Once Humans

The second in the Daimones Trilogy from Massimo Marino, does a great job of clueing in the reader about the first book with a detailed prologue, making the reading of the first volume not necessary. Once Humans continues the story of the Selected, the transgenic beings created by the Moîrai, who continue to live in peace and security on Planet Earth, known as Eridu by the Moîrai.

The future is a somewhat uncertain place for Dan and the Selected now, as question abound about the Moîrai and their supposed intentions. Billions were killed in the apocalypse, but what happened to all the bodies? Dan discovers a special drug that makes interstellar travel possible. Is this how the Moîrai disposed of all the bodies? Are they responsible for the apocalypse? And can the Moîrai be trusted? Are they telling the truth?

There are also troubling times on Eridu, as plants and livestock are being destroyed and killed because humanity is a fractured and imperfect being and while there are those always looking to do good and help others and prosper, there are those who look for personal gain and greed, looking to cause other fellow human beings pain and suffering at whatever cost. The Moîrai offer to help with these growing problems, but Dan and the other Selected decide that this is a human problem that should be dealt with and corrected by human beings, without alien support.

Dan is also dealing with an inevitability as a Selected, which is that his wife Mary will eventually die, while he with his special abilities is becoming stronger and not aging at all. But he knows he should not take his chosen gifts and abilities lightly, that they happened for a reason and it is up to him to get to the route of this conspiracy that has grown to a cosmic level. He will need to travel far and wide, even deep into Eridu, to find some of the answers he needs about the Moîrai and what is really going one here.

Once Humans continues the complexity of the Daimones Trilogy, plunging the reader deeper and deeper into the inferno of a story, giving some answers, but also posing more questions and wonders, which can only be solved by reading to the very end.