The government allocates sperm to grieving mothers so they might replace their sons. (This is a bit of a stretch but to assume otherwise would drive the novel into a dead end.) Women take over politics necessity results in hard policies like isolating newly-born boys from their parents, so they might survive to help re-populate the world. To mention but a few of the scenarios Sweeney-Baird throws into the mix: Scotland in 2025 is independent from the United Kingdom women championing democracy challenge China’s male-controlled communist party the economy falters, rather than collapses, as females are trained and rushed into male jobs. Grief is perhaps the only issue that is described in any depth the author visits many ‘what if’ scenarios and only so much can be explored fully in one novel. Grief leaps from the page as women witness their husbands, sons, and fathers dying in quick succession they become isolated in the world as their families are stripped away. Each character’s point of view appears in a short chapter written in first person, present tense, which gives propinquity to the plot as tension builds. Readers will walk along side five well-drawn actors who drive the plot as a doctor, researcher, politician and bureaucrat, but other characters portray a variety of lived experiences, political and personal. The structure of this novel is organized into sections: Before, Outbreak, Panic, Despair, Survival, Recovery, Strength, Adaptation, and Remembrance. A lesson that one might think would have been learnt during the last world war but, somehow, we manage to slip back into nineteenth century thinking. This in no way detracts from an intriguing premise that brings social issues into sharp focus, particularly how the gender dichotomy within politics and the division of labour does not serve us well. Given that we have all been educated on how a global pandemic is handled, and on the speed and efficacy of scientific research, a tad of disbelief needs to be suspended when reading the science behind Sweeney-Baird’s explanation of her gender specific virus.

Written in 2018, it eerily preceded Covid-19. Only one in ten men are immune from the virus, the reason for which is not discovered for several chapters. The novel takes place in 2025 it features a devastating global plague that attacks only men, although everyone is a spreading host. The above accolades were inspired by Christina Sweeney-Baird’s novel, The End of Men. Oh, what a brilliant thought experiment! Speculative fiction at its best! Readers will be thinking about this premise long after reading the last page.

The end of men christina sweeney