Thank you to the author Anton Eine for the advanced readers copy.

The story was a very interesting short story. It deals with a race who seem to be on a mission to destroy every other race.

The story resonates well and I can see this being made into a serial of short stories. It has a lot of potential and I can see a lot that would work very well as a longer story arc.

While there was no real characters that you really meet it shows so much depth and i want more as I want to know what caused this race to become exterminators.

I do like the way this was written as it shows growth can come and there is room to make more from this and even go back historically.

A very good read and hope to see more from this author.

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.

I chose to read The Cleansing, a short story by Anton Eine, as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. I received a copy from the author but this does not alter my review in anyway.

An outsiders view of our world makes for interesting reading, and this is what this story is all about. Only 18 pages long the story is told from the viewpoint of the occupants of some sort of spacecraft whose mission appears to be to cleanse planets of inhabitants that these occupants consider to be debris.

Much in this tale was of interest to me. The fact that it is entirely written as dialogue between two individuals, with not one dialogue tag. And that I found myself smiling on occasion as I recognised descriptions contained in the data received about our world that clearly perplexed the onlookers. When you look at it from their point of view, yes, it is all a little baffling.

“I don’t even understand the point of them saving all these banal moments from individuals’ day-to-day lives. It seems pointless.”

So true. Anyway, this is an enjoyable, if short, tale and I note it is a translation, from what I’m not sure… maybe not a language currently on this planet? Recommended for a quick read.

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.

I liked this story – it’s clever and well written. Unusual, too – it consists only of dialogue, with no dialogue tags, between two beings (aliens) in a space ship, many miles from our galaxy.

The aliens’ mission is to wipe out any life on Earth, but as they look at humankind through the medium of TV and films, they become increasingly intrigued by us – and how we (they think) fight to survive pandemics, invasion, wars, all manner of natural disasters; they’re especially interested in the way we have documented our history in intricate detail.

The story held my interest all the way through; it ticked boxes from imaginative to funny, and I thought the chosen method of execution, ie the dialogue, was inspired.

I don’t often read short stories, though reflecting on that I’m not entirely sure why that is. I usually really enjoy them – there’s something about a short story that’s so contrasting to a novel, and it needs different devices and features to work. What really drew me in to The Cleansing by Anton Eine is that it’s very transparent with this, completely breaking the rules to deliver something really quite unique.

The Cleansing is written entirely in dialogue, without even a simple dialogue tag in sight. The dialogue comes from several characters, an intelligent alien race humans haven’t yet come into contact with, and we know only their ranks on board their ship as they observe us from our multitude of ‘records’ we have stored. Because of this unusual style there is little character development but it isn’t actually needed – the characters are interesting to follow through their conversations even if we know nothing about them.

Eine’s storytelling is strong, somehow managing to get across so much with no narrative description. Seeing our race from an outside perspective is really quite interesting and the story, though short, explores themes such as philosophy and our way of living. It’s existential and futuristic, giving the reader something to ponder over their cup of tea and biscuits. It’s got a great sense of underlying humour, too – once you’ve twigged what the aliens are observing then it suddenly feels quite clever.

At 99p The Cleansing is well-worth the money and, given that it’s only 18 pages long, is a nice little ebook to enjoy during your downtime, perhaps in between heavier writing. Eine’s original writing style certainly lends to the concept of “less is more”, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his short stories in future.

I don’t often read short stories, though reflecting on that I’m not entirely sure why that is. I usually really enjoy them – there’s something about a short story that’s so contrasting to a novel, and it needs different devices and features to work. What really drew me in to The Cleansing by Anton Eine is that it’s very transparent with this, completely breaking the rules to deliver something really quite unique.

The Cleansing is written entirely in dialogue, without even a simple dialogue tag in sight. The dialogue comes from several characters, an intelligent alien race humans haven’t yet come into contact with, and we know only their ranks on board their ship as they observe us from our multitude of ‘records’ we have stored. Because of this unusual style there is little character development but it isn’t actually needed – the characters are interesting to follow through their conversations even if we know nothing about them.

Eine’s storytelling is strong, somehow managing to get across so much with no narrative description. Seeing our race from an outside perspective is really quite interesting and the story, though short, explores themes such as philosophy and our way of living. It’s existential and futuristic, giving the reader something to ponder over their cup of tea and biscuits. It’s got a great sense of underlying humour, too – once you’ve twigged what the aliens are observing then it suddenly feels quite clever.

At 99p The Cleansing is well-worth the money and, given that it’s only 18 pages long, is a nice little ebook to enjoy during your downtime, perhaps in between heavier writing. Eine’s original writing style certainly lends to the concept of “less is more”, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his short stories in future.

The Cleansing is a short, satirical sci-fi story.

Aliens are ‘cleansing’ the galaxy of every form of life and stumble across a certain blue-and-green planet, third from the sun. Assessing the threat as nebulous, they are about to embark on their basic cleanup when an Analyst points out a detail they have overlooked… ‘the archives’.

This is a joyful, sly acknowledgement of the importance of fiction (visual, audio, written) to humanity and how we build our very existence around and through it. As a book-nerd I thoroughly enjoyed the path the plot took and trying to spot references to specific sources.

I recommend this short to fans of sci-fi with a sense of humour!

This is a clever little read

This is a great little short story that you will be able to read in under half an hour. At only 18 pages long and written only in dialogue, this is an interesting story with more to it than just the story line.

We’re on a space ship with the Commander and the Analyst as they’re out on their mission to cleanse planets of life. They come a cross a planet third from the sun (sound familiar?!) and the Analyst discovers things that they’ve never found before….archives, and records of day to day life.

Between them they discuss the findings and make a decision about what they should do…..

In this short story you will read about things that will make you smile as you link them with our world. It will also make you nod your head in disappointment when they realise that the civilisation on the planet they have discovered don’t appear to learn anything from their past mistakes…..(again, sound familiar?!) The concepts and themes that are covered in only 18 pages are fantastic, and will give you something to think about.

This is a clever little read! If you’re a sci-fi fan (or even if you’re not!), this is definitely worth a go!