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stephenmeansme's review
2.0
This was a weird one. I read part of it in an old copy of GALAXY science fiction magazine; this was serialized and then fixed up from there. It's set in a dystopia where the suburban experiment has turned into mad science. Remember that this was written in the 1950s, when tract homes or "Levittowns" were sweet new tech: Pohl and Kornbluth project into a future where that momentum bottoms out in "Belly Rave," shithole suburbs that are like Mad Max or The Warriors but with cul-de-sacs and ramblers rather than desert or skyscrapers. (Not that the cities are better, they're essentially hollowed out.) Anyone who isn't insanely rich is indentured to a corporation, and the masses are entertained with gladiatorial Field Days, which are sort of like The Purge meets Saw.
All neat, except the actual plot is much more "at-law," it's a legal thriller with sfnal elements bolted on. Rather bizarre, and not really that interesting.
2.5 stars rounded down.
All neat, except the actual plot is much more "at-law," it's a legal thriller with sfnal elements bolted on. Rather bizarre, and not really that interesting.
2.5 stars rounded down.
brashtech's review
2.0
The title (and the racy covers on some editions) might lead you to expect a little more swashbuckling than is actually present in this book. This is mainly a corporate finance thriller, with a few hard-sf elements mixed in. Apropos of the current economy, suburbia has been laid waste by a housing bubble, but then real estate world is turned on its head by... bubble houses. With some very grim consequences for society. Overall, though the book comes off as very dated. There's lots of rapid-fire 50's repartee and raging, obnoxious sexism and racism. Pretty much all the characters are thoroughly unlikeable.
I was really sweating as I got down to the last few pages, as no gladiatorial combat had ensued, and I was feeling very cheated. (It brought to mind the crushing letdown at the end of [b:Make Room Make Room|473850|Make Room! Make Room!|Harry Harrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186456696s/473850.jpg|639744] in which, it turns out, Soylent Green is made of... soy and lentils. But, then, rapidly and incongruously the title character and his band of misfits get dumped into the Roman-circus-like games.
Really, though, our "gladiator-at-law" doesn't do much in the ring except pass around bribes, so, it was a bit sad.
I was really sweating as I got down to the last few pages, as no gladiatorial combat had ensued, and I was feeling very cheated. (It brought to mind the crushing letdown at the end of [b:Make Room Make Room|473850|Make Room! Make Room!|Harry Harrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186456696s/473850.jpg|639744] in which, it turns out, Soylent Green is made of... soy and lentils. But, then, rapidly and incongruously the title character and his band of misfits get dumped into the Roman-circus-like games.
Really, though, our "gladiator-at-law" doesn't do much in the ring except pass around bribes, so, it was a bit sad.
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