SOURCE: "O Brave New World, That Has No People In't!" in New York Times Book Review, March 28, 1993, p. 23.

In the following review, Wangerin discusses the two adventures in James's The Children of Men.

On New Year's Day, 2021, "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl." He was 25. It has been 25 years since a global disease rendered all human sperm infertile, 25 years, therefore, since any baby has been born to bear the future of humankind. The same day marks the 50th birthday of Theodore Faron, doctor of philosophy. On this day he begins to keep a journal as a "small additional defense against personal accidie."

With such swift strokes P. D. James establishes the central premise of her new novel, The Children of Men. There follow two worthy adventures for Miss James, for her protagonist and for the thoughtful reader:

The first...