The 6th Day

Published in 1978

The Sixth Day was John Burley's eleventh novel, and his only attempt at writing Science Fiction. Unlike his forays into other "new" genres, it was not a great success. The book had a limited print run, and nowadays copies of it are virtually impossible to find.

Burley's original title for the novel was "Genesis 2". It contains a prologue which makes the source of both the original, and the published, titles clear:

Then God said, 'Let us make man in our own image and likeness to rule the fish in the sea, the birdsof heaven, the cattle, all wild animals on earth, and all reptiles that crawl upon the earth.' So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the birds of heaven, and every living thing which moves upon the earth' . So it was; and God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Evening came, and morning came, a sixth day. Genesis I v.26-31 (New English Bible)

Seven British scientists, on a research expedition to the Galapagos Islands in the late 1970s, find themselves bundled onto a time machine and spirited two thousand years into the future. Here they discover that mankind has finally succeeded in wiping itself out in a global holocaust, and that the Technols, intelligent octopus-like creatures from another world, are attempting to rebuild Earth. It is the Technols who have brought them forward in time, together with parties of Americans and Chinese; their purpose is to investigate the possibility of repopulating Earth with people drawn from the past who will live together in harmony.

Soon enough divisions appear among the humans. Four people - a headstrong Briton, an American soldier of fortune, and two fanatical Chinese - form an improbable alliance to attempt a coup against the Technols. Others among the group strive desperately to stop them before their aggression ruins mankind's chance of a future. It is the leader of the British group who manages to disarm the "rebels", thus protecting the Technols and their collective intelligent "brain", The Will. The Technols send the three parties back to the 20th century, although as a reward for his assistance, the British leader is given the ability to recall the episode at a later date, while the entire episode is erased from the memories of the others.

This somewhat pessimistic vision of the future (the assumption clearly being that since the humans were unable to demonstrate an ability to live in harmony, the Technols felt no compunction to use them in their repopulation of Earth) was well received in some quarters. Anthony Burgess, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, described it as "Very plainly and decently written in the old Wells style", although another reviewer was less generous: "An experienced writer of crime fiction, Mr Burley has some trouble in adapting to the unwritten rules of science fiction, especially to the one that says 'Don't just look at the future, make it work".