Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

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Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a science fiction novel by Kate Wilhelm, published in 1976. Parts of it appeared in Orbit 15 in 1974. It was the recipient of the Hugo award for best novel in 1977. The title of the book is a quotation from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 73.

[edit] Plot summary

Massive environmental changes and global disease, attributed to large-scale pollution, cause the collapse of civilization around the world. One large, well-to-do extended family sets up an isolated community. However, as the death toll mounts (due to a variety of causes) the family begins cloning themselves to survive. However, when the clones come of-age, they reject the idea of sexual reproduction in favor of further cloning. The original members of the community, too old and outnumbered by the clones to resist, are forced to accept the new social order.

As time passes, the new generations of clones are weaker (physically and mentally) than their predecessors.