The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty #BookReview #BlogTour

Civilisation is collapsing…

Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off disaster, a government of youth has taken power in North America, and a policy of institutionalised ageism has been introduced. All those older than the prescribed age are deemed responsible for the current state of the world, and are to be ‘relocated’, their property and assets confiscated.

David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to ‘new accommodation’ in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable.

As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again…

I am honoured to be hosting the blog tour for The Forcing today. My grateful thanks to Paul E. Hardisty, Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.

There are few authors whose books affect me as deeply as Paul E. Hardisty; I still recommend his Claymore Straker series whenever I can, with the same true for his previous stand-alone novel, Turbulent Wake, which is one of my favourite books of all time. He's left me with a problem now though because as hard as I try, I'm not sure I can ever do The Forcing justice. This isn't just a book of the year read, it's a story which has ingrained itself upon my heart. 
Climate-change thrillers are becoming a popular subgenre and I can only see them becoming even more prevalent as we head towards whatever the future may hold. Paul E. Hardisty sets the standard in style here, and the near future he imagines in The Forcing is agonisingly plausible, with each new terrible development or awful revelation only too easy to believe. Of course, there will be people who doubt the likelihood of the predictions made but Paul is a renowned environmental scientist who has seen and documented first-hand the damage being done to our planet, he writes with authentic knowledge as well as real heart. How governments and individuals respond isn't really debatable either; we already know that there are powerful factions of climate-change deniers, that protecting and growing the economy trumps protecting our dwindling resources, and that wars break out as demand outstrips supply. 
The world in The Forcing has moved closer than ever towards disaster; the skies are poisoned, scores of species are extinct, some continents are burning while swathes of others are already underwater, with more at risk. North America is now controlled by a Government of young people and they hold the older generation squarely to blame for the mess the world is in. With more and more people fleeing north, a policy which means anybody born before 1989 and therefore considered culpable will be relocated to the ravaged southern states. David 'Teacher' Ashworth receives the letter he has been expecting at the start of the book and grimly accepts his fate – he is a scientist and even though he'd marched, written letters and posted on social media, he knows that although he said he did all he could to prevent environmental disaster, it wasn't enough. By contrast, his wife May rails against the order and her brittle disappointment at what she sees as his cowardice reflects how families and communities are torn apart emotionally as well as physically.
They are re-housed with two other couples and a single man and their varying responses to their enforced situation sees them become a microcosm of this new underclass.  Some are honourable and work for the common good, others are understandably scared of what this new brutal society is going to become and some are deplorable.  The pitch-perfect characterisation and exceptional sense of place ensures the journey Teacher finds himself on is brought vividly – and often terrifyingly – to life. What takes place here is utterly horrifying because it uses history and what has passed before to inform what may occur again. It comes as no surprise when society falls apart and the most heinous acts are perpetrated by people against those they once lived and worked alongside as colleagues, neighbours and friends. 
Throughout the novel there are brief interludes written by a much older Teacher and so it's always obvious that he survives his ordeal but even though these chapters are filled with hope, there's a lingering melancholy which only serves to exacerbate still further the pain of what he and others endured. How he came to this place of refuge is gradually revealed through a storyline which perfectly combines all the heart-pounding tension of a thriller with a profoundly thoughtful exploration of human behaviour. The Forcing is so exquisitely written, there were times when I just had to stop and really appreciate what I'd just read. Paul E. Hardisty's stunning dystopic thriller is a frightening commentary on the worst of humanity and what we risk if we continue to ignore all the warnings but it is also a wise, hopeful reminder to truly appreciate whatever time we have left – and this beautiful planet we share. This is one of those books which make me grateful to be a reader and I finished it with tears pouring down my face. Intelligent, powerful, moving; The Forcing is a masterpiece which should be read by everybody. 

The Forcing will be published by Orenda Books on 16th February 2023. It can be purchased from the Orenda website, bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon or ordered from your favourite independent bookshop. 

Follow the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
Canadian Paul Hardisty has spent twenty-five years working all over the world as an environmental scientist and freelance journalist. He has roughnecked on oil rigs in Texas, explored for gold in the Arctic, mapped geology in Eastern Turkey (where he was befriended by PKK rebels), and rehabilitated water wells in the wilds of Africa. He was in Ethiopia in 1991 as the Mengistu regime fell, survived a bomb blast in a cafĂ© in Sana’a in 1993, and was one of the last Westerners out of Yemen at the outbreak of the 1994 civil war. Paul is a university professor and CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The four novels in his Claymore Straker series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, Reconciliation for the Dead and Absolution, all received great critical acclaim and The Abrupt Physics of Dying was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and a Telegraph Book of the Year. Paul drew on his own experiences to write Turbulent Wake, an extraordinary departure from his high-octane, thought-provoking thrillers. Paul is a keen outdoorsman, a conservation volunteer, and lives in Western Australia.


 

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