Oliver Crawford

The Last Generation Oliver Crawford

THE LAST GENERATION is written in the speculative genre. It is the year 2050. From its opening lines: "It was the work of the devil, it was the will of God, but for whatever reason between Hell and Hereafter, the order of Mammalia, Homo Sapiens, ceased to reproduce itself on the planet Earth at the precise moment it entered the year 2020. "By the end of the quarter of the following century, certainly not much beyond, not a single human being could be expected to inhibit the planet." For thirty relentless and frustrating years all the world's resources, brain power and energies of the last doomed generation on earth have been pooled to probe the utmost cataclysm ever to befall mankind-the chilling loss of the next generation-anall-consuming mega-search to restore man's greatest gift-procreation. Millions die daily and there is no replenishment. The world no longer suffers hunger and starvation and pollution, for with new technologies beyond dreams, life for a dwindling population has never been more bountiful and benign. Boundaries are meaningless and it is the longest history without war. For thirty years the resumption of procreation has eluded massive worldwide research. Until Mike Swain, microbiologist, the last man on earth to be born and theoretically, will be the last to die, stumbles upon the remedy. Power and wealth beyond calculation is his if he will reveal his life-renewal discovery. Long dormant greed and lust erupts and corruptive power is unleashed by an international cabal to wrest this arcane knowledge from Mike. THE LAST GENERATION becomes a magnified "Maltese Falcon" of the future. Whoever knows the secret of life controls the world. Men, corporations and nations will lie, cheat, conspire and kill for it. One man's innate humanity is pitted against forces beyond his control topitilessly drive and hurtle him to a suspenseful unforeseen climax.