At Winter's End is a post-apocalyptic novel by Robert Silverberg in which a colony of humanoids engineered from Rhesus Monkeys leave their cave and go in search of a new home outside it. The novel bears similar themes to the original Planet of the Apes and was originally published in 1988.
Synopsis[]
After the death of their human Mentor, a colony of furry humanoids with tails leave a cave that has been their home for generations. As they travel across the land, they encounter many perils and also meet a second tribe who had left their cave prematurely. Led by a Chieftess and her muscular girlfriend, they eventually arrive at an abandoned City, where on activation the technology, they discover that the original humans were part of a galactic empire that was destroyed when a huge conflict erupted. Realizing they were about to die out, the original human scientists had evolved Rhesus Monkeys into a new form of human who could survive on the irrafiated Earth. In the end, the Chieftess dies happily, naming her girlfriend as her successor. She now faces the task of reviving human civilization.
Notes[]
There were two sequels to this novel published in 1991 and 1990, which were called The Queen of Springtime and The New Springtime respectively.