By 2106, the overpopulated, heated-up world's a mess. Disorder brings an oppressive "Brotherhood" to power in the northern hemisphere. The party believes in male superiority, the privileges of property, and dictatorial rule. Science has produced faster-than-light space ships, however. Jan Sussinissen, the son of a rebel leader, sneaks on board one such ship. He will pretend to scout a portion of an earthlike planet that troubled discoverers named New Start. The Brothers plan to implant there a feudal economy with Brotherhood bosses and serf-like, agricultural workers. Jan, in escaping, also hopes to infect such a society with civilized values. He lands in the forested north of the planet with a member of the Brotherhood. "Insect men," eight-foot creatures that jump like grasshoppers and climb trees, but can't swim or survive severe cold, immediately attack them. Gunshots don't stop the horrors, which strip Jan's companion of his flesh. Our protagonist escapes them by swimming to an island. There, he uses survival skills he acquired as a youth in his native Northern Canada. He builds a canoe and, finally, a cabin on an island in the far north. Jan struggles to reconstitute the technology developed by mankind over thousands of years. He figures out how to insulate a drafty log shelter, cure skins and make warm clothes, and how to concoct soap, vinegar, bread, smelting coke, and other essentials. Jan learns at a Brotherhood administrative center that fission explosives have been detonated in the ports of America and Europe. Also, the Senior Brother identifies him as a rebel "ringer." Thus, Jan must flee the center to avoid execution. Later, he returns for a short time to lead a rebellion of refugee serfs. Barbara Levy, a highly resourceful "entertainer," helps. After victory, a small cadre of skilled men and women join Jan at his homestead. In response to the nuclear attack, the Brotherhood drops fusion bombs on Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Riyadh. Space-borne waves of Brothers who flee a convulsing earth recapture the center and re-enslave Barbara and other rebels. As a result of the bombing, earthquakes and volcanoes sprout in the subduction zones around the Arabian tectonic plate. A growing cloud of noxious fumes and basalt dust circles the globe, blanking out the sun. Before earth fully dies, rebels hijack space ships and, under the command of Jan's father, Hake, re-conquer the New Start administrative center. The insect men are evolving toward civilization. Conscious of the human threat, they swarm around the center, determined to eliminate the invaders. Jan, Barbara, and Hake organize a river-borne exodus of six hundred rebels and ex-serfs. Their destination is Jan's northern nucleus of a settlement. Another Brotherhood location is weakened by guilt over the demise of earth. After destroying most of its offensive ability, Jan returns to his settlement to prepare for the refugees. Attacked, he kills the leading Brotherhood official and his pirate crew. Jan has eliminated the authoritarian poison brought from earth. Still, the threat of the dominant native species remains. Several expeditions fight their way down river until the refugees encounter a driftwood dam swarming with thousands of insect men. Jan returns with a naturally occurring insecticide that clears the river and promises permanent superiority over insect men. After victory, Jan and his people celebrate a thanksgiving. They've successfully gained a new start for the last humans in the universe.
About the Author: Before college, Mr. Warren served in the U.S. Navy, where he acted as a radiological safety monitor at the Bikini atom bomb tests. Afterwards, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, the London School of Economics, and Harvard. He started his career working for Lockheed, soon specialized in selling aircraft to Southwest Asia. In that activity, he contacted the highest political levels, including the Indian Prime Minister and his cabinet. Mr. Warren capped his international experience with a two-year stint in the Department of State. He ran the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System of the Agency of International Development. There, he secured a privileged view of world economic, demographic, and political trends. After leaving Washington, Mr. Warren became Director of Market Research for Lockheed Missiles and Space in Sunnyvale, California. The products were strategic missiles and satellites. In 1975, Martin Marietta recruited Mr. Warren to serve as Director of Aerospace Market Research. He soon became Director of Strategic Planning for the Electronics and Missiles Division in Orlando, Florida. He joined a small team that built the 2,600-person Division into a Group that employed 16,000 people. Mr. Warren worked directly with military leaders in the Pentagon, laboratories, and using commands. He helped perform system analyses of future battles in order to determine the requirement for new weapon systems. He developed new business budgets of over $70 million a year, half in advanced research and development. As a result of his management team's work, Martin led the precision guidance revolution demonstrated in the old Yugoslavia and twice in Iraq. Mr. Warren's company proposed, designed, and built the fire control systems of the F16E and Apache, as well as the Patriot and Hellfire missiles. Now retired, Mr. Warren lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife. He has two sons and is a community leader, being past president of both the Orlando Science Center and Civic Theater. Still intellectually curious, his present interests involve recent research on the brain and the promise of genetic engineering. He writes hard science fiction in those fields. Eight science fiction novels and two memoirs bear his name.