Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang Author:Kate Wilhelm Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a spellbinding and wonderfully original family saga of the future. It is the story of the Sumners of Virginia, who have ruled over a lush valley along the Shenandoah for generations. But the Sumner's land, their money, their influence do not make them immune to the war and pestilence that destroy the rest of ... more »the earth. Through the foresight of the elder Sumners, they create a scientific research center that provides them with a means of survival. But as the Sumner men become sterile, the women barren, young David Sumner, his cousin Celia and the other Sumners become victimized by an army of look-alike, think-alike clones who are able to perpetuate their Sumner bodies - but not their humanity. What hope there is for a real, human future must lie with the outcasts of the new society.« less
Kate Wilhelm is one of this century's greatest writers, and this post apocalypse tour-de-force is one fine example of her writing. She eventually got bored with the Sci Fi ghetto and started laboring across the tracks in the more respectable mystery writers ghetto, but no matter what she's writing, this book will always stand as one of her best.
I really enjoyed this book. I typically enjoy novels of the Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven variety but still had a very positive impression of this one. Maybe because it was different...
I had read this before, but so long ago (early teens?) that I couldn't really remember it. I've liked other stories by WIlhelm, so decided to re-read. Starts off with a nicely promising apocalypse, but quickly becomes a story of oh-no-the-clones! They're not Human!
The (very thin) scientific premise is that individuality must be developed at an early age, and if a group of clones grows and develops together, they will fail to develop individuality (and associated traits like creativity, imagination, the ability to fall in love, the possibility of genius, etc). The clones think they are awesome and aim to create a safe, communal society. Only a couple of people see the deadly trap the remnants of humanity are falling into.
Not only is there no logical reason that clones would develop the traits that Wilhelm gives them, the book's message about the importance of creativity and individuality seems like a straw man argument. Would anyone seriously argue that the ability to innovate is NOT important? Maybe there's a bit of a cold-war era residual paranoia about communism that contributed to this; I'm not sure.
The "happy" ending of the book is also problematic. OK, the one 'individual' man kidnaps a harem of fertile women and sets out to repopulate the earth with hardworking innovators. Hmm. Are we concerned about genetic diversity, anyone? The numbers of individuals required for a viable population? Nah, everything'll be fine. (I'm fairly certain that people did know about the problems associated with extreme inbreeding even in 1976.)
I have to admit that I still found the book enjoyable - I just like this sort of apocalyptic novel. But it's definitely flawed.
