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Simply Human


WOULD YOU TRUST THIS KID 
WITH THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE?

 Assaulted by random chemicals, solar radiation, and genetic manipulation, the human gene pool was falling apart. The solution: simplify it, making it fourfold redundant and self-correcting. In a thousand years, when the planet was clean again, change it back. In the meantime, the “Simplified” humans would keep rudimentary civilization going.

But after two thousand years, the automated monitors still register intolerable mutation rates. Achibol the Sorcerer, dilapidated cyborg troubleshooter, is repairing them one by one, but someone—or something—doesn’t want him to succeed.

The urchin Benadek, Achibol’s apprentice, only wants good food and a warm place to sleep. But nothing is ever what it seems, including Benadek. And nothing human is ever . . . simple.

Praise for the Science Fiction of L. Warren Douglas:

“. . . highly entertaining and full of action . . . a divertingly strange future, one that should appeal equally to fans of sf and fantasy adventure.” Locus

“. . . well-crafted, exciting, [more than] space opera . . . intelligent, fast-moving.” Booklist

Cover art by John Monteleone



Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, August 2000

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-671-57882-0

Copyright © 2000 by L. Warren Douglas

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com

Typeset by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com


For Sue

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