The Future Past
I read Commune 2000 AD by Mack Reynolds. No Powells link to the story because they don’t seem to have ever stocked it. This is the third book of his I’ve read (others being Ability Quotient and Lagrange Five). I’m starting to get a feel for how a Mack Reynolds story unfolds and this one is a solid story in that range.
It’s the story of a future (the 2000 AD of the title) where the United States has gotten its act together enough to give (nearly) everyone a living wage though with it comes an almost total lack of privacy and a rather tightly yoked role in society. That’s the surface, anyway. Then, this being a Mack Reynolds book, we peel back layers, see some groovy people who are hip to the truth and clue in our protagonist. This not being a Philip K. Dick story, the revelations don’t destroy the protagonist and all of the drug use is good clean fun used to enhance sex or being alive.
The payoff in this story is all in the Aftermath epilogue at the end but it’s a satisfying wrap on a relatively straightforward story. Looking back on that future from eight years past it, I’m wistful for how bright the future looked from 1974. The story is a curiosity and a pleasant read but probably not life changing.
People who might like this book
- Those with an appreciation for retro-futurism.
- Those who like to read politically oriented sf.
- Those looking for old ideas of what newness means
People who might not like this book
- Those who don’t like stereotypes of the early 1970s projected into the future.
- Those who trust implicitly the governors to govern wisely.
- Those who are anti-drug, anti-sex, anti-future, anti-fun.
