Laurence Manning

writer
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke 1

The Man Who Awoke

Upon waking from a long sleep of three millennia, Norman Winters finds himself in the world of AD 5000 (more or less). Humanity staggers to save itself amid the world's littered, stagnant wreckage after what has become known as the great Age of Waste. There is a political rivalry between the younger generation opposing the older generation's proposed waste of resources that they (the younger generation) assert that they are entitled to. —based on Wikipedia
Down in my lead-walled room I shall drink my special drug and fall into a coma which would on the surface of the earth last (at most) a few hours. But down there, shielded from all change, I shall never wake until I am again subjected to radiation.
Pen-and-ink drawing of a man in tattered clothes looking out from a vault-like bedroom to adark world.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke

No image currently available.
  • Undetermined
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke 2

Master of the Brain

After a second long sleep, Norman Winters wakes around AD 10,000. The world is dominated by the Brain, an inexorable super computer that knows all, sees all, and feels nothing. Thanks to its cradle-to-grave supervision, human life is easy and comfortable, but what will happen when the Brain realizes people are superfluous? —based on Wikipedia
Certainly. . . . the Great Brain is infallible. Who would want to act contrary to reason?
Pen-and-ink drawing of a futuristic domed building with flying ships in the sky and frantic people running around on the ground.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke 3

The City of Sleep

Another long sleep for Norman Winters and another world, this time circa AD 15,000. People can now program their choice of dreams and sleep their lives away, so much so that the sleeping outnumber the living, and Winters needs help to stop the implosion of civilization. —based on Wikipedia
Take our own single city, for the rest of the world is about the same, if not worse, how many people are alive . . . er . . . really alive and awake? Just four hundred and thirty by the last count. And these few people must feed themselves andprovide electrical energy and control the dream records for more than one million sleepers!
Pen-and-ink drawing of three futuristic men with a 20th-century man, carefully examining rows of sleeping people encased in electronic wires.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke 4

The Individualists

Another long sleep brings Norman Winters to sometime around AD 20,000 where each individual has his own mobile city that provided for all his needs. —based on Wikipedia
“Yes. You called them cities,” she explained, “and that is essentially what this is. You had many thousands of people in each city, it is true—I suppose you could not afford many cities?—while we have a city for every inhabitant. But otherwise they are, I should imagine, much the same.”
Pen-and-ink drawing of a multi-tentacled robot with a saucer for a head crashing through buildings on the way to a man hiding behind a wall.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The Man Who Awoke 5

The Elixir

One last sleep takes Norman Winters to about AD 25,000 where scientists have discovered to secret of immortality. But is Mankind ready for it? Immortality is frightfully boring without a purpose. Humanity scatters to the far corners of the cosmos seeking knowledge and experience, leading to a quest toward the meaning of it all. —based on Wikipedia
We must make him young again—what a chance to try out the full cell-cycle!
Pen-and-ink drawing a robed man looking into an auditorium of possibly comatose people who are bathed in a bright light from above.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

Voice of Atlantis

Volking, a scientist, accidentally sends himself back to Atlantis where he reveals the eventual diluvian fate of the island and converses with an old man about the ills of our society and the closed nature of theirs.
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  • Eloi Bronze Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

The Prophetic Voice

A voice, purporting to be from the future, warns mankind that they must all go into suspended animation or face extinction; mankind obeys, but when they wake up, the people at the other end of the future phone don’t know anything about the earlier message.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel