A very Heinleinesqe book.

Lynn

On 1/31/2023 5:38 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "Emergence" by David R. Palmer
>    https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553255193/ (1984
> MMPB)
> and
>    https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/194881806X/ (2018
> trade paperback)
>
> Book number one of a two book apocalyptic science fiction young adult
> series.  I reread the POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by
> Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press in 2018.  I also have the MMPB published
> by Ballantine in 1984 that I purchased in 1985, one of my few books that
> survived The Great Flood of 1989.  It may be yellowed and the back
> broken in three places but it is still very readable.  The book was
> first serialized in Analog magazine in 1981 and nominated for the Hugo
> and Nebula awards.  I am rereading the second book in the series,
> "Tracking", now.  Spider Robinson claims that there is a third book in
> the series but I have seen nothing of it.
>
> Somewhere in the very late 1800s or early 1900s, the human race forked.
> The new race, Homo Post Hominem, was immune to all human diseases,
> faster, stronger, smarter, etc.  And, the new race traits were dominant
> in breeding.  The Russian Homo Sapiens realized this and started a
> bionuclear war in 1988 to cleanse the Earth of the Homo Post Hominems.
> They did succeed in killin 99.999% of the Homo Sapiens on the planet but
> virtually none of the Homo Post Hominems.
>
> Candidia (Candy) Foster-Smith is a precocious 11 year old girl who was
> adopted by Dr. and Mrs. Foster after her parents were killed in a car
> wreck.  She is one of the few survivors of the planet wide bionuclear
> war in the late 1900s.  The book is her diary of surviving the war. And,
> she is one of the several thousand Homo Post Hominems on the Earth.  She
> spent the first three months of the war in her father's bomb shelter in
> Wisconsin then took off in a 4WD van looking for other survivors.
>
> Candy does have a retarded, adoptive twin brother, Terry D. Foster, who
> also survived the bionuclear war.  D is for Dactyll.  Terry is a 36 inch
> tall Hyacinthine Macaw who adores Candy and follows her everywhere.
>
> BTW, to quote Jon Schild's and Kurt Busiek's 2008 conversation on the
> availability of the "Emergence" MMPB book:
> "Since the original post quoted above, I have looked for "Emergence" but
> failed to find it. Any hints?"
> "No idea.  There are copies for sale at Amazon, but they're frickin'
> expensive."
> "You can't have mine; I stole it from the Scott Meredith Literary Agency
> fair and square."
> "You cannot have my copy either.  I paid $3.50 for it somewhere in 1985.
>  However, the Amazon used book price is $50.61."
>
> The book was subsequently republished by Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press
> in trade paperback in 2018 along with the second book in the series.
> Unfortunately, the new printing of the dead tree and ebook versions
> seems to have disappeared with the passing of Eric Flint.
>
> My rating:  6 out of 5 stars (this is one of my thirty top ten books)
> Amazon rating:  4.4 out of 5 stars (254 reviews)
>
> Lynn