Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

By: Kate Wilhelm

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

When the first warm breeze of Doomsday came wafting over the Shenandoah Valley, the Sumners were ready. Using their enormous wealth, the family had forged an isolated post-holocaust citadel. Their descendants would have everything they needed to raise food and do the scientific research necessary for survival. But the family was soon plagued by sterility, and the creation of clones offered the only answer. And then that final pocket of human civilization lost the very human spirit it was meant to preserve as man and mannequin turned on one another.

Sweeping, dramatic, rich with humanity and rigorous in its science, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is widely regarded as a high point of both humanistic and hard science fiction. It won science fiction's Hugo Award and Locus Award on its first publication and is as compelling today as it was then.

©1976 Kate Wilhelm (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award winner, Best Novel, 1977

"The best novel about cloning written to date." (Locus)
"One of the best treatments of cloning in SF." (New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)
"Kate Wilhelm's cautionary message comes through loud and clear." (New York Times)

Pretty Average

While the story does manage to avoid a lot of the "dated-ness" common in late 70's science fiction, isn't overly moralistic and didn't swing into detailed gratuitous "sexual liberation"... (it is there, just not excessively graphic as it might have been) it's really just an average story with no big surprises, a bit slow in places, okay in others.

The reader does a fair/ok job - it does sound odd having a woman try to speak like a man but it's not so bad that the story becomes unlistenable. Most of the time you can just ignore how silly it sounds when the narrator deepens her voice. (There have been other audiobooks where the narration was so bad that I couldn't finish the story, this is not the case here.)

All in all - it's nothing to write home about, but it's an okay listen if you've got nothing better to listen to, or you want to hear an okay science fiction/post-holocaust story.

(And, as an aside, while the topics are the same, "The Road", as suggested by an earlier reviewer, is VERY different from this story...)

Excellent

I first read this as a young teen, so SO many years ago. I’ve always been an avid reader and will give almost anything a chance. This was among my first forays into “science fiction”, which was widely regarded as drivel at the time.
Because of this book, however, and a very few other sci-fi books - which have since become recognized as classics - I soon stopped buying into that perspective. This is imaginative writing of the very highest quality.
You won’t regret this one.

Love this author!

I enjoyed this author although this was totally different! Very creative however I’d rewrite the ending in a heartbeat 💓

one of the best "after the disaster " ever

loved it. different than most of the apocalypse stories. much more "human" or at least more like we'd like to think of humans

Fantastic book!

I loved this book. In a word? Comprehensive. I'm writing a book on cloning, and came across this for prior work. What a fantastic find. Written in a style typical of the time, so not my favorite writing. But the characters are well developed, and the plot well thought out. Well done.

Lois Lowery would be proud

This is the true story of what would happen with the giver. I can only say thank you and that I left at the end. Thank you.

Great read!

I loved this book. Kate Wilhelm writes a very readable book and Anna Fields (aka Kate Fleming, recently deceased and a great loss to audio) does a great job narrating. Considering the story won a Hugo back in the mid-70s, the theme (human caused environmental disaster and cloning) is current and relevant. If you're looking for a good story to get lost in for a few hours and you like sci fi, this book is worth your time.

classic that still works

this is an acknowledged classic and deservedly so. it is very well written, full of prescient ideas concerning global warming and environmental and disease problems that were only beginning to be thought about seriously, but more important are themes developing out of a potential cloned society, the isolation of the society and the loss of individuality and humanity. a very thought provoking novel with some nice symbolism to tie together and deepen the themes. excellent. narrator was good, not stellar, could have been a little more animated and dynamic, but still book is solid.

Interesting Premise and Good Performance!

Any additional comments?

The reading and acting was good. It is an interesting subject of survival, though there were some part that I think may not be as realistic. Does humanity accept such discrimination?

Still fresh after four decades

It may - in fact - be more relevant today than in 1976. It is a vivid post-apocalyptic tale, gently told through a long arc by successive central characters. Brilliantly crafted.