Simply Human — L. Warren Douglas

WOULD YOU TRUST THIS KID WITH THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE?

Assaulted by random chemicals, solar radiation, and genetic manipulation, the human gene pool was falling apart. The solution: simplify it, making it fourfold redundant and self-correcting. In a thousand years, when the planet was clean again, change it back. In the meantime, the ?Simplified? humans would keep rudimentary civilization going.

But after two thousand years, the automated monitors still register intolerable mutation rates. Achibol the Sorcerer, dilapidated cyborg troubleshooter, is repairing them one by one, but someone--or something--doesn't want him to succeed.

The urchin Benadek, Achibol's apprentice, only wants good food and a warm place to sleep. But nothing is ever what it seems, including Benadek. And nothing human is ever . . . simple.