Oblivion's Children

In a laboratory at Vomisa Corp, a young robotics engineer, Micael Wyman, rescues his friend, Dawna, from a prototype robot that has run amok. While he frets about the malfunction, she distracts him and they have an affair. That evening as they embrace under the stars an eerie, yellow glow fills the sky, then disappears. The event baffles the world's scientists. Weeks later, after Dawna finds out she is pregnant, doctors around the world discover that human reproduction no longer works. Months later Micael introduces his genue-robot, Murl, to the public. Afterwards he and Murl rescue Dawna in a macabre episode in which she gives birth to one of the last babies in the world.

Over the next decade scientists explore the mystery of human infertility while quacks prey on women yearning to become pregnant. Genues are such a success that Micael and Dawna can raise their son Adam in luxury. Murl, the first genue, has been upgraded to perceive his own thoughts and soon is helping Micael run the genue factory. Micael gets into a jam and forces Murl to tell a lie, an unnatural act that will influence his behavior many years later.

During the next decade, Murl witnesses the fallibilities and foibles of humans. When Adam takes charge of Genusys Corp., Murl is his assistant. His father, Micael, is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee, then killed in a failed rescue attempt. Back at the Wyman mansion, Murl explores the notion of love with Adam's girl friend, Hope, but gets it all wrong.

Years pass and the growing population of genues organizes a society to discuss the prejudices against them. As the youngest humans turn fifty-five the prospect of restoring human fertility looks bleak. But now the genue Versum begins to study human genetics and seems to have solved the mystery. During a competition of wits between Murl and a human, an anti-genue conspirator inadvertently destroys Versum before he can divulge his solution.

More years pass. Scientists give up hope of fixing human fertility. The dwindling human population enjoys a golden age with genues attending their needs. Adam begins to see genues as sentient beings and inheritors of human culture but his friend Chenkov thinks they are only ingenious imitations, machines with no sentience. Adam struggles to prove him wrong.

As more years pass, Adam becomes depressed, fearing that Chenkov was right. Finally, when Adam is the only human, Murl informs him of an amazing fact. Versum, moments before he was killed, conveyed his solution for the Amber Day mystery to Murl, and years later genue scientists verified it. However, the genues decided not to use the knowledge to restore human fertility since they saw no need for people.

Adam is at first angry with this news. Then he realizes that this decision not to save the human race is proof that genues are truly sentient--that they are the children of humankind and not just programs and machines