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Synopsis / Contents:
It is the year 2176. The world has survived a catastrophic 21st Century, emerging from oil depletion, climate change, and epidemic disease with a drastically reduced population. And in the United States, it's an election year.
Young Adam Hazzard lives in rural Athabaska, one of the sixty States of the Union. His hometown of Williams Ford is – or seems to be – safely distant from the conflicts of the day: an ongoing war with European powers for possession of Labrador and ever-simmering rivalries among the military, the civilian government, and the theocratic Church of the Dominion. But that illusion of safety is quickly coming to an end.
Adam has been befriended by a young aristocrat his own age: Julian Comstock, who has been sent to Williams Ford by his family to protect him from the jealousy of the reigning President, his uncle Deklan. Unlike Adam, Julian is sophisticated, city-bred, and intellectually restless. His father, a military hero, has been hanged for treason. Julian's only protector in Williams Ford is his mentor, Sam Godwin, an ex-soldier who promised Julian's father he would keep the boy safe and help him make his way in the world.
That won't be easy. The election campaign brings a detachment of troops to Williams Ford. The War in Labrador is going badly; more recruits are being conscripted. And a trap is being laid for Julian...
Adam, struggling to come to terms with Julian's religious apostasy and the near-forgotten truths he has discovered in an antique book called 'The History of Mankind in Space', faces a wrenching decision about his own future... and there is much more at stake than he realizes.