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Manalone eBook Colin Kapp

Download As PDF : Manalone eBook Colin Kapp

Manalone eBook Colin Kapp

This book screams the 1970's from every page; if you happen to enjoy that era - and I do, I think that the 1970's produced some of the best science fiction ever written - then you will love this wild ride of a novel. Described as a "Technologist", Manalone (yes, that is his name) is an expert in computer software and hardware, as well as the functioning of machines in general. He is logical and introverted, with only one real friend and a gold-digging trophy wife whom is described as "an expensive pet". Manalone is asked by his friend, Paul Raper, to view an illegal old style film in which a car crash is such a disaster that he must conclude that the laws of gravity would have to be different in order to justify it. From then on his life devolves into hell, with people not who they appeared to be in the past, his every footstep dogged by secret police, and seemingly random pieces of a puzzle thrust at him from various angles. He knows that he must solve the mystery that is coming to define his life, but will he do it in time to save himself from the merciless overarching powers that be?

(I loved the old "future technology", such as computers that are large and meant for community rather than personal use, the utilization of "film" to operate computers and other machines, hover-rail trains, land-line "auto-phones", and flashing, multi-colored lights everywhere. However, this book got some things surprisingly correct, such as traceable debit cards, computers linking together in a national "net' (as well as the word "on-line"), video phones, and genetic engineering.)


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Manalone eBook Colin Kapp Reviews

This is a fun book, and oddly "throw-back" in that it was written back in the '70s.

Manalone is an introverted problem solving master computer technician. Apparently, his skill set is quite in demand in this future set in what seems to be the not too far future as this review is written in the waning days of 2012, days before the Mayan apocalypse. Manalone's future is the dystopian future imagined in the 1970s - rampant overpopulation and ecological disaster and grinding poverty for the lower 60%. The unemployment rate in England, where this is set, is 53%. People are being barracked into super-efficient housing that is being built on land where the original housing has been ripped and mulched into non-existence. The English Channel is ecologically dead. The youth culture is nearly autonomous with its own lingo, values and fasion. This being a product of the '70s, "psychedelic" is a word that is overused, albeit we don't see much in the way of a drug culture. There is also an omnipresent secret police and censorship, but for no apparent reason since England is still a democracy and there is no war on.

And, yet, despite the fact that the world is in its 100th year of ecological disaster and the population explosion, the world seems to be tottering along for no apparent reason, with a stay of execution from complete collapse for another 150 years.

And, then, Manalone is tasked by his good friend, the reporter Paul Rader, to watch an illegal movie that seems to consist of car chases and car crashes. Why would a movie showing car crashes be illegal? Perhaps it's because the cars crash with more apparent force than can be accounted for by the law of physics, suggesting that the laws of physics have been altered?

From there Manalone is pitched into a world where he starts picking up more clues that there is something fundamentally wrong with the world. His former history teacher gives him the handle of tea post and tells him that it provides evidence of the answer to the mystery. Manalone notices that the policy of the government is destroying human history and regimenting people and that there have been various shifts back and forth from the metric system to the duodecimal system, all for no apparent reason. Then, Manalone's friend is killed, he tossed from his job, his wife walks out and he's told it is all part of a test. But what is the test and why is he being tested.

I'm not going to share the answer, I will say that the clues generally add up. I twigged to the answer about half-way through the book, when it was also clear that Manalone had the answer, From there it was a matter of following the bread crumbs until the big reveal in the last chapter.

I found the puzzle interesting. I was hooked into compulsively reading through to the end to see if my guess was right. I did enjoy the character of Manalone, albeit he is presented as a "veddy English" fussbudget, who had a lot more practical skills than could be accounted for by his internal monologue about being introverted and aliennated. It was fun, however, to see the world that Colin Kapp imagined, and, as I said, the internal logic seemed generally to hold up, although I will say that a big logic hole in the solution seems to be things like birds and trees and cows.

Another thing that was fun was to think about how much this book said about the '70s. This is almost a proto-cyber punk novel. Computers are a big deal. But these computers work with punch cards and print-outs. Likewise, there were various autophones that answered calls and logged the caller, but no portable cell phones. Perhaps that kind of idea would have seemed to much like "Dick Tracy" to have been taken seriously. Also, I was interested to see the use of the phrase "on-line" to describe those situations where a computer had access to another computer site. I personally don't remember the term "on-line" being used that early. I thought it was something that came during the '90s.

Fun book. Easy read. It won't change your life, but it is a nice diversion in an "alternate history retro-cyber punk" kind of way.
This book screams the 1970's from every page; if you happen to enjoy that era - and I do, I think that the 1970's produced some of the best science fiction ever written - then you will love this wild ride of a novel. Described as a "Technologist", Manalone (yes, that is his name) is an expert in computer software and hardware, as well as the functioning of machines in general. He is logical and introverted, with only one real friend and a gold-digging trophy wife whom is described as "an expensive pet". Manalone is asked by his friend, Paul Raper, to view an illegal old style film in which a car crash is such a disaster that he must conclude that the laws of gravity would have to be different in order to justify it. From then on his life devolves into hell, with people not who they appeared to be in the past, his every footstep dogged by secret police, and seemingly random pieces of a puzzle thrust at him from various angles. He knows that he must solve the mystery that is coming to define his life, but will he do it in time to save himself from the merciless overarching powers that be?

(I loved the old "future technology", such as computers that are large and meant for community rather than personal use, the utilization of "film" to operate computers and other machines, hover-rail trains, land-line "auto-phones", and flashing, multi-colored lights everywhere. However, this book got some things surprisingly correct, such as traceable debit cards, computers linking together in a national "net' (as well as the word "on-line"), video phones, and genetic engineering.)