Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D.

ISBN-13: 9780743317467 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 258 str.

John Argo

Opis

Library Journal, in their 2003 review of the print edition, offered warm praise for this "fresh, original new approach to a timeless classic" and recommended it for large libraries everywhere. In its initial appearance as an e-book at Fictionwise, this novel sold thousands of copies and garnered over 400 reviews, almost all positive, most of them raves. (Synopsis follows at end below.) It's a soaring, imaginative science fiction novel in a well-established, long-standing tradition (called Robinsonades, typically about shipwrecked, marooned adventurers) whose science fiction subset alone includes the following: Robinson Crusoe on Mars (film 1964); The Island of Dr. Moreau (novel H. G. Wells, 1896; films 1977, 1996); Enemy Mine (film 1985); Lord of the Flies (novel, 1953 Nobel Laureate William Golding; film 1963); and most recently Andy Weir's 2011 self-published SF novel The Martian, which became a successful major Hollywood film in 2014. There will be many more in the future-maybe even a film based on Robinson Crusoe 1,000,000 A.D. Note: the original Robinson Crusoe 1719 novel by Daniel Defoe is NOT a children's story. Although it has been borrowed, revised, and sanitized-made into Disney fuzzy bunny cartoons, abridged for children's editions-Daniel Defoe wrote a dark, violent, bloody novel about murder, betrayal, slavery, and cannibal feasts. The website (www.clocktowerbooks.com) cites at least one academic expert on this, plus info on pacing, point of view, homages, characters names, and many other fascinating topics. BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A million years into a totally unexpected future, our hero is the last man on Earth. Nobody has ever been so alone. Alex Kirk awakens a million years from now, utterly alone and in terrible danger on a brave new Earth. Humankind has been extinct for eons, and Alex Kirk is at best an accident, an afterthought in an uncaring universe filled with dreadful secrets. This is more than a purely entertaining DarkSF novel in the rich tradition of Blade Runner, Alien, Dark City, and other atmospheric, poetic literary SF. It's a stark warning about the dangers of genetic engineering that will soon be the greatest menace to humankind in history-scarier than 20th Century atomic bomb fears . If you're looking for post-apoc, with a plausible reason, here it is. He is marooned like no human ever before--in time and space. He can never meet another human, because he is a clone born in a wrecked, moss-covered breeding tank deep in a sentient cave. He has only the original Alex Kirk's memories to sustain him, but those are brittle and fragmented in Alex's newly formed mind. And yet Alex Kirk summons the determination to live, to dream, and to strive against all despair. Earth in 1,000,000 A.D. is a planet of shocks and surprises, from huge saltwater flowers to the giant butterflies that pollinate them. Sinister and cunning, black-furred, evolved wolverine/bear Rippers with boar tusks lurk hour after hour waiting for Alex to make a single mistake so they can devour him. This scary new world has living caves that swallow people; armed and marauding aftermen; a haunted village of long-dead clone men and women; a valley formed when an ancient university crumbled and its experimental laboratories fissured, with a swift-flowing river between them, a valley littered with skulls, picked over by Rippers and other un-things in the long afterglow of old Earth. One day, solitary, lonely Alex sees a curious smudge in space, beside the moon. He will discover it encapsulates the secret of what happened to humankind, and the key to his own fate. Starting alone, naked, and with nothing except a fierce will to survive, Alex courageously explores, battles, and conquers. He ultimately confronts the enigma of who he is and why ancient humans left him shipwrecked and alone in eternity. Is there a woman-Friday to relieve his nightmare existence? Read this novel and learn the answer. Hint: "strawberry ice cream."