SOLVED. Sci fi - time travel (via near light speed travel)- astronauts - distopian earth - tribes of children without adults - [s]

[Erik]

A small group of Astronauts leave Earth in a ship capable of near light speed travel and return at a later date. Obviously much more time passed on earth than on the ship (an expected part of the trip). The Astronauts cannot communicate with the planet for unknown reasons and land somewhere in Europe to find a distopian Earth in a state of massive disrepair. Shortly after landing they Astronauts make contact with tribes of children without any adults, speaking a broken combination of French, Italian, English, Spanish, etc. etc. I remember vividly as part of this meeting a scene in a barn(?) where one of the tribal elders (a relative term as I think he was in his early teens) attempts to stab the mission leader in the chest with a spear, and the "token big guy" on the mission team reaches out and grabs the end of the spear and holds it fast despite the youths best efforts to overpower him.

WARNING!!! - the remainder of this description may include spoilers !!!!




The story progresses to the astronauts either being adopted into, or taking charge of, a particular tribe, going to war with another tribe, which included several very graphic acts of violence such as head severing. and then deciding to migrate away from the conflict. They are harassed along the way by a lion that winds up killing one or more of the tribe, and they finally evade it by traveling to England from France via the "chunnel" which I remember was described as a very harrowing experience due to flooding and total darkness. The group eventually establishes a settlement in England and starts a farm, and again goes to war with another tribe holed up in an ancient castle due to the castle tribe stealing livestock and possibly kidnapping a member of the astronaut tribe (cant really remember).

SUPER SPOILER!!!!!





As I recall, the cautionary tale in this story, and the explanation of the distopian world, was that a cosmetics company came out with a new "wonder" drug, or makeup, that was intended to make people look younger (or something) and wound up sterilizing and (maybe) killing them. Leading to one or more generations of humans not breeding, old people dying before the young children were old enough to be taught/trained on higher level education, and only just able to survive. Hence the reversion to "stone age" society and the crumbling of our modern society.

I feel as though I read this sometime around the time I read "Invitation to the Game" which would put it in the early 90's?? but have no idea if thats when it was first released.

The cover art (if memory serves) was a pinkish purplish sunset backdropping a golden crumbling Eiffel tower and surrounding city.

Thanks to anyone who may be able to help with this, Its driving me NUTS!!! and I'm trying to recommend it to a good friend.

-E

[Andy Phillips]

I didn't read the whole description as I'm reading this at the moment so I don't want to see any spoilers. However, I'm 90% sure that it's "The Quiet Place" by Richard Maynard

[Erik]

BRILLIANT!!! Thank you very much. Looks like my memory wasn't too far off as I thought it was called "The Return" which it was also published under. I was just missing the authors name to put it all together. I am 100% sure that is the book I was looking for. Thank you again.

[Andy Phillips]

Excellent. Yes,'The Return' is the same story. I'm glad you found it.