Amazon Requiem of the Human Soul Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: Libros Libertad ISBN-10:  0981073506 Type: Fiction Pages: 328 Copyright: February 16, 2009 ISBN-13: 9780981073507 It's the late 22nd century. The human race is on trial at the UN. At stake... its continued existence. Eusebio Franklin, a school teacher from a small community, is faced with the most terrifying dilemma imaginable: should he carry out an act of mass terrorism in order to save the human race?  Eusebio has been chosen to defend our human race in a special session of the United Nations.  It’s the late 22nd. century, and most people are genetically enhanced; Eusebio is among the minority that remain unimproved, known as Primals, consisting mostly of the impoverished global underclass.  The UN is on the verge of implementing a “Proposed Extinction of the Primal Species” and Eusebio’s been picked to represent his race in a last ditch legal effort to save the Primals from extinction. It’s a hearing like no other.  Our human race is on trial.  Our own sordid history – the devastation we’ve caused to indigenous cultures around the world, the destruction of our environment and of other species – becomes evidence in the case against our continued existence. But as the hearing progresses, Eusebio is faced with a terrible decision.  He’s secretly visited by Yusef who represents the Rejectionists - a renegade group of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus refusing to accept the d-humans’ genetic optimization because it prevents them from knowing God.  Yusef urges Eusebio to take the only meaningful action to save the human race from extinction: detonate a nuclear bomb hidden in the UN building in New York where the session is taking place. As the story develops to its dramatic climax, Eusebio finds himself increasingly alienated from the d-human world, while Yusef’s plot places him in an agonizing moral dilemma: whether to engage in an act of nuclear terrorism to preserve the human race. In this novel, the reader faces challenging questions about spirituality, history and society: Could our race “evolve” itself to a higher plane?  At what cost and benefit?  If we lost what is now the “human race” as a result, would that be so bad, given our sordid and shameful history?  On the other hand, is there something special, our soul, worth keeping at any price?  Ultimately, the novel forces the reader to grapple with the fundamental question: what does it mean to be human?

Ambitious and Thought-Provoking Novel
"In this ambitious and thought-provoking novel, Jeremy Lent's meticulously imagined future society is used as a means to take us to the very heart of the human condition. Intercut with gripping asides about how his imagined future world came to be, Lent's story focuses on Eusebio, his humane, everyman narrator, who is faced with a terrible decision.

There are very few science fiction works out there which speak to both the head and the heart, but Lent has produced one, a book which stimulates both intellectually and emotionally. This is a genuinely great read, and a profound one, written with intense and audacious ambition, but without ever losing the human element. Read it – you'll be glad you did."

– Ed Lark, author of Grief
(nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Book of the Year, 2005)


A philosophical suspense story with moral nuances and the dramatic swiftness and clarity of a move script.
The fate of mankind depends on a mere schoolteacher who must argue for his race's survival despite opposition from genetically "superior" humans.

150 years from now, Eusebio Franklin, a genetically unmodified "Primal," faces the unfamiliar world of genetically modified "d-humans." The d-humans wish to consign Primals to reserves and eventual extinction, but they pick Eusebio to speak on behalf of the Primals to justify their existence. A believer in religion, romance, wonder and other impulses that the d-humans lack, Eusebio eagerly seizes the chance to plead the case. He struggles to make the d-humans understand the ineffable mysteries of the human soul, but this is something that genetic engineering has, in a neat explanation of pseudo-science just detailed enough to be believable, legislated out of existence.

There's yet another layer in this tale of apocalyptic philosophy. During a break in the hearing, Eusebio is tempted by an anti-d-human freedom fighter, Yusef. He begins to take Yusef's proposal - to resist extinction by setting off a bomb in New York City as an act of defiance - seriously. At the same time, Eusebio's innately human faith and love, exemplified in his soul mate-like relationship with his tragically dead wife, makes him think that perhaps he could turn the tables on the d-humans and save humans without violence. Because Eusebio embodies a rather simple belief in human goodness and progressivism, all narrative indicators suggest that he will triumph over the evil d-humans. But Lent is too cynical for that. Note that the title refers to an inherently funereal requiem. Lent writes engagingly, moving the story along with the dramatic swiftness and clarity of a movie script.

A philosophical suspense story that exhibits quick pacing, moral nuances and unexpected twists.

- Kirkus Discoveries