Anvil of the Heart — Bruce T. Holmes

It is the year 2057 and John Cunningham's generation is the last of its kind. Cunningham is an example of Homo sapiens, the old race.At the turn of the century, the genetic engineers were able to create a new version of humankind, a new race of highly intelligent, unemotional, non-violent, rational beings. Half a century later an amendment to the Constitution was passed safeguarding the rights of each child to this full potential. No longer could parents doom their own children to second-class citizenship just because the results seemed strange and unfamiliar.The future belongs to the new people.It is not a proud time to be alive. With the factories automated there are millions of the old race unemployed and living on the dole. Housing is overcrowded; travel restricted; and the police exist only to protect the new people and their enclaves. Entertainment deemed appropriate for the vulgar passions of the old race ranges from the orgy channel to the Roaster Toaster Hour. There are those who might rebel, yet it is hard rebelling against one's own children.John Cunningham has two genetically altered children, both far more intelligent than he, and a wife addicted to bobcap orgasms and asperum. He is an encyclopedist working on a summation of the old race history which the new people will file away and probably forget. He is an anachronism, a relative moron in a world of genius.So how does on pass the time while waiting for extinction?Anvil of the Heart is the story of one man testing the limits of human potential. It tells of Winslow Rafferty, and the training. Like all human stories it is about love and violence, the shaping of courage, the anvil of the heart.