I think this book is better read when younger. The premise is fine—next evolution of homo sapiens—but my annoyance with the preposterous things our little heroine was doing started to annoy me by page 100.
The book finishes fine, but the disjointed writing, the crazy situations and the bizarre abilities (one in particular borrowed from The Golden Compass??) were just too much.
After a year and 9 months sitting in my Currently Reading library, I aLmost moved this to the “Couldn’t Choke it Down” pile, but was too short to not finish and my OCD kept me on task to get this out of my CR pile.
Barely 2 stars. Sorry.

Might have gotten better score if not for the 30 page exposition why it would be rational for a 45yo creepy dude to do the naughty with the 11yo protagonist. For the rest totally unremarkable.

At first i was finding the way it was written a bit weird, but i did understand the reason why (diary written in shorthand), After a while it felt natural to read it, and After that the book went fast, this is the example of a book that in its written form is better than in audiobook (i tried it first, then went back and read the book).

Candy is an Eleven years old girl, that is in reality a genious, the Next step in evolution, i liked this book very much, it didnt feel outdated or old, and it was refreshing to have such a Young girl that was also independent, strong and self suficient. Usually when a man/Boy is introduced, in other books, the girl is in dire need of saving, well let's just say Candy is the One with skills and strenght (She is a 5th level black belt).

Great read, i definately recomend it

every bit of the sex stuff was creepy as hell. so creepy. sooooooooo creeeeeeeepy. I'm going to have to reread Have Spacesuit Will Travel after this and if it doesn't hold up, I'm going to hate you SO MUCH.

Back in the late 1980s, I gave this one three stars for the original novella of that title, first published in Analog in 1981. I'd put it on the reread list, and eventually bought an ebook of the novel, a fixup with a second novella, republished with the same title. Confusing! It's a pretty good story, if implausible, and somewhat dated, but I enjoyed it.

The original novella (1981) is the stronger half. The expansion (1983), another novella, is good too. But suspension of disbelief became more of a problem. As reviewer Russ Allbery notes, “strong cables, tight fastenings, powerful winch, disbelief pulled firmly into air.” Heh.

I still had fun with this. Another reviewer calls this the best Heinlein Juvenile not by Heinlein. The USSR attacks US with a "bionuclear" weapon that kills all but 150,000 or so Americans. The survivors are a new species of Homo superior, and the implausibilities, which slid by in the joy of reading/re-reading, have come back to haunt me as I write this. The New Men are appealing, especially 11 year old Candy, a bona fide girl genius, her macaw Terry, "lifelong retarded, adopted twin brother," and her found family of other hominems. It’s a story of uber-competent children and young adults, and something of a cozy catastrophe. For me this was a 3.3 star read, worthwhile and cautiously recommended. Tech level is early 1980s, but the inspiration is definitely Heinlein, and the social setup is more like the 60s, for better or worse. My Kindle quotes might give you an idea of some of the stuff I liked (or didn't): https://www.goodreads.com/notes/19507...

Here's a recent long review by Alan Brown, that's the one to read for the whole story of the book and author. Nice work! https://reactormag.com/a-girl-and-her...

The next time you’re in a pandemic, you might wish Candidia Maria Smith-Foster were with you. The 11-year-old fictional star of this book would be perfectly happy if you referred to her as Candy. She’s no ordinary sweet thing. She is a Homo post hominem. She’s a distinct species from we humans. In a pandemic, that has some real advantages. First, the disease that kills nearly all America and the world doesn’t infect Candy. Her world ends when the Soviets (this is an old book) drop something that is both nuclear and biologically evil on the U.S. Candy’s dad was in Washington when everything ended, and she presumed he was dead. He had instructed her how to use his fallout shelter before he left Wisconsin for Washington, and she spent several months down there with her twin brother, a mentally disabled bird-like creature. When they finally emerge from the shelter after it’s again safe to do so, they find a desolated world. But Candy also has messages from her one-time teacher who informs her that there are other Homo post hominem individuals out there. Candy determines to find them.

This is her great adventure as she tackles a broken continent in a van filled with supplies that will keep her alive and safe along her route. Driving comes easy enough to the super-advanced human-looking girl, and she soon learns to keep the tires on railroad tracks, which seem less encumbered by broken cars and dead bodies than the highways.

