A Writer’s Life

Shards of Babylon (2009)

Rachel Blair is the administrator of Sanctuary, an institution for children who heal pain… or so it was thought. But now a deadly virus is sweeping across the world - and the Lazurai appear to be spreading it. Rachel must discover the truth about the virus… before a genocide begins.

I’ve been working on this novel for four years and it the idea has changed several times. I’m planning one last rewrite and it should be finished in 2009. If you’d like to know more about Shards of Babylon, a brief synopsis follows.

What price for long life?

Nineteen years ago science created the Lazarus children. Gifted with the ability to heal, they were meant to end the world’s pain. But their creation was controversial and they have come to be seen by many people as abominations, monsters; something barely human. Now, as the Lazurai begin to discover who they are, the hatred against them is spreading.

For Rachel Blair these are dangerous times. Rachel is the administrator of Sanctuary, a renowned Lazarus institution. Sanctuary is a place of great discovery, where the Lazurai learn to explore the power they have over life. It is a perfect target, and Rachel fears she will not always be able to protect her children.

But now there is an even greater threat. A deadly virus is sweeping across the world… and the Lazurai appear to be spreading it. Word of their involvement will plunge the world into chaos, and to avert violence Rachel must learn to understand the nature of the virus itself. But what she discovers will shake everything they believe.

Could this virus truly prove the existence of God?

Year 2084. Humanity has undergone a technological renaissance.

Many had thought it could not happen; indeed, at the beginning of the 21st century, it had seemed as if humanity had entered something of a technological recession. Progress had stalled; the standard of life had fallen.

But from this period came a sudden explosion in creativity; new ideas and technologies, suppressed for so long, finally began to emerge, following each other in a great wave of advancement. The world was transformed.

And it was during this time that an amazing discovery was made: archaeologists uncovered a relic in a cave in Israel, a spearhead said to have passed through the body of Christ on the cross.

The discovery sparked religious debate across the world, but it held a very different interest for scientists. Even after two thousand years a trace of genetic material still survived on the spearpoint, all that was thought to remain of the blood of Christ; and within it, an analysis revealed the presence of an extra gene no other person possessed.

They called it the panacea gene, or miracle gene, for whenever a person came in to contact with the blood, they would miraculously be healed of their pains.

The panacea gene promised a level of healing science could not hope to achieve, even with all of its most recent advancements; and so scientists began to utilise the gene, extracting and reproducing it inside foetuses created within artificial wombs.

In time they hoped to create a community of children, healers, who would bring an end to the world’s pain.

Controversy formed. To religious people these children would be abominations of God; others feared the power they would have, a power over life itself. But despite such protests, the experiment continued, supported by major world governments, and the first of these children – called the Lazarus children – was born.

Now it has been twelve years since the first Lazurai birth; over two thousand exist on the Earth. The Lazurai live in special institutions where they learn to explore their abilities as they age, administering healings to those who come to them.

Soon the eldest children will begin to perform healings outside of their institutions, out in the world that created them. This is expected of them, for it is their purpose, and the reason they were given life.

Most Lazurai are not fully aware of this world, however; they have been sheltered all of their lives, and understand little outside of their own environment.

But some Lazurai, a few, are different. They see things in their minds others do not; they want to explore who they are. They alone can understand the outside world…