Then the dying begins, at first among those for whom the voice represents confirmation or negation of faith, who are driven to suicide or retribution against a society that has worshipped a false god, but then people start succumbing from recoverable illnesses and non-fatal injuries.
The question on everybody's lips is who is causing this and why. If these events are an act of God, why has He forsaken us and how can we make amends?
If an act of terrorism, who is responsible and how should the major powers respond?
Nobody can agree - aliens, terrorists or God - and the various interpretations and responses form the core of James Smythe's apocalyptic novel, The Testimony.
It details the descent into chaos through the eyes of multiple narrators from the US secretary of defence to a South African drug dealer, a Congolese militia fighter to an Auckland biologist, a technique that allows Smythe to effectively capture a wide range of viewpoints, and as the novel progresses it is possible to piece together a tentative, partial picture of the truth. Although there are too many characters for more than a few to have any individual or believable voice, the unfolding tragedy has an inevitability to it and, as with all good horrors, the ending is left open to the reader's interpretation.
• Dr McKinney is a Dunedin scientist.
