this might not be the book for you.