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A few thousand years in the future post-apocalypse rural Labrador has become a warmer, more hospitable place. The inhabitants have vague historical recollections of "The Old People", a technologically advanced civilization which existed long ago which they believe was destroyed when god sent "Tribulation" to the world to punish their forebears' sins. The society that has survived is loosely remin... More

A few thousand years in the future post-apocalypse rural Labrador has become a warmer, more hospitable place. The inhabitants have vague historical recollections of "The Old People", a technologically advanced civilization which existed long ago which they believe was destroyed when god sent "Tribulation" to the world to punish their forebears' sins. The society that has survived is loosely reminiscent of the American frontier of the 18th century. The inhabitants practice a form of fundamentalist Xianity with post-apocalyptic prohibitions. They believe that in order to follow god & prevent another Tribulation, they need to preserve absolute normality among the surviving humans, plants & animals. Genetic invariance has been elevated to the highest religious principle. Humans with even minor mutations are considered devilish "Blasphemies". Individuals not conforming to a strict physical norm are either killed or sterilized & banished to the Fringes, a forbidden area still rife with mutations. Arguments occur over the keeping of a tailless cat or the possession of oversize horses. These are deemed by the government to be legitimate breeds either preexisting or achieved through conventional breeding. The government's position is considered cynically heretical by the orthodox.
The inland rural settlement of Waknuk is a frontier farming community, populated with hardy & pious individuals intent on reclaiming land from the Fringes. Ten-year-old David Strorm, the son of Waknuk's zealous religious patriarch, has inexplicably vivid dreams of brightly lit cities & horseless carts that are at odds with his preindustrial experience. Despite David's rigorous religious training, he befriends Sophie, a girl carefully concealing the fact that she has six toes on each foot. With the nonchalance of childhood David keeps her secret. The subsequent discovery of Sophie's mutation & her family's attempted flight causes David to wonder at the persecution of human "Blasphemies" & the ritual culling of animal & plant "Deviations". David & a few others of his generation harbor their own invisible mutation: they have strong telepathic abilities. David begins to question why all who are different must be banished or killed. As they mature, David & his fellow telepaths realize that their unusual mutation would be considered a "blasphemy" and they conceal their abilities. That their mutation cannot be directly detected allows their abilities to remain undiscovered for a time. Eventually the group is exposed. David, his half-cousin Rosalind & younger sister Petra flee to the Fringes. Thru the unusually strong telepathic abilities of Petra they make contact with a more advanced society in distant "Sealand". David, Rosalind & Petra elude their would-be captors & are rescued by the Sealand mission to discover the source of Petra's telepathic transmissions.
Tho the nature of "Tribulation" is not explicitly stated, it is implied that it was a nuclear holocaust, both by the mutations, & by the stories of sailors who report blackened, glassy wastes to the southwest where the remains of faintly glowing cities are seen. Sailors venturing too close to these ruins experience symptoms similar to radiation sickness. A woman from Sealand, a character with evident knowledge of the Old People's technology, mentions "the power of gods in the hands of children,"

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