# Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm



## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Nov 22, 2010)

I've finished *Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang*,   and I liked it quite a lot. Ostensibly a post-apocalyptic novel about   cloning, it's basically a meditation on the role of individuality and   our relationship with nature as defining elements of being human. Kate   Wilhelm suggests that our grounding in our own sense of individualism   and our feeling of kinship with nature are powerful components of   humanity that we would not do well to outgrow.

The genetic  holocaust  that overtakes her near-future world is not particularly  deeply explored  or explained as it is in books like Brunner's *The Sheep Look Up *where   the nature of the apocalypse itself is a large part of the theme of  the  story, and while the consequences of cloning form a large part of  the  plot machinery, the real emphasis here is not on a rigorous   thought-exploration of the pros and cons and possible results of   cloning, either. Instead, Wilhelm charts the gradual dilution of human   nature into a sort of insectile collectivism through repeated cloning   from the same limited gene bank and the resilient resurgence of the   undiluted human spirit. Wilhelm's story states that it is better to   forgo all the benefits of years of progress and technology and revert to   a primitive form of life if it means preserving the diverse range of   personalities and the instinctual elements of human nature.

It  also  touches on the importance of creativity, storytelling and  myth-making to  humanity, with the first truly human beings in several  generations  turning to artistic self-expression and the telling of  just-so tales.

All this is framed in a narrative that, even if it  is low on tech-talk  and action, conveys a vivid sense of character and  place. A very  satisfying reading experience all in all, even if I'm  just a little  uncomfortable with the bucolic patriarchy established in  the end - which  is probably a reflection of how comfortable I am with  the trappings of  our decadent world civilization. Where the novel fell  short for me is that none of the underlying points of the story were  new, and probably weren't even at the time - paeans to individuality are  not rare in American SF and the virtues of feral humanity as opposed to  synthetic clones were explored in Aldous Huxley's *Brave New World*.


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## Omphalos (Nov 22, 2010)

I loved this book.  I thought she did a great job making the clones seem strange.  She messed up the scinence, but I don't particularly care.  Still thought it was a fantastic book.


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## Fried Egg (Nov 14, 2011)

Yes indeed, great book. A post-apocalyptic setting but that's really just a device for exploring the pros and cons of individuality.


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