Into the Twilight: What It Means to Be and Remain Human

by Michael Segedy

Into the Twilight received a "recommended label" from Kirkus Review. "Segedy doesn’t break the setup’s mold except to use a metafictional device early on, positing a storyteller behind the scenes. (It’s a device that worked to similar effect in John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, not to mention the works of Lemony Snicket.) This novel is "a long and often heady SF tour of humanity that offers a good deal more engaging talk than phaser-fire action."


Into the Twilight takes place 200 years into the future when Jacob Ladder and Emma Fine, strangers to one another, wake from two centuries of suspended life to a future that challenges many of their deep-rooted assumptions about what it means to be and remain human.

As the story opens, the human race faces demise from within and without. Mulling over its options, the governing council decides that the human genome will require “major redesigning” or “scrapping” if what’s left of humanity is to survive.
And that’s where Ike comes in.

Not only is Ike a test case for future humanity, and the story’s clever, enigmatic narrator, he could very well be its last historian, that is, the one chosen to record the final events in human evolution. As he attempts to fulfill his newly assigned role, he engages in a journey of self-discovery that ends in the most unlikely of all places.

Hardcover

Published February 2, 2022

About the author

Michael Segedy is an award winning author. Over the years he has lived abroad in faraway places such as Taiwan, Israel, Morocco, and Peru. His life overseas has inspired him to write thrillers that include scenes set in foreign lands.

Novels to date:

Hampton Road, a psychological thriller
In Deep, a political thriller
Cupiditas, a political thriller
Evil's Root, a compilation of In Deep and Cupiditas
EMMA: Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists, a terrorist thriller
Our Darker Angel, a crime thriller
Sanctimonious Serial Killers, a crime thriller

Apart from writing novels, Michael has published three non-fiction works:

A Critical Look at John Gardner's Grendel
Teaching Literature and Writing in the Secondary Classroom
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson with Introduction, Notes, and Lessons by Michael Segedy

He's also published numerous academic articles about literature and writing in various scholarly journals.

Gwendolyn Brooks, former poet laureate of Illinois, presented him with Virginia English Bulletin's first place writing award.

He and his family currently spend half of the year living in the US and the other half in Lima, Peru.

Reviews

[Audiobookreviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2030, Emma and Jacob were placed in suspended animation for two hundred years. Upon their awakening, they discover things for humankind have changed. In facing extinction, it was decided that changes to the human genome would be required for survival. It is upon their awakening, that Emma and Jacob must come to terms with the changes, and what it means to be human. The story is told from the viewpoint of Ike, the story narrator, the final historian of humanity. Recording humanity’s evolution is a personal journey that challenges the AI, Ike to consider not only his role in humanity but the passion/caring for humanity growing within him.

The voice actor, Ellen B. Connor gives a performance that leaves the listener completely engrossed in the story. Connor’s use of unique voices and the delivery with intonations perfect the narration and enrich the story. This is my first experience with Connor, and I have to say, it was not only enjoyable, but I cannot imagine any other narrator giving such an excellent performance in this book.

In this epically long audio, Segedy successfully challenges the listener to ponder the age-old question of time vs reality.

There were no issues with the quality or production of this audiobook, it was well done.