Doomsday Morni: Rebi

By the mid-1950s, science fiction's foremost husband-and-wife writing team, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, could be regarded more as coeds than working authors. After the release of their "fix-up" novel "Mutant" in late 1953, the pair released only five more short pieces of sci-fi over the next five years. And while it is true that Kuttner did come out with a series of novels featuring psychoanalyst/detective Dr. Michael Gray, for the most part, the two concentrated on getting their degrees at the University of Southern California. Kuttner, taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, graduated in 1954, while Catherine Lucille, paying her own way, took things slower and finished up by 1956. And the following year, she capped off a glorious writing career with a solo novel, her last, "Doomsday Morning." A companion piece in title only to Moore's 1943 novel "Judgment Night," this is a very fine tale indeed. It is a bit unusual for the author in that its setting is not Venus, or deep space, or the distant future, or some unusually named fantasy world, but rather America--New York City and rural California, to be precise--of only 50 years in the future; in other words, around 2007, or right now! The America of Moore's early 21st century has become a quasi-totalitarian regime run by a far-reaching entity known as Comus (short for Communications of the United States). This government department in essence controls not only all the communications in the country, but also the schools, transportation network, the hospitals, the entertainment industry, the military divisions, et al. Howard Rohan, a washed-up alcoholic wreck who had once been one of Broadway's greatest stars, is pressured by Comus into putting on a traveling, open-air play called "Crossroads," along with a troupe of five other actors, to entertain in California. That state, it seems, had been rebelling openly against Comus, and activists there had been purportedly hard at work perfecting some kind of "Anti-Com" device that might miraculously bring about Comus' downfall. The story of how Rohan becomes a whole man again, after three years of grieving for his late wife, and how he becomes involved in nothing less than a second Revolutionary War of sorts, is the story of "Doomsday Morning." Moore peoples her novel with interesting characters (all the actors in Rohan's troupe are at some kind of personal crossroads in their own lives), and although the sci-fi elements are kept to a minimum (indeed, without Comus' tear-shaped Prowler cars, the spindly "hedgehoppers," a weapon called a "scatter gun" and, of course, the Anti-Com itself, the book would hardly be science fiction at all, but rather a dystopian action tale), there are numerous thrilling sequences. Thus, Rohan's participation in a Comus raid, his stealing of a hedgehopper, the nighttime fight against some seedy renegades, and a remarkably suspenseful denouement, with the fate of the country--and the very existence of California itself--hanging in

Doomsday Morning is brilliant. It's the story of a near-future America that has become a de facto dictatorship under a permanent "President" - who is now getting old, with no clear successor. It's also the story of Rohan, who was once a major movie star but lost everything with his wife's betrayal - and now has a chance to get it all back. It's the story of a revolution against tyranny. And it's the story of the production of a live touring play.The characters are sympathetic and three-dimensional, the plot is very exciting, and the writing...Moore clearly transcended the sometimes juvenile writing of her contemporaries. Although this is a true science fiction novel, it has the emotional complexity and depth of the best mainstream novels - a quality which was her specialty. It's also extremely readable. Doomsday Morning is one of the few books I re-read yearly, for sheer pleasure.Incidentally, it's clear that Moore must have done theatre because the stagecraft rings very true. Her portrayal of the future dictatorship of America through control of the media and communication is also quite prescient. Highly recommended. I only wish there was a sequel, or more books like this in any case.