She eventually finds Adam, a fellow Homo post hominem survivor, and between the two of them, they exhibit formidable, advanced talents in a variety of areas. As their search for survivors continues, they meet late-20-something Kim Melon, mother to six-year-old Lisa. Kim is a willowy blonde with a movie-star face and breasts that befit her last name—the author’s description, not mine. Kim and Candy become like sisters, and the adventure builds. Before the book ends, you will be intrigued by little Lisa and the mental bond she builds with Candy.

There’s lots of nail-biting suspense here, too. At one point, a lone survivor quite logically argues that 11-year-old Candy should have sex with him. She says not only no, but heck no, and before things end, the survivor survives no more.

You can’t help but love Candy Smith-Foster. Yes, you’ll have to annihilate your disbelief rather than merely suspend it to read and enjoy this, but I hope you’ll give it a shot. This is wonderfully fun albeit slightly flawed science fiction. There’s plenty of suspense and action here to keep you engaged, and it’s ok to read this during a pandemic, since the one described here is vastly different from the one we experienced in 2020.

I read this book when I was thirteen, about two years older than Candy, the plucky girl-genius protagonist. Palmer rocked the concept of an empowered wonder-girl years before Joss Whedon made them his trademark, and I was blown away by this book's intelligent, quirky, resourceful and funny main character, as well as with the uniqueness of the book's format - a ragingly hyperliterate, shorthand journal written in first person.

Major, major suspension-of-disbelief is required to survive some of the plot twists as Candy - who discovers while riding out a nuclear/biological apocalypse in her scientist dad's bomb shelter that she's one of a new breed of humans called homo-post-hominem - navigates the depopulated roads of America in a souped-up conversion van with her devoted pet macaw at her side (yeah, you get the idea), looking for fellow superbreed survivors. Along the way there are enough deus-ex-machina moments to power a hundred Haunted Mansions. Still, it's a fun ride along the same lines as some of Heinlein's quirkier novels. Think Karate Kid-meets-Podkayne From Mars-meets-Road Warrior. Or something like that.

This is NOT my first rodeo with this book, or the second, or the fifth. In fact, I have probably read, and enjoyed, it over 20 times through the years. I consider "Emergence" to be one of my top three favorite post-apocalyptic novels of all time, and I have read a LOT of them. Our Heroine, the plucky eleven-year-old Candy and her "twin brother," a Hyacinthine Macaw, just crawled right into my heart and pulled me from page to page as Candy struggles to understand her place in a new world where Homo Sapiens is no more.

Let me tell you how much I love this book. I kept my copy until it was (literally) held together by string, lost it in a house fire, and spent the next SEVERAL years searching for a copy that I could actually afford, to no avail. I FINALLY spotted one that didn't totally destroy my budget (although it did nibble on the grocery column a bit), and waited on pins and needles for it to arrive. It now occupies a place of pride on my shelves again.

I understand that there is finally a sequel, perhaps in e book form. If this is the case, I'll be blowing the budget again to purchase an e reader.

I quite enjoyed Emergence. Nowadays it would probably be called a YA book, but at the time of publication (1984) it was probably considered straight SF. The story reminds me somewhat of Heinlein's juveniles. In fact, the main protagonist, Candy, is a very Heinleinesque character.
I wanted more, but unfortunately, it seems that David R. Palmer pretty much stopped writing. Sad.

Very enjoyable if daft plot, lots of bouncy fun and quite quirky and inventive; a good read for young adults. But the ‘shorthand’ writing style quickly became irritating and wasn’t really necessary or sustainable as the plot progressed. And any reference to sex was always going to be a bit risky given that the heroine was pre-pubescent - but this got downright distasteful in a couple of places.

I wish I had discovered this one years ago in the 1980s. But then I would have had to wait at least 25 years for the sequel. I don't need to do that because I wisely bought it at the same time, so I am enjoying that read right now. I very highly recommend this book. It is a stand alone book, but it is much better to read before the sequel Tracking. I read a Heinlein book just before this and this one is better than than that Heinlein. I read complains on Goodreads reviews about this book before reading and I say, ignore the complaints as this is an fun book. If people are bugged by the writing style, it soon does not bother and actually fits the character. I adapt my reading style to fit the material, can't you? Anyways, if you want hairraising adventure, good characterizations and the end of the world. read this book!

Written as a point-of-view narrative, this book seamlessly blends youthful sarcasm and naivete with the huge looming feeling of the apocalyptic background. Candy is a wonderful protagonist. She is neither jaded nor entirely pollyanish. Her sharp astringency is her best defense against a terrifying world, and the author makes you feel that dual awareness in every word.