History Literature / Emergence

* MissingMom: Candy's adoptive mother died of an unspecified illness several years before the events of the book.

* Omnibus: The novel is formed from two shorter stories that were written for ''Magazine/AnalogScienceFiction''; the {{Novella}}s "{{Literature/Emergence}}" and "{{Literature/Seeking}}".

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * PungeonMaster: Adam. Even Terry starts mocking some of his jokes.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * SupremeChef: Adam.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * TerseTalker: Candy's narrative style.

----

A sequel, ''Tracking'', was serialized in ''Magazine/{{Analog}}'' in 2008.

* BadassGrandpa: Teacher. When he intervenes in a public disturbance, four young men tough enough to throw furniture wind up being carted off to the hospital, while witnesses are certain Teacher never moved a muscle. [[spoiler:Helps that he's a hominem himself.]]

* MamaBear: Candy to Terry, as [[spoiler:Rollo]] finds out after making the fatal error of threatening Terry. In discussing the incident, Candy refers to Terry as her "child substitute". Also, Kim with daughter Lisa, as [[spoiler:a would-be rapist]] finds out the hard way.

* EvilDetectingDog: Evil Detecting Bird: Terry takes an immediate and intense dislike to [[spoiler:Rollo]], an opinion that proves to be totally justified.

* OneWordTitle

* SupremeChef: Adam.
* TerseTalker: Candy's narrative style.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: "Adam", as stated above.
* [[EvilDetectingDog Evil Detecting Bird]]: Terry takes an immediate and intense dislike to [[spoiler:Rollo]], an opinion that proves to be totally justified.

* PungeonMaster: Adam. Even Terry starts mocking some of his jokes.

What she didn't know is that there's a new HumanSubspecies around, ''homo post hominem'', stronger, faster, and smarter than ''homo sapiens'', immune to human diseases and with much better senses, or that she's a hominem.

When she finds out, she sets out to find other hominems, who are expected to have survived [=World War III=]. She also finds that there's an even bigger threat to her species just waiting to strike.

!!The novel provides examples of:

* DisappearedDad: Lisa's father Jason, due to an accident shortly after the epidemic.

* ParentalAbandonment: Of the involuntary variety. All of Candy's parents, birth and adoptive, are deceased. Also, Adam's parents died in the epidemic.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: "Adam", as stated above.

* ParentalAbandonment: Of the involuntary variety. All of her parents, birth and adoptive, are deceased.

* SuperSenses: Hominems have greater sensory acuity than humans, including the ability to see into the infrared range. When Candy learns this, she comments that this explains why her friends couldn't see outside on warm nights without artificial light (she comments that she understands why they had trouble on cold nights, due to lack of glow from faces and such), or her father's reaction when she, at about three, commented that a wall looked hot.

What she didn't know is that there's a new HumanSubspecies around, ''homo post hominem'', stronger, faster, and smarter than ''homo sapiens'', immune to human diseases and with much better sense, or that she's a hominem.