"Admiral Diana" by Anthony Anchor deviates considerably from the mainstream sci-fi model. The action takes place some 800 years from now. There are no aliens, no laser swords, no monsters, no evil plots - i.e. the "fantasy" element is missing altogether.
A brief flashback in the beginning takes us four hundred years back, to the Twenty-Fourth Century, when human clones were created in Australia who were better-looking, more intelligent, more rational than us (we are referred to as the Originals in the story). Shortly afterwards, human cloning was banned in all countries. A hundred years passed. The clone colony in Australia had grown consierably. Soon it was established that Clones and Originals were psychologically incompatible. They just didn't like each other. The Clones decided to leave and colonize a different planet. Assisted by the Originals, they built spaceships capable of quantum leaps (also banned on Earth). And then they left.
With some hard work their new planet, Noah, began to prosper. The Clones' research in genetic engineering (banned on Earth) continued. Eventually, they found the code responsible for creative and executive types of temperament and began physically to ensure gender equality. A generation later, they started to die out. Their men were suddenly only capable of conceiving one child with a woman, early in life, after which their semen mutated; Clone men would grow old quickly and die by the time they were forty years old, or a little later. The women were not affected.
Desperately trying to avoid extinction, Clone scientists (logical, coldly rational, like all Clones) put forth a theory that the one quality they were missing in order to come up with a cure was human genius, which could only be found among the Originals (which, according to them, had nothing to do with intellect; Clones viewed themselves as intellectually superior to their creators).
And so a Clone space liner arrives in the Solar System, seeking the Originals' help. The Originals are wary, if not openly hostile. The Clones are prepared to go to war, in which they would have the advantage of the Unified Field technology (also banned on Earth).
That's just the background. The story itself revolves around the secret, illegal in both worlds, dramatically charged love affair between the Clone Admiral (a woman named Diana) and the husband of the Earth's sentinel ship's captain. The Clones' destiny oddly and irrationally comes to depend on the outcome of this affair.
The novel is stunningly fast-paced, riveting, and highly unusual. It is like nothing I have ever read before.
The publishers, "Mighty Niche Books," maintain that the books they publish are only available on their site. They give you a bunch of weird reasons for that. Just in case, I checked Amazon.com. Did not find any of the books listed on "Mighty Niche," so I guess the claim is true. They also let you read a VERY GENEROUS excerpt on their website. To find the page for "Admiral Diana," follow this link -
[http://mightyniche.com/book_admiral-diana.html]
A brief flashback in the beginning takes us four hundred years back, to the Twenty-Fourth Century, when human clones were created in Australia who were better-looking, more intelligent, more rational than us (we are referred to as the Originals in the story). Shortly afterwards, human cloning was banned in all countries. A hundred years passed. The clone colony in Australia had grown consierably. Soon it was established that Clones and Originals were psychologically incompatible. They just didn't like each other. The Clones decided to leave and colonize a different planet. Assisted by the Originals, they built spaceships capable of quantum leaps (also banned on Earth). And then they left.
With some hard work their new planet, Noah, began to prosper. The Clones' research in genetic engineering (banned on Earth) continued. Eventually, they found the code responsible for creative and executive types of temperament and began physically to ensure gender equality. A generation later, they started to die out. Their men were suddenly only capable of conceiving one child with a woman, early in life, after which their semen mutated; Clone men would grow old quickly and die by the time they were forty years old, or a little later. The women were not affected.
Desperately trying to avoid extinction, Clone scientists (logical, coldly rational, like all Clones) put forth a theory that the one quality they were missing in order to come up with a cure was human genius, which could only be found among the Originals (which, according to them, had nothing to do with intellect; Clones viewed themselves as intellectually superior to their creators).
And so a Clone space liner arrives in the Solar System, seeking the Originals' help. The Originals are wary, if not openly hostile. The Clones are prepared to go to war, in which they would have the advantage of the Unified Field technology (also banned on Earth).
That's just the background. The story itself revolves around the secret, illegal in both worlds, dramatically charged love affair between the Clone Admiral (a woman named Diana) and the husband of the Earth's sentinel ship's captain. The Clones' destiny oddly and irrationally comes to depend on the outcome of this affair.
The novel is stunningly fast-paced, riveting, and highly unusual. It is like nothing I have ever read before.
The publishers, "Mighty Niche Books," maintain that the books they publish are only available on their site. They give you a bunch of weird reasons for that. Just in case, I checked Amazon.com. Did not find any of the books listed on "Mighty Niche," so I guess the claim is true. They also let you read a VERY GENEROUS excerpt on their website. To find the page for "Admiral Diana," follow this link -
[http://mightyniche.com/book_admiral-diana.html]