WOULD YOU TRUST THIS KID 
WITH THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE

 Assaulted by random chemicals, solar radiation, and genetic manipulation, the human gene pool was falling apart. The solution: simplify it, making it fourfold redundant and self-correcting. In a thousand years, when the planet was clean again, change it back. In the meantime, the "Simplified" humans would keep rudimentary civilization going.

But after two thousand years, the automated monitors still register intolerable mutation rates. Achibol the Sorcerer, dilapidated cyborg troubleshooter, is repairing them one by one, but someone—or something—doesn't want him to succeed.

The urchin Benadek, Achibol's apprentice, only wants good food and a warm place to sleep. But nothing is ever what it seems, including Benadek. And nothing human is ever . . . simple.

Praise for the Science Fiction of L. Warren Douglas:

". . . highly entertaining and full of action . . . a divertingly strange future, one that should appeal equally to fans of sf and fantasy adventure." —Locus

". . . well-crafted, exciting, [more than] space opera . . . intelligent, fast-moving." —Booklist