Evolution's Child

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Evolution's Child; Republic of Luna is a novel by Charles Lesher.

Storyline

In a century filled with strife, the dogs of war are gathering once again. By 2092, climate change has devastated the planet and even thinned by incessant bloodshed, famine, and disease, Earth’s population exceeds 13 billion. Food and water are in short supply, refugee’s number in the hundreds of millions, and lawlessness abounds. Humanity is in turmoil.

Religious zealots have seized upon this despair, claiming it is God’s punishment for man’s misdeeds. Within the North American Federation, Christian theocracy has displaced democracy plunging once proud America into the 21st century’s version of the Dark Ages. On the other side of the planet, the Islamic Brotherhood controls territory from Indonesia, across Asia and the Middle East and well onto the African continent, India the only holdout. Even China, the leading space faring nation on Earth, allies with the Brotherhood, providing them with science and technology for a price. Only within the European Union is there still a semblance of peace between Christians and Muslims but it has become increasingly strained. The nations of the world align along sectarian lines as global violence escalates.

In sharp contrast, the Republic of Luna is a technocratic society where information flows freely and nothing is secret, a place governed by humanism and the laws of science. Out of necessity, life on an airless world burrows deep underground and to stay alive, Lunarians unlock nature’s deepest secrets, gaining mastery over the genetic foundations of life itself. In doing so, they become the first true extraterrestrial race. Back on Earth, when the scope of the Lunarians meddling in evolution is revealed, they are loudly denounced as abominations. Prince Ahmed Mohammed Al Zarqowi, Caliph of the Islamic Brotherhood, believes he can use this prejudice to attack Luna with impunity and create mankind’s first multi-planet empire. To the Caliph this is simply the next step in a plan to bring an unbelieving world under Islamic Law, unleashing forces intent on destroying the Republic before it is even fifty years old.

Lazarus Sheffield is a Senior Analyst within the Department of Homeland Security. When he learns of the Brotherhood’s plan, he becomes the highest ranking Federation officer to ever defect. Thus begins an adventure like no other, the fate of Earth hanging in the balance.