Synopses & Reviews
On a hotter and more volatile earth in the twenty-third century, humans like Clare and Jon live in utopia, hunting and gathering in small tribal bands, engaged in daily art and ritual, reunited with old friends like the shaggy mammoth and giant ground sloth. Even better, they still have solar- powered laptops and can communicate with each other around the world. The understanding of physics has also advanced. When scientists first cloned extinct species from the Pleistocene, they discovered that many of them were telepathicthat consciousness travels in waves. For most people, animism has become the preferred religion, a panpsychism compatible with the laws of a fractal holographic universe. As Clare tells one of her students, the return to an older, Paleolithic lifestyle is one of humanitys greatest achievements.”
Its too bad that utopia had to come at such a cost: a genetically engineered super-virus that wiped out most of earths human population. Humanity was shaken by that event, and humanity vowed to change. Now, on the 150th anniversary of that catastrophe, a small group of men and womenas well as a smarter-than-average dire wolf and saber-toothed catare suddenly faced with decisions in which the stakes are higher than ever before. Will earth repeat the cycle of unbridled hubris? Or is humanitys destiny even stranger than that?
Review
Is there anything Sharman Apt Russell cannot do on the printed page? A triumph of the imagination; a brilliant and mesmerizing addition to the sci-fi canon." JJ Amaworo Wilson, author of
Damnificados"In classic science fiction style, Russell presents a devastated world reformed into a seeming paleolithic paradise
[a] suspenseful and gripping tale” William Seager, author of Natural Fabrications: Science, Emergence and Consciousness
Like Ursula K. Le Guin and Kim Stanley Robinson, Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of human reorientation within a radically reanimated world
an urgent story that immerses the reader in the agonizing entanglements and wonders of being.” Gib Prettyman, Pennsylvania State University, Associate Editor, Resources for American Literary Study
Sharman Apt Russells vibrant new novel will enthrall readers with its vision of a future in which animism, panpsychism and hard science come together to show us how the forces shaping consciousness and the universe are one and the same.” Imre Szeman, co-author of After Globalization
Russells intelligence and imagination shine.” Eric C. Otto, author of Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism
"An intriguing and compelling tale of humanity struggling to recover its indigenous allegiance to Earth and Earth Law despite the genie of physical science having well and truly escaped from the bottle." Freya Matthews, author of For Love of Matter: a Contemporary Panpsychism
About the Author
Sharman Apt Russell is a longtime professor at Western New Mexico University and Antioch University in L.A. She is the award-winning author of numerous essays, short stories, and books, including Hunger and An Obsession with Butterflies. Additionally, she was the recipient of the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the New Mexico Zia Award, and the Rockefeller Fellowship. She lives in Silver City, New Mexico.