Customer Reviews

Before Adam

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This is a fascinating, fast-paced story about Man just before he became Man. I loved being taken back to our origins by the totally plausible "time-machine" of genetic memory as presented by Jack London. The story literally shows us the stuff our dreams and we ourselves are made of. This is the first Jack London I've ever read and I'm looking forward to more. I somehow missed having to read Call of the Wild in my school days. I find the style crisp and concrete, and the "far out" premise of the story very believable. I would recommend this to any thoughtful junior high school student and to all adults.

I have never read a book quite like Jack London's "Before Adam." It would be interesting to learn what his target audience for this book was -- young teens, high school students, adults? In it, London sets the premise for the reason of common dreams we all have, such as the dream of falling through space. He attests that it comes from our pre-man existence when we lived and slept in trees and falling meant almost sure death. He takes this theory a giant step forward through the narrator of the book who claims he has pre-historic dreams in which he sees himself as a pre-historic tree and cave dweller named Big Tooth. He creates a fascinating world for Big Tooth to inhabit, and delves into early evolution and survival of the fittest. There are a few holes in his logic, but mostly the story holds together well with several exciting chase sequences. The world of Big Tooth is horrifying, and I think for young teens who are susceptible, it could induce additional nightmares beyond falling. There are dramatic scenes of killing, torture, wife beating, and mass exterminations which are quite explicit. I'm glad I read it, for the book has given me much to think about.

Nightmares plague the narrator's childhood. In these dreams he relives the pre-stoneage life of one of his proto-human ancestors. Each night is a different episode from his ancestor's life, and the episodes are lived and relived in a jumbled, non-chronological order. The narrator places the episodes in chronological order and tells his ancestor's biography. What emerges is an action-packed, engaging saga of adventure and romance at the dawn of humanity.

London got the science of genetics wrong as he tried to explain how the narrator could have such memories, but he seems to have gotten one thing right. Modern paleo-anthropology posits that for most of prehistory, the earth contained several coexisting species of hominids. London peoples his world with three hominid species. His description of the interaction between these species probably gives an accurate depiction of ancient man's inter-species interaction.

While I'm not much into reading fiction or Sci-Fi type books; I have to say, this is probably one of the best books, I've ever read in my life. ( and I'm an avid reader)

Jack London has a way of really pulling your mind into the picture. ( Or putting pictures/stories inside your head)

If you're looking for a book to take your mind of things, or want to live a vicarious experience, I can think of no better book than this one.

This is one of Jack Londons stellar achievements. The ending will surprise you.

An awesome book, that you'll have trouble putting down, until you're finished.

I only started reading Jack London's work three years ago, but I've had an interest in prehistoric times and evolution since I was ten. When I tried explaining to other children that humans and apes may have evolved from a common ancestor they just sort of sneered in disbelief. This was over a hundred years after Charles Darwin had died.

Jack London's first SF novel "Before Adam" is an imaginitive, compelling read. Through his dreams, a twentieth century man "remembers" events from another time and place - a life lived at the dawn of time. The narrator "Big-Tooth" shows us the harsh brutality of prehistoric life, the endless struggle to survive, the constant danger posed by predators looking for food, and the menace of the "Fire Men" - a race more advanced than the species Big-Tooth belongs to, a race that have learned to use fire and kill prey with bows and arrows. It's very rare for anyone to live beyond middle age. Most people die violent deaths, either at the hands of a rival, or satisfying the hunger of a beast.

This is not the first story with a prehistoric setting (Jack London was apparently accused of plagiarism by another author, Stanley Waterloo), but it's a wonderful book nevertheless. London later wrote a book with a similar premise called "The Star Rover", in which a condemned prisoner puts himself into a trance and experiences his past lives. It's possible that J.G. Ballard had also read "Before Adam" before writing "The Drowned World", another book about race memory and the retreat into prehistory. There's a lot of psychology in it.

