Full Summary of Day of the Jumping Sun

In 2050, the fires and radiation of World War III stripped the earth bare. The only humans to survive were members of a religious sect on retreat in a cavern far up north on Baffin Island. A million years later their descendants—the cavern-dwelling Shade People and the forest-dwelling Sun People—remain permanently weakened by that armageddon. Not so the Prairie Dogs who sheltered alongside the original survivors. They flourished, becoming big and brainy while soaking up the sect’s all-too-human wiles.

Three twentieth-century families with foreknowledge of World War III time-traveled those million years to Baffin Island, hoping to restore the human race. It is hardly the unpopulated wilderness they’d expected, but an iron-age isle controlled by the Prairie Dogs. In less than a year, the families are in deep trouble, overwhelmed by personal grievances and an unexpected calamity—the deadly wounding and disappearance of their gentle and visionary leader, Sequoyah. Their tribulations mingle with the genocidal intentions of the powerful Prairie Dog queen who prepares for war. No one escapes her plotting, and the families are swept up along with the entire Prairie Dog nation, the Sun People, and the Shade People.

A vibrant religion that sprang long ago from the fires of the armageddon now tears the isle’s inhabitants apart. How differently each group practices it. For some, mayhem and suicide reign. Others find a sublime unity with nature. And one can only hope that some power can transform the families’ struggling young teens, just coming of age, and their unhappy parents. If that power exists, it will be found in unexpected places both within their own hearts and beyond the confines of their circle.

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Panofsky’ sci-fi novel is post-apocalyptic without the dead-end gloom associated with that genre. In this allegory of values, she tells her story with the sensitive humanism of Ursula Le Guin, the outrageous humor of Terry Pratchett, and the wit and wild invention of Neil Gaiman. Her future world teems with startling images and daunting dilemmas. Yes, it’s an adventure story, but it goes much further. It asks whether war is inevitable. It shows the good and evil sides of the isle’s religion—depending upon who’s practicing it. It begs for an appreciation of the earth. Above all, it explores the complexities of family, loyalty, and love’s power.