Nick Brynner, a 16 year old with a streak of curiosity, decides to take a quick trip to visit a restricted island to explore its’ old fort. His plan is to be in and out before anyone notices he has even gone. What Nick finds is way beyond anything he imagines. His simple trespass puts him on an incredible adventure of the utmost importance to the future of humanity.

The Murder of Adam and Eve takes place in several settings. Since I think it is better for any reader to really experience these in the story, than for someone to read it among my ramblings, I will only mention the previous alluded to fort and the African Savannah. No doubt the flap and any other online description give you more information, but I will keep it relatively simple. To spoil as little as possible, Nick stumbles into test to determine the fate of the world as he knows knows. Succeeding, as well as choosing that path, will keep the status quo for our world. Failing, or deciding to allow things to change, will change life on Earth in unforeseen and unknowable ways. He an his new companion Eleanor, AKA Ellie, have been chosen to represent the human race to prove that humanity is worth allowing to continue on their path. Earth and it’s people are not directly in danger of invasion, attack, or anything of the sort per se. The danger, technically is in the past, where unless Nick and Ellie prevent the death of the genetic “Adam and Eve” our entire existence will be unmade to play out an entirely different way. They are sent back to the prehistoric Savannah, 50,000 years in the past to not only figure out how to survive, but also track down the most distant ancestors to whom all current humans can track their DNA back to and stop them from being killed by a race who deem themselves judge, jury and executioner of worlds.

I have to admit the concept of this immediately intrigued me. From the sci-fi angle, there is time travel, aliens, and the progression of life as we know it all intermingled. Very promising start. From a scientific standpoint, William Dietrich took into account actual evolutionary theories and played with them in a very interesting way. The idea that there is a couple dating back to prehistoric times who all current Homo sapiens share genetic links to is not a new or solely literary idea. While the term of “Adam and Eve” is not referencing the actual biblical story, it is a nod to the concept of all humans sharing common ancestors. The author also explores the causality of an event fifty thousand years ago and how the lives of two individuals from that long ago can shape our reality today. This is some seriously interesting science fiction, blended with metaphysics.

Even the best concepts need to be properly executed. Writing a novel about the most appealing theories in the world can fall flat without a strong plot or well developed characters. Thankfully Mr. Dietrich delivers. You really get a good sense of who Nick is, how he came to be the person he is and how his thought process works. He is a very realistic teen put in a very unrealistic situation and reacts accordingly. I think he has good depth and is well formed. Ellie also seemed well created with a good background and fairly believable actions. Of course with Nick being our true main character, he does feel a bit more fleshed out, but for good reasons.

I think that the book was absorbing enough that I cannot really think of many negatives. The only thing that comes to mind is something towards the end of the book that felt pretty predictable. I did not think the whole story or even the outcome itself was, just the way one certain even plays out, I could tell for a bit before it happened that it was clearly written on the wall. Other than that I felt that it was solid. From the environment to the interactions, everything was very well done.

I think at this point it is fairly obvious that I enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it for anyone remotely as nerdy as me. If you find yourself watch the History, Discovery, and/or NatGeo channels, this may be right up your alley. I gave it 4/5 stars and looking back I think that was rather conservative. There is also a fantastic explanation after the story explaining the Author’s inspirations and the theories he incorporated in the novel. I always tend to read authors’ notes after the story, but if you are not typically one who does, I very much suggest doing so for this book… especially my fellow nerds.

Disclaimer: I received this eArc from Netgalley in exchange solely for a fair review.