LIFE, UNDIMINISHED.

In Lemmert’s SF novel, a mysterious epidemic sweeps across Earth.

One thousand years from now, most humans have left the dying Earth and settled on other planets. With less of humanity present to wreak environmental destruction, Earth has recovered. Now under a centralized government, both humans and the planet seem to be flourishing, though those who have traveled to other worlds still view Earth-dwellers as backward (“Their gendered world, which operates in part through sexual desires, seems animalistic”). After being dropped on Earth for an extended research trip, Dr. Aurora Miti has fallen in love with Dr. Nicholas Munyakazi, as well as the beautiful “sanctuary,” a large nature preserve created to give various species of plants and animals a safe place to live and grow. While Aurora is enjoying her time on Earth, her former shipmates continue on toward a distant sphere, Zeta-2, where a mutiny leaves the leader, Regina, stranded on the planet alone. Returning later, the crewmates expect to find her dead, but, surprisingly, she’s alive. The small team who bring her back on board soon come down with a mysterious illness that leaves them dead before anyone can figure out what’s wrong. As the crew quarantines on Earth’s moon to determine what’s happening, an animal protection organization gets ahold of the deadly microbe and transmits it to Earth, where it runs rampant through the population. In this speculative novel, the author takes readers on an absorbing journey far into the future, continuing the story begun in Lemmert’s previous novel from 2021, Life, Unedited. For new readers, the author provides a summary of events from the first book, which is incredibly helpful, if a bit of an information overload so early on in the story. Given recent historical events, the quarantine procedures and the rush to find a vaccine for a disease unlike anything doctors have seen before feel incredibly relevant and are likely to keep readers on the edges of their seats.

A thrilling race to save the planet and humanity itself.