Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a science fiction novel by Kate Wilhelm, published in 1976. Parts of it appeared in Orbit 15 in 1974. It was the recipient of the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1977, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976. The title of the book is a quotation from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73. Massive environmental changes and global disease, attributed to large-scale pollution, cause the collapse of civ... more

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a science fiction novel by Kate Wilhelm, published in 1976. Parts of it appeared in Orbit 15 in 1974. It was the recipient of the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1977, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976. The title of the book is a quotation from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73. Massive environmental changes and global disease, attributed to large-scale pollution, cause the collapse of civilization around the world. One large, well-to-do extended family sets up an isolated community. However, as the death toll mounts (due to a variety of causes) the family begins cloning themselves to survive. This is due to universal infertility. It is assumed that as time passes, fertility will return and sexual reproduction will be possible once again. However, when the clones come of-age, they reject the idea of sexual reproduction in favor of further cloning. The original members of the community, too old and outnumbered by the clones to... less