This is the first book in a trilogy. The general plot of the trilogy is below. The books are enjoyable, and the setting is fun. There are elements of steam punk and librarians rule the world and have duels with flintlock pistols. They also run around and capture mathematicians to create a computer in which each function is done by one or more people.
in the early 21st century a scientific experiment is carried out in Sydney, Australia to recreate a recently discovered ancient whale, or cetacean, using preserved DNA. The experiment backfires with apocalyptic effects. The whale had been a member of an ancient species with telepathic powers. It escapes with 2 other cetaceans and teaches other cetaceans how to use its ancient weapon of telepathy to devastate the human race that has caused so much harm to them. Copying the emotional longings of one of the scientists it felt, the recreated whale creates a telepathic "Call" that makes humans and most large mammals walk lemming like towards the source of the Call, the ocean. Society is quickly devastated as the majority of the population literally walk to their death in the ocean. Military attempts to destroy the cetaceans come to nothing, but are also diluted due to various world powers believing the Call is a pre-emptive attack by others and launching strikes.
At the same time, a ring of manned nuclear satellites used to enforce world peace is in place. The military commander, seeing the world collapse into chaos and not understanding its full nature, overrides all human operators, and programs the system to destroy all vehicles over a certain size, or moving over a certain speed, and all electronic signatures. This does nothing to stop the cetaceans, and leaves a satellite defence system in place for millennia that will keep the survivors in the technological Dark Ages by force.
The main surviving scientist links up with other survivors and, seeing that birds are not affected by the Call, engages in a genetic experiment to try to give the next generation immunity from the Call by blending bird DNA with humans. Millenia later their descendants will be immune, but also ignorant of their origins, and feared by all "normal" humans although believed to be a myth.
While these events were underway, a long term project to counteract global warming was underway. Robotic miners on the moon were manufacturing a space based ring of mirrors that would also diffuse the sun and cool the Earth. Slowed by the collapse of civilization it continues its task, also building a computer control system that will eventually become sentient.
It is this world 20 centuries later, having adapted to these new rules of existence which it has forgotten the causes of, that change begins to come to in the trilogy.
must be sapy
