The Dawn of Man is a hard hitting, fast paced and imaginative tale of alien influence in the origins and evolution of mankind. It is a wild and engrossing ride in the genre of military science fiction.
The year 2005 finds America reeling from a severe economic downturn brought on by skyrocketing energy costs, the crash of the stock market, a Middle East war and ever mounting domestic political polarization. As many social institutions and political foundations of the Union crumble, long cherished ideals and the promise of the American dream slide towards the brink of catastrophe.
At a pivotal point in history the newly elected President will be tested beyond human endurance and the American people must confront long held and deep seated racial differences in order to survive.
As this fast paced and imaginative tale builds towards its pulse pounding climax, many of the great cities of earth and the Australian outback become battlefields in an interstellar war for domination of Earth. As the situation becomes desperate and the destiny of man uncertain, the nations of the world must unite or die.
For untold generations the human race struggled towards the industrial age, leaped into the atomic and reached soaring heights of technological achievement in the space age. The new millennium will herald the coming of a new era when the true, hidden power of the human mind will be unleashed upon the world.
For the second time in evolution, the entire genome of the human race is manifested in one individual. Logan is the progeny of a thousand generations of firstborn parents and the first Mutation Accelerated Nemesis (MAN) He is endowed with the genetic attributes of history’s most militaristic adventurers; the indomitable spirit of William the Conqueror, the battlefield acumen of Shaka Zulu, the military insight of Sun-tzu and the ferocity of Genghis Khan. He is the prototype of future man, the ultimate soldier and the messiah of the aliens who mutated and trained him.
Logan returns to Earth and becomes embroiled in a developing civil war that rips through the heart of America while he battles an invasion force of the most fearsome and implacable aliens imaginable. The odds mount against Logan as he struggles to unite the world powers against the threat from space. He must also come to grips with his own personal demons while the life of the woman he loves, the future of Earth and the existence of the human race hangs in the balance.
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Reviews for "The Dawn of MAN"
Reviewed by Greg gdwelker@verizon.net
11/24/2017
The Dawn of MAN by Elbert Lewis Jr.
In science fiction, the "science" is usually handled in one of two ways. In the "hard" science fiction sense, the story really is about the science itself, and it's applications and implications. In this situation, the scientific basis or underpinning of the story science must be compatible with the current known science as a possible extrapolated future outcome. The science fiction devices in the story are well thought out, explained in detail, can be extrapolated from known science, and do not violate known science. These types of stories come from writers who seem to read more science and engineering journals than other science fiction.
In the second handling of "science" in science fiction, the science fiction is used as a backdrop to the author's exploration of personal relationships, social or cultural issues, or other non-science fiction type themes. In these books, the ray gun fires, and we as readers don't need or want to know the details of how that happens.
When an author decides to write science fiction, they need to choose which of these models, in general, to follow. If as an author your write a book that chooses to explain the science, and focus on it as a significant theme, you need to get the science correct or the reader's voluntary suspension of disbelief will collapse. This is the problem with Dawn of Man. The author does a good job of developing believable characters which which the reader can identify. They have depth, interact in meaningful and believable ways with others, and we can bring them to life in our imaginations. Likewise, the plot is developed in an acceptable manner, and the action scenes are well written, providing movement and momentum into the following scenes.
Unfortunately, the "science" of the book, particularly in the first third where the "science" is explained and justified, does not conform to the rules of either of the two ways noted above for using "science" in this genre. Reading these sections is like hitting speed bumps on a road at sixty miles an hour. Jarring. I found myself wishing that the writer would have adapted the second method of handling "science" and not tried to explain or justify the science. The book would have flowed, the plot would have developed at a smoother pace, and the characters really did not need to science to make them believable and likable.
The book would make a very good read as a action adventure or space opera with this minor change.
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