Second Genesis

I began reading Second Genesis long before I realized that there was a first book. I have yet to read the first book. This is a book that stands easily on its own and truly should be considered one of the classics of scifi literature. Imagine humanity achieving all its greatest dreams... conquering death and the distance between the stars. Humanity has spread across the galaxy with the power to literally break apart planets and reform whole star systems into habitable rings which double as massive radio telescopes spreading humanity's knowledge to other galaxies. Then, at the height of their power and knowledge... humanity simply vanishes.But the Nar, a race of strange but generous beings in a far galaxy, receives the messages sent by humanity, and begins to slowly adopt their technology and transform their culture. Until, one day, in gratitude for all that humanity has done for their race, they literally recreate humans from the genetic code embedded in the signals from space.And, of course, this distant outpost of newly created humans will soon long to know of their full history and origins. Just as adopted children, after coming of age, often seek out their biological parents, so does this adopted segment of humanity long to seek out its biological forebears.So begins "Second Genesis," the long and fascinating journey of hundreds, made newly immortal, traveling across unimaginable distances seeking to find where their biological forebears have gone.Its a book that really engages your imagination, more so than most any book you'll read. Why this one has not been adopted by the SciFi Channel for the creation of a miniseries, I have no idea.Someone please tell them they are missing a guaranteed winner.David Flanagan

Moffitt shows us quite a vision of the grand scheme of things. Though you might not believe in flying trees, the explanations he gives for the various evolutions and extinctions are great. I really like the universe he has built, and the sense of overall inevitability and futility of existence you get. I actually picked up this book first, not realizing it was a sequel; so I went and bought and read the first book, but you really don't have to - Moffitt spends the majority of one of the early chapters rehashing everything that happened in the first book. You probably could read only the second book, and then maybe go back and read the first if you want to learn more about the Nar.

Great epic filled with interesting turns.

The story follows on from Moffitt's earlier (and slower paced) Genesis Quest. A band of genetically reconstructed humans embark on an odyssey covering immense distances to return to their home world. The travellers are culturally impoverished, they have inherited little from original man, and they are still suffering the mental trauma of being created and raised by the benevolent and long lived Knar. When the travellers reach what they believe to be their destination what they find is less than pleasant and things rapidly take a turn for the worse. Superlatives fail me when I talk about this book, It is simply one of the top ten books of the genre that I have ever read.

A group of humans raised on the Knar world want to go back to their homeworld in the Milky Way galaxy. Man's D.N.A. Sequence had been beamed to the Knar world and the Knar resurrected man with the addition of an immortality virus. The Knar use a huge sentient tree called (Yaggisdril?) to fly between the galaxies. Fantastic description of using the center black hole of their galaxy to slingshot Yaggasdril to the Milky Way. Time dilation of 99.99% of the speed of light is fantastic. Exciting conclusion