title: Adam's Curse: A Future without Men
author:  Bryan Sykes 
description: Bryan Sykes follows up <i><a href="/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393323145/${0}">The Seven Daughters of Eve</a></i> with the equally challenging and well-written <i>Adam's Curse</i>. This time, instead of following humanity's heritage back to the first women, Sykes looks forward to a possible future without men. The seeds of the book's topics were sown when Sykes met a pre-eminent pharmaceutical company chairman who shared his surname. Using the Y chromosome, which is passed nearly unchanged from father to son, the author found that he shared a distant ancestor with the other Sykes. Along the way, he discovered that the Y chromosome was worth examining more closely. The first third of <i>Adam's Curse</i> is devoted to a clear and comprehensive lesson about genetics, the second narrates several fascinating stories of tracing ancestry via the Y chromosome, and the last chapters explore the history of male humanity and its future. Some readers will eagerly skim until they reach Chapter 21, where Sykes gets to the heart of the matter--why and how the Y chromosome has created a world where men overwhelmingly own the wealth and power, commit the crimes, and fight the wars. He uses the structural puniness of the Y chromosome to demonstrate that men are as unnecessary biologically as they are dominant socially. Sykes' provocative and quite personal book is likely to be unpopular among science readers who prefer their biology divorced from sociology, but his points taken in context will be difficult to refute. <i>--Therese Littleton</i>
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  ‘Be careful who you get close to…’
  
  Adam Stratton is a new breed of Regency Man. A hero of Trafalgar, he is now an
  entrepreneur, rich beyond imagination. Yet all the money in the world can’t
  erase the scandal and shame of his birth.
  
  Since childhood, Amber has been the only one to know Adam’s true value. And
  her memories of the housekeeper’s son at Castonbury were the only respite from
  her unhappy marriage.
  
  Now a widow, Amber finds her new-found freedom daunting, although the sight of
  Adam gives her hope. But, despite their simmering attraction, putting their
  faith in each other may be more dangerous than they bargained for…
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Survival of the fittest is fine, so long as you’re the one on top…but the
  family that has everything is about to lose it all…
  
  The Montagues have found themselves at the centre of the ton’s rumour mill,
  with lords and ladies alike claiming the family is not what it used to be.
  
  The m