Eve Smith, author of Off Target and One, is back with another dose of gripping speculative dystopian fiction in The Cure, a taut thriller that blends the excitement of scientific exploration with hard-hitting social commentary, painting a disturbing and all-too-possible vision of the future.
At the heart of the story lies a miracle breakthrough drug. Originally developed by Dr. Ruth Hammond as a way to save her daughter from a terminal illness, its power to significantly prolong human life means that big pharma starts looking at a way to commercialise the medical marvel and launch it as ‘ReJuve’.
What begins as a privilege for the wealthy few, is soon adopted by the NHS for all citizens who maintain a super strict healthy lifestyle. Soon, however, the science continues to evolve to create ‘SuperJuve’, a way to give the 1% practical immortality. The result is mass overpopulation, ecological collapse and the lighting of a touchpaper to societal revolution. To try and stem the burgeoning problems of a growing population living unnaturally long lives, the government decrees an enforced cap on an individual’s lifespan. Anyone who resists dying on their designated ‘Transcendence Day’ is hunted until they comply.
The plot follows two disparate characters, Ruth the founder of the drug and inadvertent instigator of all of humanity’s problems and Mara, a ruthless ‘Omnicide’ officer who hunts those who have exceeded their allotted lifespan. As their paths converge the book transforms into a high-stakes cat-and-mouse thriller that challenges with emotional stakes that lead to tough, psychological depths.
Apparent in all of Smith’s works, including The Cure, is her richly textured world-building. While the split narrative plot drives at an aggressive pace, it’s the well-thought-through fundamentals of how society would operate in this strange dystopia that really unsettles and keeps you gripped.
Smith doesn’t shy away from the reality of the darker impulses of humanity. The elite’s obsession with eternal life becomes a stark warning of what can happen when power becomes unchecked. The character of Ruth is a beautifully tragic and recognisable figure, one whose intentions, while pure and noble to begin, sees her creation corrupted into becoming the unwitting architect of dystopian destruction. But importantly, no one in The Cure is entirely innocent of inherent evil. Instead, people are shaped by their choices, their circumstances and the flawed system they inhabit.
The ethics of genetic manipulation is a popular subject for Smith, and in The Cure she is able to expand the question beyond the character to society as a whole, playing with the Jurassic Park question of whether just because scientists can do something, should they? Not so much a cautionary tale as it is a challenge to the reader to reflect on the choices we are currently making to allow the kind of future we’re building, who gets to shape it and at what cost. The Cure is yet another piece of insightfully thrilling writing from the master of ethical science dystopia.
The Cure is out on 10th April from Orenda Books
