Our Children's Children [Anglais] [Poche]

Our descendants from 500 years in the future have to leave their own time frame because earth has been invaded by creatures which are systematically wiping out the population. Gale the leader states that the whole population of 3 billion people will be travelling through timegates to temporarily settle in the present day. They then plan to build new timegates which will carry them back to the Miocene era so they will not upset the natural evolution of man. The rush is on to get everyone through as soon as possible because the threat of one of the aliens arriving through time would be catastrophic because of their fast breeding cycle. One creature gets through and the chase is on to destroy it before it breeds. Simak creates a believable situation in regard to how our politicians and religious leaders react to the invasion from the future. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and if the subject of time travel is your genre then I suggest you check this book out

"Our Children's Children" (1974) by Clifford Simak is a story that attempts to fuse several over used science fiction tropes into something new and different. What results is a meandering tale with the distinct feel that it had been hastily contrived, with a truncated ending.

Alien invaders have overcome our children's children some 500 years into the future. These aliens are very nasty. How nasty you ask, well, they love to kill, are super fast, breed like rats and eat people...nasty. Our peace loving progeny decide to evacuate their entire population of 2 billion, via time tunnels back to our time. ("How do you do, we are from your future escaping man eating aliens, do mind if we move in? Here is a bag of diamonds for your trouble.") Well, some aliens slip back along with the humans to our time. This unfortunate event keeps the story line lumbering along.

The narrative is told from the perspective of the White House press office. This gives the author several opportunities to introduce us to various newspaper types. Actually these are the most interesting characters in the book. It's no surprise considering Simak's press background. There are several conferences with the President and his advisers that attempt to comprehend 'the big picture' and what to do about it...ho-hum. There are a few chapters with plot threads that read as it they could have been edited out the story with none the wiser. The "love story" plot line is so sappy I had trouble reading it with a straight face. The whole concept of time-travel, multiple "time tracks" going back and forward in time and the discussion of alternative universes is so unconvincing it reads like ragtime.

It is noteworthy for Simak devotees that this story does not take place in the bucolic environs of southwest Wisconsin or near the Twins Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul but in Washington D.C.

This 1974 story is still modestly entertaining and thankfully a quick read. It was first published in IF science fiction magazine (1973). It was last published in the U.S. in 1983 as a DAW paperback with a nifty Frank Kelly Freas cover.
The author used the identical time travel concept [resettling Earth's population into the far past] in his 1978 novel "Mastodonia".

Clifford Simak (1904-1988) wrote a masterpiece, "City" (1952) rewarded with International Fantasy Award, two remarkable sci-fi novels "Way Station" (1963) Hugo Award winner and "Highway of Eternity" (1986) and many good short stories and novels.

"Our Children's Children" (1974) touch many of the author's major themes: aliens, time travel, and parallel universes.

The story starts when a mass of people goes thru a "gate" that has materialized into thin air. They are forced émigrés from 500 years into the future escaping from an alien invasion that had defeated humankind. They are in transit to the Miocene, but they need to stop reorganize and construct new gateways to that far time period.

The author deal with the innumerable problems that this huge migration produces: economical, political and even religious. Yet that is not all, aliens are able to infiltrate and add their menace to the ongoing chaos.

How humanity handle this situation constitutes the core plot of the novel.

A curious detail: these aliens made me think they were the blueprint of John Ringo's deadly centaurs.

I recommend this book to sci-fi lovers. It is a very interesting stuff!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.