Eva is a science fiction novel by Peter Dickinson, published in 1988. Eva Adamson went into a coma after a terrible car crash — and awoke eight months later in the body of a chimpanzee. Having spent time with chimpanzees from a young age, it doesn't take her long to adjust, but she becomes a media sensation in an over-populated world.
This book contains examples of:
- Adam and/or Eve: The protagonist's full name is Eva Adamson; the plot was originally about
a girl who time-travels to meet various "first women", and was familiar with apes. While the final plot of the book is very different, remnants of this symbolism remain. Early on, Eva watches a cartoon called Adam and Eve, which is very loosely based on the book of Genesis. Just like how Eve was the first woman and lived in a natural paradise, Eva is the first human-in-chimpanzee, and her ultimate purpose is to guide a troop of chimpanzees in one of the last wild places on Earth. - Back-to-Back Poster: One of the covers (see the page image) shows a girl and chimpanzee back-to-back, representing Eva's past and present selves.
- Crapsack World: The human population is so high that much of the world is covered in urban sprawl, and there are few wild animals left.
- Distant Finale: The last chapter is set 24 years later, just before Eva dies of old age.
- Driven to Suicide: At the end, people tell Eva that humanity as a whole has lost the will to live and people are committing mass suicides.
- Emergency Transformation: Eva's consciousness was copied into the brain of a chimpanzee using a bleeding-edge medical procedure. Her mom agreed to this in order to save her life. She eventually chooses to live out her life in the wilds with more conventional chimps.
- Fantastic Legal Weirdness: It's mentioned that despite being a chimp now, Eva is still legally human, so she doesn't belong to anyone — unlike the chimps used for research. Eva objects to any chimps being considered property.
- First-Episode Twist: The premise that Eva's mind was transplanted into a chimp isn't revealed until the second chapter.
- Gaia's Lament: Most of Earth’s wild animals have been wiped out by the growing human population, and by the end, human civilisation is heading towards its final collapse, with mass suicides occurring.
- Mirror Reveal: When Eva is given a remote-controlled mirror to look around her hospital room, she realises something is amiss because they won't let her see the bed. Eventually, she angles it in a way that lets her see her reflection... and a chimpanzee looks back.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Humanity is on the decline, but Eva believes that chimpanzees will inherit the Earth.
- Recurring Dreams: Eva has recurring dreams about a vast jungle, which turn out to be the lingering instincts of the chimpanzee her memories were copied into.
- Suicide by Sea: It's mentioned at the end that people are walking into the sea en masse in some places.
- Unusual Chapter Numbers: The chapters are all numbered after how much time has passed since Eva awoke from her coma.
- Zeerust: Written in The '80s, this book takes place in an unspecified future where holograms are commonplace and scientists have just figured out how to copy neurons. The protagonist communicates using a text-to-speech keyboard... which uses samples stored on discs.
