matt@ncr-sd.UUCP (Matt Costello) (11/25/86)
In article <295@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith) writes: > Before we again forget about Palmer's "Emergence", I think it would >be fun to analyize it from another point of view. >[ Describes the spontaneous mutation of "homo post hominem" in that novel ] >... These are clearly all separate >changes in the genetic code, and some at least (the last one clearly) are >not just minor changes, but massive re-write jobs. It is quite obviously >not plausible to assume that this happened fortuitously. The clear >implication is that some unknown agency (I propose a black monolith) has >been deliberately tampering with human evolution. I don't recall any mention on the net of a more recent Palmer book called "Threshold". It also deals with extraordinary people. The main character is the only one we see but reference is made to at least one other. What has me terribly worried is the possibility that both "Emergence" and "Threshold" occur in the same universe. If so, there is an "unknown agency", (which is not a black monolith :-) clearly identified. Putting both books in the same universe should turn the sequel(s) into an absolute mess (worse than Asimov). I'm only assuming the sequels, but both books leave the possibility wide open. I've been fairly oblique to prevent any spoilers. Beware of followups to this article. I'd be very interested to hear what others think about the possibility of both "Emergence" and "Threshold" being in the same universe. -- Matt Costello, matt@ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.com (not registered yet) {sdcsvax,dcdwest,ihnp4}!ncr-sd!matt