The Testimony [Hardcover]

Imagine if you, and everyone around you, suddenly hears a voice. It comes out of a static noise that will make you, and everyone else, freeze in your steps. `My children', the indefinable voice says, `Do not be afraid'. What would you do? How would you behave? What would you believe?

This is the premise of the new thriller The Testimony by James Smythe. Twenty-six people present their points of view on this mysterious announcement in a narrative that reads like a series of journal or news posts, blog posts even. There is no wise all-seeing persona, instead we spend the entire novel moving between our twenty-six spectators - or listeners. The voice or `The Broadcast' was heard across the planet and so we have witnesses from America, Britain and France to South Africa, India and New Zealand. They range from high government officials, unemployed and doctors to the retired, criminal and scientists. All have their own idea of what this voice means - some of them turn to God, others think of aliens while more prepare to face a perceived human threat with firm action. There are a few, however, who hear nothing at all. What does that mean?

The Testimony raises questions that many citizens in a modern world aren't equipped to answer - for many God is forced back into their lives leading to riots outside the churches, confusion among the main faiths and the birth of new religions. But for others, including a nun, who see nothing of God in the Broadcast, there must be a secular reason and, for many, the response is violent. Terrorists are reborn and those on the extreme of politics and religion use the Broadcast to tear the world apart.

But what if there is no explanation? Can people live with that? And when the novel takes an apocalyptic turn, what if there is no reason for whether one dies or survives, for the loss and the fear?

Starting The Testimony, I had some concerns about its structure. I wondered how I, who can barely remember the names of my closest relatives, would cope with the multitude of voices and stories but I needn't have worried. The voices are distinct, each with their own character and all with their own stories to tell, many of which are moving and painfully honest. Some people play more of a part than others but I remembered them all.

James Smythe has achieved quite a feat here. He has given us a clever thriller with a disturbing psychological edge. God, alien or terrorist - these are major concepts all tossed into the crowd and scrambled over as a voice, viewed as positive by some and negative by others, forces its way into our lives from nowhere. It's a mix of thriller, scifi and horror and it will intrigue, sadden and horrify in equal measure. It will also make you think and that gives The Testimony that edge that will make this one of the thrillers of the year. This review is from a review copy.

What's good
What a great way to stucture a novel. There are 26 characters whose POVs we read from and instantly you're drawn into their stories. It has a filmic quality to it - indeed its premise is incredibly suited for the screen. I really enjoyed the informality of the character's inner monologue, and their dialogue, which made the scenario all the more realistic.

What's not so good
A couple of the characters seem a bit superfluous. Maybe that's the point. Regardless, you are less interested in their stories when their sections arrive. On the other hand, it meant when I turned the page and saw I had one of my favourite characters coming up, I was genuinely excited.

What's great
When it comes to your common or garden fictional apocalypse scenario, there's too much BLAM. Zombies? Everyone's gunna die. Asteroid? Everyone's gunna burn/drown. Aliens? Everyone's gunna be shot by lasers. What I wanted, and got, with The Testimony, was a full reasoning of how the citizens of our planet might deal with such a situation. In the scenario created by the author we can all too well imagine how the shaking of people's faith would turn the world upside down; we can picture how our governments might fail us and how our Western cultural ideals could rapidly be left behind. It was this, then, that engendered the response that made this book riveting - fear.

Apocalyptic fiction has been done to death over the years (pun intended), and it's rare these days to find a new slant on a global catastrophe. The Testimony, however, accomplishes this - in spades.

The premise is devastatingly simple. A burst of static is heard by (almost) everybody on the earth, with a few spoken words. The obvious conclusion to which most people jump is that this is a message from God, and global panic ensues. This, at least in my experience, is the first time that this device has been used as a starting point for the apocalypse, but what is also novel here is the method of recounting the story.

The Testimony, as it becomes known, and the ensuing events, are told from the point of view of 26 observers scattered throughout the world, each of whom are affected in different ways. Ranging from the Chief of Staff to the US President, to far more lowly protagonists, each person has little or no interaction with any of the other observers. One might think that this would make for a fragmented story which would be hard to follow, but it actually works brilliantly. What is good is that the book manages to convey the confusion and rumour that would follow any such catastrophe, whereby most people would simply not be aware of what might be going on in other parts of the world.

This was the most original and thought-provoking book that I have read in some time, and it deserves to be absolutely huge, and to stand alongside other famous examples of the end-of-the-world novel such as I Am Legend, The Stand, On The Beach and The Road. Simply stunning.