Robin Cook's 'Abduction'

I finished off with Robin Cook's Abduction. This scifi novel is about 'Interterrens' who are considered to be 'first generation humans', abduct humans or 'second generation humans'. The them of the story is that there originated humans [first generation] and they where sophisticated peace loving and civilized in the early history of the Earth, which we hardly know about. There was a period in earth's history called 'Dark Age', where earth faced catastrophic events and all the life forms vanished form its faced. This event was predicted by scientist of first generation humans and they searched for an alternate home. They couldn't find one so they have to go under sea a layer under sea which is between earth's crust and mantle called Mohorovičić discontinuity, usually referred to as the Moho. After the Dark Age is over life originated again on earth and started off with a new pace. Then comes second generation humans after millions of years. All these time first generation humans or interterrens where watching us or rather the changes on earth. They cant come back to earth's surface as they are not exposed to the viruses or bacteria present here.

The story starts with a group of geographic exploration done by a team of 'Banthic Marine vessel'. With the help of a submersible they goes to explore the sea mount and they eventually sucked inside the Interterra. They where decontaminated and send to the underworld city. The story is about their [second generation human's] struggle to go back to earth surface.

The novel touches the areas of geology, biotechnology and time travel with a perfect blend of fiction. Mr.Cook has portraited Interterra as an Utopian netherworld, with sophisticated technology. The people there are immortal, as death is just a process of getting rid of their old bodies and their spirit or essence is refilled into their new bodies, with cloning techniques. The work in Intertera is done by Worker clones which are semi hominids...ie.. half machine half human.

The whole interterra is build by the concept of utopian socialism. There are plenty of every thing, which means there is no competition among the interterrans. Robin cook has intruded the socialist thoughts in the light of Scifi and he admits that only on a higly cultured society or humans can maintain this socialism. One more fact is that there is no religion. Its true in a sense that if you can clone your mind and body what is the need of a god. How superior those Interterrans are.There is one draw back of this society, ie nothing but the never ending monotony. 'Abduction' gives a thought, whether this socialist thoughts can be introduced into our existing society. Well firstly we need so much sophisticated technologies; then a liberal mind to make such a civilized society and equal economic distribution or no distribution and more importantly NO RELIGION [U know what happens to USSR]. As in 'interterra' all things belongs to every one .... even partners and sex.

I really enjoyed the reading and Its thought provoking.....