-Caveat Lector- From http://www1.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=11789
>>>}Begin Transfiguration Chronicles of the Future, Book Two by Paul Weber ISBN: 1- 4010-2446-7 (Trade Paperback) ISBN: 1- 4010-2447-5 (Hardback) ISBN: 1- 4010-2448-3 (eBook) Pages: 319 Description Is the history of life on Earth one of gradual change, or dramatic transfigurations? In the mandatory government youth propaganda camps (acknowledgment to author Vin Suprynowicz for this phrase) known as public schools, we are taught that species mutate gradually over time into new forms. But does the fossil record really bear this out? On the contrary, the fossil record shows life on earth tends to go through long periods of relative stability, followed by dramatic, wholesale changes, or transfigurations. Millions of years ago, in a short span of time paleontologists call the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, over ninety percent of all species on earth perished in some unknown cataclysm. But life on earth did not cease to exist: it transfigured. Somehow, species are able to change forms quickly to adapt to these wrenching ecological changes; new species arise, not gradually, but virtually overnight. The same pattern can be seen in the fossil record between the Triassic and Jurassic periods, the Jurassic and Cretaceous, and (most dramatically) the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, which saw the sudden demise of the dinosaurs and the equally sudden rise of mammals. In like manner, the fossil record shows sudden, dramatic changes in mammalian species in Earth�s most recent geologic period. It is an open question as to whether these dramatic changes are internally driven, in the form of deep programming in DNA sequences; or externally driven, by such things as sudden climate changes or ecological instability. Most likely, both answers are correct: it seems that life, to survive sudden changes in the e nvironment, must have the ability to change form rapidly. It may be that the great extinction events of geological history were not extinction events at all; rather, they were periods of biological transfiguration. This t heory has been advanced by several paleontologists who claim that dinosaurs did not actually die out, but evolved-- transfigured--into birds and other species. What sort of environmental stresses can act as the trigger that initiates these sudden changes in species? Changes in climate seem to be a contributing factor; although the human species, from its short historical perspec tive, views the planet as being relatively stable climatically, geology reveals a very different long-term picture. Over the past few million years, the planet has gone through a series of cooling and warming periods. At this time, it appears we are still in a warming period, but the bio-historical record gleaned from ice-core studies in Greenland indicate that, when the climate does change, it changes dramatically, going from warm age to ice age in a matter of a few short years, rather than gradually, as was originally thought. The theory of gradual evolution of species does not provide an answer of how species can manage to survive against such wholesale, dramatic, deadly change in the environment. It may be that species have the ability to mut ate quickly--to transfigure--in the face of such global holocausts. These wholesale changes can demolish biological equilibrium as new species clash with one another. In the novel�s prologue, one such clash in portrayed b etween one form of early man, Cro-Magnon, against another form we know as Neanderthal. Anthropologists agree that the two species lived side by side for thousands of years, but there is evidence that they may have become mortal enemies, with the Cro-Magnon eventually hunting down their dimmer-witted brothers until the Neanderthal were exterminated. A world in the midst of biological transfiguration is the setting of the novel. In the course of a few short years, the climate cools dramatically, with ice sheets extending down from the poles well into the temperate zon es, just as they have done in previous ice ages. Much of Europe and Canada become uninhabitable as the ice sheets advance, and the human species is thrown into a state of chaos as food supplies shrink. Governments, unable to manage the stream of people immigrating from northern to southern countries, lose control of their territories. Strange rumors of new species of animals begin to emerge as the global cooling continues. From the deserted lands at the front of the glacier come tales of gigantic, man-eating bears, rodents the size of dogs, and mountain lions with heavy fur to protect them against the cold. Perhaps the strangest news event is thousands of mothers giving birth to children with what is seen initially as a new kind of birth defect; children are born with thin, frail bodies, long fingers, and unusually large heads. At first, the children are thought to be profoundly retarded, as they are introverted and slow to learn to crawl, to walk, or to speak. But there are hints that the children are not retarded, but that they think on a different plane from regular children. Though they don�t speak very much, they excel in music; what takes a normal human years to learn takes them only a few days. They seem to grasp, with uncanny quickness, how things work: they can take apart and reassemble radios before they reach kindergarten age. Though their parents are amazed at these abilities and loyal to their children, they are forced by law to enroll them in public schools. The parents of the first such child, Jacob, refuse to comply and are charged with child abuse. In the world of the future, home schooling has been outlawed; after all, only state-licensed professionals have the ability to raise children. In resisting the authorities, trying to keep their child from being forcibly taken from them, the parents are killed and Jacob is taken away to be raised by the state. The teachers have a hard time trying to get the children to obey. Their first impression of the children is that they are idiot- savants: people who are profoundly retarded in most areas of endeavor, but possess unusual, almost genius-like talent in others. But in the world of the future, talent and intelligence are no longer virtues; the purpose of school, as explained by pedagogical experts, is not to make children smarter, but to make them socialized beings ready to serve the state as good citizens. The children�s hunger to learn and excel is deliberately quashed in favor of routines designed to make them more social: seemingly endless exercises in collective learning, singing in unison, memorizing slogans. Because they are small and frail, they are continually bullied by their larger classmates in the mob-rule world of the public schools. The children are rounded up and taken to a centralized compound where they can be taught the virtue of obedience to authority. In the camp, as well as worldwide, the children group together and develop their own society, even to the point of speaking their own language among themselves, though the teachers become angry when they catch them doing so. They call themselves the Keth. Though they are kept from learning academic material, they still manage to learn by stealing books and laptop computers from the administration building. Their hunger to learn is insatiable. Not satisfied with the Keth�s progress in becoming obedient servants of the state, the school authorities decide to give them exotic new drugs that promise to make them more happy and more social. The kids hate the drugs and learn how to fake taking them, except when the authorities arrive to administer random drug tests to make sure they have the drugs in their systems, in which case they take a dose of the saved pills in order to pass the test. Jacob, however, is caught without the drug in his system one day and is given injections intravenously. The drug, not having been thoroughly tested, sends him into seizures and partial paralysis. Officials in Washington at first agree that the Keth should be denied learning and forced to become obedient citizens, but as the crisis of climatic change deepens, they begin to realize that they need technological solutions. Federal officials decide to change the rules and allow the children to be taught a strictly academic curriculum on an experimental basis. A team of scientists, led by the eccentric Joshua Gladstone, has been studying the problem of biological transfiguration, and takes a special interest in the Keth, who they realize are not victims of genetic disease, but a new species of man. Taught by the scientists, the Keth learn in a few months what most people learn in twenty years of schooling. It�s a challenge just getting enough material in front of the Keth; they understand ideas immediately and retain them. Soon, they are not just learning on computers, but learning how to take them apart and improve them. With great knowledge, however, comes intransigence. Gladstone and his colleagues, along with the Keth, realize it is wrong to dedicate their lives in service to the state. The problem is how to get several thousand kids safely out of a guarded school/camp without endangering either the kids or the guards. Somehow, they have to find a way to incapacitate--not kill-- the authorities, while leaving themselves unharmed. Their study of biology presents a solution: undulant fever, or Brucellosis, a bacterium that can be introduced into the camp�s water supply. Brucellosis incapacitates the victim for several days with high fever and dementia, but is rarely fatal. The scientists and the Keth introduce the bacterium into the water supply, being careful not to consume it themselves, and escape the camp when the entire faculty comes down with the sickness. In the escape, however, police arrive at the last minute and manage to capture Gladstone, who is taken off to Washington for interrogation and torture. The Keth flee north to the border of the glaciers, knowing full well that the authorities will come after them. Realizing that their best defense is to spread out, they break up into small groups and spread out across the country, using their prodigious technological skills on the black market to earn money and buy supplies. All the while, they continue learning and experimenting, creating technologies that can be useful for making life bearable in the advancing ice age--or for defending themselves. The glacial borderlands, long abandoned by humans, are the birthplace of new species: bears twice the size of grizzlies; huge, thick-furred rodents; and forests of new trees able to withstand the bitter cold. The Keth use their mental skills to adapt to this unforgiving environment, all the while cataloguing the new species and studying their habits and means of survival. Can a new species live in peace with the old species from which it arose, or are the two inevitably implacable enemies? If the Keth cannot live in peace with human society, they may well become humanity�s greatest enemy. But if they can live in peace, they may well be mankind�s salvation. Click here to read an excerpt from the book. http://www1.xlibris.com/bookstore/book_excerpt.asp?bookid=11789 End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. 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