Brave Old World
( French - Cette chère humanité - 1976 )
Book by Philippe Curval
Translated by Steve Cox
Published: Allison & Busby - hardback - 1981 & 1984
ISBN: 0850314070 / 9780850314076
Synopsis
In the late 21st century, Marcom ( a high-tech, 13-state Common Market ), hiding itself behind impenetrable energy barriers, has become an utterly rigid, self-absorbed, nostalgia-sodden police state: it's secretly controlled by the Slow Time Company, which markets devices that stretch time ( thus providing longevity ) and space ( offering, like Dr. Who's Tardis, commodious rooms-within-tiny-rooms ); the only sanctioned opponents of ""slow time"" are the ""dream priests,"" a cult based on astral projection and dream interpretation; other dissidents are banished to the abandoned countryside. So, when the outside world discovers that Marcom's spacetime warps are threatening to drop the entire Earth out of its continuum, attorney Belgacen Attia is sent to penetrate Marcom's deadly neurological barriers and destroy the slow time network.
Awards
1977 Prix Apollo
( French - Cette chère humanité - 1976 )
Book by Philippe Curval
Translated by Steve Cox
Published: Allison & Busby - hardback - 1981 & 1984
ISBN: 0850314070 / 9780850314076
Synopsis
In the late 21st century, Marcom ( a high-tech, 13-state Common Market ), hiding itself behind impenetrable energy barriers, has become an utterly rigid, self-absorbed, nostalgia-sodden police state: it's secretly controlled by the Slow Time Company, which markets devices that stretch time ( thus providing longevity ) and space ( offering, like Dr. Who's Tardis, commodious rooms-within-tiny-rooms ); the only sanctioned opponents of ""slow time"" are the ""dream priests,"" a cult based on astral projection and dream interpretation; other dissidents are banished to the abandoned countryside. So, when the outside world discovers that Marcom's spacetime warps are threatening to drop the entire Earth out of its continuum, attorney Belgacen Attia is sent to penetrate Marcom's deadly neurological barriers and destroy the slow time network.
Awards
1977 Prix Apollo