Title: The Human Son

Author: Adrian J. Walker

Release date: April 28th, 2020

I’m late to the game with Adrian J. Walker’s writing. I read his fantastic novel ‘The End of the World Running Club’ not that long ago, and really, really enjoyed it. I wanted to check out more of his work, and ‘The Human Son’ was the novel that really seemed to leap out and speak to me the most.

One thing I often find interesting, to my reading brain at least, is that 99% of what I read is typically what I’d deem ‘hard horror.’ The other 1% is filled with the other genres that have my interest – sci-fi, some non-fiction, the occasional thriller and once in a while the releases considered speculative fiction. I’m not great with the genre labels, but ‘The Human Son’ does seem to sit firmly in the dystopian/speculative/sci-fi realm.

The story picks up roughly 500 years after the last human on earth has died. Now, a collection of Ertlings, human-like inhabitants that were created by the humans to return the earth to a livable/inhabitable condition are nearing the end of their time. They’ve achieved their tasks and are setting the stage for Transcendence, when they’ll leave this realm and travel somewhere else.

What I liked: With a synopsis like that I was intrigued to see what Walker would do with it and where he’d take the story. The part that really got me intrigued was as these Ertlings were planning to leave, they decided to create a single human, a boy, and see if this boy would grow and prosper and make different decisions than the humans who destroyed the world.

This book tackles a huge scope of ideas and real world issues. Climate change, hierarchy of residents, stereotypes, social stigma’s, race and gender roles and even what truly determines if someone is someone’s parent. The book has so many seemingly innocent moments that broke my heart. It’s the journey of a parent watching their child grow up and coming to the realization that they won’t always be there to protect their loved one. As the father of a five year old (at the time of this review) I see this in so many things. Of his growing independence, his developing of friends which will soon lead to less time for me, and even just in how he’s developing and getting smarter and smarter. Infinitely proud but also filled with a sorrow that soon our time that we share together won’t be the same. Soon, he’ll move away and only call sporadically.

The story is told through the perspective of Ima, an Ertling who’d previously been in charge with repairing the sky and the air on earth. Now that her purpose is complete, she volunteers to raise the human son and determine if he is capable of change and if the human race should be reintroduced to the planet.

I loved seeing the may Ima changed over time and went from a data collector who only cared about analysis to a caring, empathetic and emotional being.

Walker does a great job of keeping tension throughout a book that on its surface, really shouldn’t have that much tension. I absolutely HAD to know what happened next and it didn’t take long before I was pushing my other books I’m reading to the side to solely focus on this one.

Lastly, the ending of this book is both spectacular and had me bawling my eyes out. Beautiful, poignant and heartbreaking, but also filled with so much hope.

What I didn’t like: To be upfront, I’m not sure how well this book will resonate or connect with people who’re not parents of any kind – be it kid or animal. I fear that some parts may come off as tedious, repetitive and boring, but wow did these moments bring me back to the early days of raising my son and going through all of that.

Why you should buy this: This is one of the reasons why speculative fiction can work so very well and this book both posits so many questions but also tries to give us some answers. This is accessible sci-fi, accessible dystopian fiction and the bonus was, we get a book that isn’t filled with war and violence and death. Walker is a true master and this book just hits so many highs that it’s a shame that I had to finish it. Well done, and a world I’ll never forget.

5/5