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It is the 21st century and an ecological nightmare has overtaken the Earth. The soil is impoverished. Sand is imported from Africa for Britains's soil manufacturing plants - Britain's own beaches have been eaten away long ago. Trees are torn down so that birds which might feed on the crops have nowhere to nest; steel mesh windbreaks are erected in their stead to prevent the wind eroding the soil. Villages and towns are deserted, their populations moved to the vast cities which stand on legs above the toxic fumes of the insecticides. Criminals, whatever their crime, are summarily despatched to the 'farms', which are in fact no more nor less than labour camps. And haunting the crumbling, deserted
villages are the Travellers, the last free men. Knowle Noland is a criminal whose betrayal of his companions has led to his being rewarded by being released from a farm and placed upon one of the sand-carrying nuclear freighters. Noland is visited by halucinations, plagued by guilt, and starved of emotions. When the dead man comes drifting across the sea, strapped to an anti-grav pack, bearing letters from a woman, Noland fixes emotionally on the author of the letters. The wreck of the Trieste Star leads to Noland stumbling upon a fantastic new city, a meeting place of nations; and upon a plot to assassinate the one man who might be able to return peace to the nations. This takes a few chapters to gain pace. The vision of the future presented here is unremitting in its nightmare quality; English science fiction has always loved its visions of dystopia. And England has probably never been depicted as so ugly, so totally lacking in any redeeming feature. Noland is far from the traditional heroic stereotype. The farms are reminders of Belsen and Auschwitz, and if Noland is not a hero we still must keep reading to see if he can raise himself to manhood and one final act of defiance. (Published 1972)
You can use the guestbook to comment on any writing or add details that I might have missed. I also welcome articles or fiction that you can email to me for addition to this site by clicking this link. Roger B Pile Redruth, Cornwall. (2003)
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