|
Author
Index
A |
Roger
MacBride Allen |
|
Title
Index
O |
Orphan
of Creation |
|
|
|
|
| Year |
1988 |
| Publisher |
Orbit
Books |
| ISBN |
0708849598 |
|
|
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Synopsis
|
Humanity's
past is in
collision with the
21st century ...
On the day
after tomorrow, on
a backwoods farm
in Mississippi, a
paleontologist
unearths the bones
of a creature that
could never have
lived in that time
or place.
The incredible
find brings its
discoverers to the
deepest forests of
Western Africa,
and face to face
with a miracle
older than Man. |
|
|
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Review
|
Orphan
of Creation is
extremely good:
paleoanthropologically
accurate, but also
dead-on in its
human
psychology.
More: it's one of
those books that
happens to be
packaged as
science fiction
that could be
read, and
thoroughly
enjoyed, by any
thoughtful
reader. Its
soaring humanity,
fascinating look
at the concept of
slavery (through
the distorting
lens of a group of
African-American
slaves having
actually burried
australopithecines
who had been
forced to work
alongside them in
the fields), and
finely detailed
(and completely
believable)
African-American
female protagonist
would make it a
natural choice for
Oprah. But it also
should satisfy
anyone who IS a
science-fiction
reader. It
certainly
satisfied this
lifelong fan. I've
written my own
paleoanthropologically
themed SF
(HOMINIDS, from
Tor Books), and
deliberately
waited until I'd
finished before I
started Allen's
book, so as not to
be influenced by
it. Now that I
have read it, it
impressed the heck
out of me.
Robert J Sawyer |
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_______________________________________________________
 |
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Credit:
NASA
|
|
Looking
Back: The
Mercury 7
NASA
introduced
the
Project
Mercury
Astronauts
to the
world on
April 9,
1959, only
six months
after the
agency was
established.
Known as
the
Mercury 7
or
Original
7, they
are: front
row, left
to right,
Walter H.
"Wally"
Schirra,
Jr.,
Donald K.
"Deke"
Slayton,
John H.
Glenn,
Jr., and
Scott
Carpenter;
back row,
Alan B.
Shepard,
Jr.,
Virgil I.
"Gus"
Grissom,
and L.
Gordon
Cooper. |
|
NASA
Image of
the day
archive |
|
|
