Before Adam

I only started reading Jack London's work three years ago, but I've had an interest in prehistoric times and evolution since I was ten. When I tried explaining to other children that humans and apes may have evolved from a common ancestor they just sort of sneered in disbelief. This was over a hundred years after Charles Darwin had died. Jack London's first SF novel "Before Adam" is an imaginitive, compelling read. Through his dreams, a twentieth century man "remembers" events from another time and place - a life lived at the dawn of time. The narrator "Big-Tooth" shows us the harsh brutality of prehistoric life, the endless struggle to survive, the constant danger posed by predators looking for food, and the menace of the "Fire Men" - a race more advanced than the species Big-Tooth belongs to, a race that have learned to use fire and kill prey with bows and arrows. It's very rare for anyone to live beyond middle age. Most people die violent deaths, either at the hands of a rival, or satisfying the hunger of a beast.This is not the first story with a prehistoric setting (Jack London was apparently accused of plagiarism by another author, Stanley Waterloo), but it's a wonderful book nevertheless. London later wrote a book with a similar premise called "The Star Rover", in which a condemned prisoner puts himself into a trance and experiences his past lives. It's possible that J.G. Ballard had also read "Before Adam" before writing "The Drowned World", another book about race memory and the retreat into prehistory. There's a lot of psychology in it.As a species we've certainly come a long way, or so we like to think. The slaughter initiated by the Fire Men looking for living space has been repeated time and time again. Our "intelligence" has enabled us to come up with more ingenious ways to kill each other, moving from bows and arrows to guns to weapons of mass destruction. From what can be seen on television or read in newspapers, it seems we're still a long way from "growing up". Jack London's novel should teach us not to be complacent.

While I'm not much into reading fiction or Sci-Fi type books; I have to say, this is probably one of the best books, I've ever read in my life. ( and I'm an avid reader)Jack London has a way of really pulling your mind into the picture. ( Or putting pictures/stories inside your head)If you're looking for a book to take your mind of things, or want to live a vicarious experience, I can think of no better book than this one.This is one of Jack Londons stellar achievements. The ending will surprise you. An awesome book, that you'll have trouble putting down, until you're finished.

Nightmares plague the narrator's childhood. In these dreams he relives the pre-stoneage life of one of his proto-human ancestors. Each night is a different episode from his ancestor's life, and the episodes are lived and relived in a jumbled, non-chronological order. The narrator places the episodes in chronological order and tells his ancestor's biography. What emerges is an action-packed, engaging saga of adventure and romance at the dawn of humanity. London got the science of genetics wrong as he tried to explain how the narrator could have such memories, but he seems to have gotten one thing right. Modern paleo-anthropology posits that for most of prehistory, the earth contained several coexisting species of hominids. London peoples his world with three hominid species. His description of the interaction between these species probably gives an accurate depiction of ancient man's inter-species interaction.

This is a fascinating, fast-paced story about Man just before he became Man. I loved being taken back to our origins by the totally plausible "time-machine" of genetic memory as presented by Jack London. The story literally shows us the stuff our dreams and we ourselves are made of. This is the first Jack London I've ever read and I'm looking forward to more. I somehow missed having to read Call of the Wild in my school days. I find the style crisp and concrete, and the "far out" premise of the story very believable. I would recommend this to any thoughtful junior high school student and to all adults.

This is an excellent little book of adventure. London explores the idea of human genetic memory by allowing his protagonist suffer visions of his simian ancestors distant past. Lex Talionis rules in this delight of our evolutionary history. I couldn't put this one down. A must read for all London fans!