The year is ~2500 or so and humans no longer live on Earth. Instead, genetically engineered beings called the Erta populate the planet, having wiped out humanity 500 years earlier to save it. They've managed to fix many of Earth's problems, including rolling back the damage of climate change, and live in a utopia-like world. But now they're faced with the question of whether they should give humanity another chance. As a test of whether the human race can be trusted as stewards of Earth again, the Erta decide to raise one final human child among them, to see if humans can be deemed worthy. A touching, heartwarming, and thought-provoking book about humanity's last chance to prove themselves, I really enjoyed this different take on the future-of-Earth trope - frequently a dystopian trope, here it was hopeful.

Thank you to Solaris Nova for the eARC!

3.5 stars.
An adult Erta raises a human boy from infancy, learning much about humans in the process, but also about herself, and her fellow beings.

Hundreds of years earlier, the Earth was falilng apart due to depletion of its resources and polluting of its skies and oceans, as well as big and unpredictable changes to its climate. A call was issued to anyone on Earth who might have ideas to address the problems, and a genetic engineer/transhumanist in Sweden, Dr. Nystrom, answered, by creating Erta, a heavily modified new species started from humans, but diverting heavily from the seed stock. The Erta was tasked with cleaning up and stabilizing the climate, and humanity was sterilized so that the species would go extinct.

The story picks up centuries after this, and the Earth seems stable and repaired, and there is great debate about whether or not to reintroduce humanity to Earth. Ima is tasked with raising a baby human, and asked to report on her findings: is the human rational?, can humans be trusted?, Should more be made?

Ima is confident raising a baby to adulthood will be easy peasy, as she has successfully cleaned up the atmosphere over centuries. She very, very quickly learns just how difficult, physically and mentally, to keep a baby alive and healthy, and we follow her adventures, so to speak, in parenthood, and the stresses this places on her, and her immediate neighbours, other erta in the small settlement she lives in. Everyone is frankly horrified by the constant noise and mess, and Ima is isolated, but also refuses help from anyone, until she finally gives in and begins relying on Jorne, another Nystrom-modified being that was made to do the hard manual labour and the like for the erta.

The pacing is very slow and it took me till about a third of the way into the story to really get into it. Ima's initial arrogance and misunderstanding about caring for a helpless baby were so funny; conversely, author Adrian J. Walker captured her exhaustion, frustration, and the sheer repetitiveness of her early months well.

As the years pass, Ima notices that the normally placid Erta, who are excited that their work is done and are looking forward to trancendence (moving beyond a physical existence), are beginning to exhibit anger, strife, and violence, something unheard of in all their previous years of life.

Walker proposes a future that, for all the successes achieved by the Erta, kind of grim, where the Erta must decide whether humans can be trusted to treat their planet well. The Erta make good arguments against reintroducing homo sapiens, whose propensity for war and greed have brought our planet to the mess it is in now.

At the same time, the Erta have prejudices against humans, such that some of the things that make our species so interesting (the creation of art in all its forms) are not considered in their decisions.

I wish the pacing had been tighter, as I found the book took a long time to get engaging, but once it did, I was hooked. Ima is conflicted about her project, while also wholeheartedly falling in love with her young charge, whose curiosity and imagination show her that the Erta should not be too quick to dismiss the species.

The ending was good, and I loved the writing of the last few paragraphs, in particular, which left me in tears.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Solaris for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Human Son by Adrian J. Walker is a thought-provoking science fiction novel that explores humanity’s potential for redemption through the lens of an advanced, post-human Earth. Five hundred years after humans have been wiped out to save the planet, the genetically engineered Erta are faced with the decision of whether to reintroduce the violent species they once eliminated. To test the waters, they raise one human child, only to discover the complexities of emotion and love as Ima, the Erta tasked with his care, grows attached to him. Walker’s novel expertly examines themes of empathy, morality, and what it means to be human, offering a poignant and intellectually stimulating narrative that challenges ideas of progress and survival.

For a summer sci-fi with a non-human lead, this is the much better bet over Mal Goes to War. The main character starts out as a kind of Data-Vulcan-baby AI, with no emotion and a worship of logic, but her growth over the course of the story feels genuine; she remains a flawed person looking for growth.

The story is slower paced with a focus on interaction and growth. It's not quite as cozy as The Galaxy, and the Ground Within but could still make a fun choice for a book group. It feels a little long, like maybe the pacing needed just a little fixing, but it will be a nice book for summer lounging.

The story mostly feels wrapped up, no sequel is needed, but the door isn't completely shut on the possibility.

eARC from NetGalley.

This was such a powerful story. It’s set hundreds of years in the future, after humans have been forced to go extinct and the Erta, an artificially created humanoid species, have finally achieved their purpose of healing the planet. Their original directive was to reintroduce humans to the planet once their goal is achieved, but once they get to that point, the typically peaceful Erta devolve into disagreements and distrust. They finally agree to allow Ima, a quiet and somewhat antisocial atmospheric scientist, to raise a single human boy as an experiment.

What follows is a relatable story about the challenges of raising a young child, but also a fascinating story about humanity, second chances, and finding love in the most unexpected places.

"The Human Son" is a sci-fi book where Earth has been fixed by a race of created beings called erta who are trying to decide whether to bring back humanity through an experiment: an erta will raise one human son and they will see after a set time if humans can be brought back.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, and contemplating how we can better take care of the earth. I didn’t care for the way the story was told, though; the narrator was an erta, a created being who was created to “fix” the earth, but she came off very robotic. Also, because the story was told to the human son, there was a LOT of descriptions about human things that I don’t know were necessary to the audience (since we’re, ya know, humans).

It took a while to get into, but once I was into it the story did pick up; there were lots of cliff-hangers at the end of chapters which kept me reading.

Thank you NetGalley and Solaris, for early access to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m finally giving up at 14%. I just cannot get into this book. The narrator is not human (not that there’s anything wrong with that! 😄), and the way she thinks and processes bores me to tears. I wanted to love this, but I keep doing other things except reading this because I’m finding it tedious. I’m giving it a 3.5, rounded up, because it’s well-written, and I’m convinced that other people probably will like it.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Solaris Nova (thank you!). All opinions are my own.

This is a different book. I loved every single second of it. This is super well written and the characters are super on point.