First published 1988. Grafton paperback, 1988, pp 301, c.95,000 words.
This is the sequel to Dayworld (which I haven’t read) but it stands well enough on its own. It explores one of the dominant themes of mid-twentieth century science fiction – what will happen if the world gets over populated (although the current global population of over eight billion is equal to the government inflated figure given here as an excuse for societal restrictions). In this case the solution is that people are only allowed to be awake for one day in seven. The rest of the time they are ‘stoned’, put into an inanimate, frozen state in which they have no awareness of the passage of time. Thus only one seventh of the population is ‘awake’ at any one time and they can share apartments, jobs, etc, with six others. The setting is far future North America, a continent that has been wracked with war over a long period, but is now at peace. It is a tightly controlled world in which liberty has been traded for security. A rather unoriginal secret cabal is assuming control over the state, with the elect able to stay active every day and live in luxury.
Jefferson Caird was a ‘Tuesday’ policeman, but somehow managed to assume the identities of at least six others. He was caught, and the story opens with him planning to escape. What follows is a picaresque tale of evading the authorities, falling in with other rebels, but always only just keeping ahead of the law. It is all a lot of fun, but doesn’t amount to much. Tension is well established in the opening pages, and the chase allows it to be maintained pretty well constantly to the end. There are some engaging secondary characters that are a fine mix of oddballs.
Farmer writes in a plain, modern, clear style; which makes for easy reading. Just occasionally it gets a bit clunky: he did this, he did that, he did the next thing.
There are a few nice little pieces of writing, e.g. ‘Time did not heal all wounds, but time did make them not so painful and usually managed to bury them deep’ [p191], and ‘If there was a God, It must be laughing at those made in Its image. Or perhaps it was so disgusted that It had long ago left this universe. Or perhaps, being all-powerful, It had cancelled Itself and no longer existed. Never mind the contradiction that It was always and forever infinite and eternal. Those attributes could be erased if It wished to do so’ [p151]. Occasionally Farmer tries too hard: ‘The son of the sum was more than the whole’ [p17]. A woman’s hair is likened to seal fur (twice).
This is an entertaining, lightweight read.
Wikipedia biography of Farmer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer
Wikipedia Summary of the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayworld_Rebel
Others’ reviews of the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1254977.Dayworld_Rebel?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=NY0kf512KR&rank=1
© William John Graham, August 2024