by Robert Silverberg (2003)
1972 Locus Poll Award nominee, best SF novel IN THE BEGINNING... there was no Brooklyn, no St. Louis, no Shakespeare, no moon, no hunger, no death... IN THE BEGINNING... there were no real men, no real women, nothing but dispassionately passionate ambisexuals of the lowest and highest order... IN THE BEGINNING... the heavens, the seas and the Earth belonged to more intelligent species than a man called Clay could ever have dreamed possible in his own time. But his own time as a man had passed, and now his time as the son of man had come! Clay is a man from the 20th Century who is somehow caught up in a time-flux and transported into a distant future. The earth and the life on it have changed beyond recognition. Even the human race has evolved into many different forms, now coexisting on the planet. The seemingly omnipotent Skimmers, the tyrannosaur-like Eaters, the sedentary Awaiters, the squid-like Breathers, the Interceders, the Destroyers—all of these are "Sons of Man". Befriended and besexed by the Skimmers, Clay goes on a journey which takes him around the future earth and into the depths of his own soul. He is human, but what does that mean?
Barbara Hambly
The Enterprise is on a peaceful mission at Starbase 12 when a bizarre cosmic phenomenon causes a Klingon ship to suddenly vanish - with Spock aboard for the ride. Spock's last message from the Klingon ship is cryptic and frightening. The Klingons are travelling into the past, searching for the one man who holds a vital key to the future. If they can kill that man, the course of history will be changed - and the Federation will be destroyed!
Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter
Humanity must try to learn to work together while threatened by extinction from a deadly sunstorm; meanwhile the mysterious Firstborn are observing in silence.
(by) Frederik Pohl
From back cover Orb Trade paperback May 2011: **Earth is in crisis.** There simply isn't enough water and arable land to support the burgeoning population. As the threat of nuclear war looms, the United States looks to Mars for the precious resources that could save humanity. But somebody must actually journey to the Red Planet to effect a solution, and it would be far too difficult and costly to change Mars to suit man; therefore man must be changed to suit Mars. Roger Torraway didn't plan to be Man Plus, the man who must undergo the surgeries and shaping necessary to enable someone to survive the hostile Martian environment. When he volunteered to serve as an understudy to astronaut Willy Hartnett, Roger never thought he'd actually be called upon. But when Willy dies in a freak accident, Roger becomes humanity's last hope. With every new step toward becoming Man Plus, Roger becomes less and less the man he was to those around him, and more and more something new, something strange and alien. Nothing about him is spared, not even his mind, which must adapt to being... different... if he is to survive. All the while, he is constantly reminded that he must succeed in surviving on Mars -- there's no time to start over before war breaks out -- because the fate of humanity rests on his increasingly nonhuman shoulders. Years after it won the Nebula Award, *Man Plus* is now, more than ever, a powerful, affecting novel about the worldwide environmental crisis that approaches, and the timeless questions of what makes us human.
Shaunta Grimes
"After a virus claimed 95 percent of the global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed. Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover's refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future. When one of Clover's missions reveals that West's life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West's fate, they'll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company's rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined ... and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever"--