The Abolition of Species

Author Dath's political allegory, rich with the sort of grandeur not seen since Russian science fiction of the mid-20th century, will test the mettle of readers accustomed to leaner, plot-driven novels. Shifting among Mars, Venus, and the final three cities left standing on Earth in the wake of genocidal war, the Gente (post-human telepaths who metamorphose into animals, alter their gender at will, and even manifest themselves as machine-like animations) know only relentless struggle. Observing and manipulating, even playing strings of history like music are a temporal adventuress and a composer with the ability to transform the new war into a mutation machine. The novel of big ideas isn't dead, and German author Dath proves few things are more satisfying in sf with a literary bent than mingling high-brow cultural speculation with low-brow humor, cautioning the reader to remember that humanity (at least for now) is dominator of the only game in town.