In Primordium Book Three: Requiem, the leader of the few remaining humans on Earth dies before building A4-Ni, a universal constructor to spread their genome throughout space. His daughter, Akilah Rasmussen, steps forward to realize his dream. But will she persevere after she discovers that the genome is predestined to be destroyed and the only reason A4-Ni must be constructed is to ensure the creation of an alien craft, the Shepherd?
Following the teachings of Truman Justis of Book Two, future Maraia in the year 10,0005 try to keep their DNA pure while under assault by the evil player Cardassin, a fiendish specimen without compassion or morality.
Fanatically bent on destroying the Maraia and the Shepherd, he waits patiently for the few remaining Maraia to return to their ancestral home of Kanapoi in what was once northern Kenya, where the climate has become inhospitably arctic. They hope to find the exotic guardian of myth that holds the plans to construct A4-Ni, who will create the Shepherd in the distant past.
Aided by the synthetic human, Michael, and the primitive Jamil, Akilah struggles to realize her father's dream, but at a terrible cost.
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William E. Mason lives in Monument, Colorado with his wife Ulla on 10 acres of trees and red sandstone outcroppings at an elevation of 7,400 feet above sea level. They have two married sons and six grandchildren.
William was born in 1943 while his father was at Yale University obtaining his Doctorate in Anthropology, hence his upbringing and the basis of the anthropological themes in his writing.
The family subsequently moved to Hawaii where he lived until attending Verde Valley School, Sedona, Arizona, then to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, then to the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
After graduate school William joined the Peace Corps and was stationed as an architect in Tunis, Tunisia. Subsequently, he worked as a professional architect in New York, Nigeria, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia.
His series, Primordium explores his contention that mankind's humanity is a mistake deriving from stolen DNA planted in an ancient hominid that enabled hominids to evolve as conscious beings, culminating in Homo sapiens, creatures not meant to be, but creatures capable of curiosity and wonder. They look out at a closed universe they were not meant to see nor have the intelligence to comprehend.
When William isn't writing, he enjoys hiking Colorado Fourteeners, biking, cooking, remodeling his house, playing the guitar and carrying concealed. He has a tractor for the woods, uses a chainsaw regularly and plays tennis at a 4.0 USTA level. His favorite song is Hotel California.