As a species we've certainly come a long way, or so we like to think. The slaughter initiated by the Fire Men looking for living space has been repeated time and time again. Our "intelligence" has enabled us to come up with more ingenious ways to kill each other, moving from bows and arrows to guns to weapons of mass destruction. From what can be seen on television or read in newspapers, it seems we're still a long way from "growing up". Jack London's novel should teach us not to be complacent.

I read this book many years ago, when I was in Junior High, and had no clue it was the same Jack London that wrote "Call of the Wild". The book was that timeless, I thought it was a contemporary writer. I have been looking for it for years and will definitely get another copy to read again. If you're a SciFi/Fantasy Fan looking for some thought provoking, but "light" reading, this is a great book.

This is an excellent little book of adventure. London explores the idea of human genetic memory by allowing his protagonist suffer visions of his simian ancestors distant past. Lex Talionis rules in this delight of our evolutionary history. I couldn't put this one down. A must read for all London fans!

I agree wholeheartedly that this is a very unique and interesting work (it's hard to even call it a novel or pin it down to another genre). The book is about a modern day protagonist who has nightmares about prehistoric life. As he becomes an adult, he posits a theory that these are the biological remnants of the experience of his distant prehistoric ancestor.

He pieces together the story from his dreams and what comes out is this book - a detailed and very graphic portayal of life before people were "people". Reading this, you are plunged into a whole different world, where the inhabitants are somewhere between people and the primate-ancestor on the evolutionary scale. It is an amazingly harsh and cruel existence with a truly "primitive" society. And yet, we get to love some of the central characters, empathise with them and marvel at this novel's description of the seeds or the birth of what we see as humanity in terms of resourcefulness and compassion.

The work also has a psychological and philosophical aspect as the modern day narrator wrestles with his "second I" and what his connection to his ancestor means to his identity. I've read several good prehistoric fiction works and this is the best - certainly the most profound - it really makes you think and amazes you.

In "Before Adam" author Jack London's protagonist has nightmare dreams that appear to be racial memories of his distant proto-human ancestors. London's novel is a narration of these memories, which give a glimpse into humanity's distant past. In this gone era, London postulates that there were three species of hominoids co-habiting the Earth. And not in harmony. The three species each preys upon the other two, and in this world only one of the three species has any real concept of teamwork or the use of tools.

Interestingly, London's protagonist appears to be a member of the second most evolved hominoid species, which itself lives in fear of the "fire people" who are more intelligent, have discovered how to use fire and bows and arrows, and who are merciless enemies to the other hominoid species. London never explains this incongruity, since it seemed to me that the fire people were more likely to be mankind's direct distant ancestors; so it did not seem quite logical that the protagonist modern-day human would have memories deriving from one of the less advanced species.

No matter. This is a compelling and vivid look at our past as it may well have been. Most readers will find this to be an unforgettable journey, well worth taking. Recommended.

If you believe in evolution, you may wonder how the ancestors of humans lived. In London's clever tale, they are ape-like, with no language and only several dozen sounds, beings who know nothing of fire. They grew up in nests in trees, far above hunting animals below them. They were afraid of falling, and this atavistic fear has been passed on our genes today and is the reason many people fear heights.

This throwback fear of heights is not the only ancient experience passed on to our generation from the primeval past. People sense other experiences of their ancestors in their genes and imagine, incorrectly, that this is a proof of reincarnation, that they had a previous life. But they did not live before. They are, London writes, only sensing the past of their ancestors that is imbedded in their genes.

And, so, imagine a young man in modern times who has a unique sensitivity to these genes, who is able to sense the life lived by his primordial ancestor. He sees three levels of developing "humans" in his dreams, the tree dwellers, the cave folk, and the fire people. His ancestor is among the middle group, deadly frightened by the other two. He sees his folk scampering around, enjoying life somewhat but not quite like monkeys, and how the fire people decimate them.

It may surprise readers to find out that the famous classical writer, the author they were told to read in school, who wrote Call of the Wild and many other books, composed this clever and interesting fantasy.