Killbird (Signet SF, No. E9263)

Ok, so maybe this novel is not going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but it is definitely a gem. Yes, it's yet another post-nuke story, but with a diabolical twist (not a chance I'm going to tell you). I picked this novel up in a drugstore many years back, y'know, a light read on the beach (pun intended). To be honest, I liked the cover art and had low expectations of the content. To my surprise, the story was both plausible and well presented. A tribe of stone-age folk living on a mountain. Quaint. These humans are small (about 3 feet high) and light enough to operate handmade kite-wings. Good stuff unless you happen to fly too high, whereupon you get taken out by a killbird - an advanced, automated, satellite-based, missile defence system. Curious now? You bet. Down in the valley live dragons (automated, mobile, tactical, perimeter weapons), whose guts (electronic components) are prized for jewelry. Everyone is happy with this stone-age life except the village idiot (needless to say, the smartest guy in town), who has the nasty problem of growing hair (everyone else is bald). Worse for our hero, he manages to draw down an ABM right into the center of the village. The resulting devastation gets him banished. Off to the valley he goes - where the sick people live - with his trusty axe. So, you think you had a bad day, huh? Rough ride on the subway? Bills getting you down? Well, the best material for a better axe is dragon skin, but that means either finding a dead dragon or killing a live one - not easy when the local dragons are a highly advanced version of the General Electric XM214 Automatic Gun (aka the Minigun). The humans in the valley are none too friendly either. If this were all there was to it, I'd say a fun read, but no, there is a devious plan behind all those dragons. Their creators needed one guy in the distant future to be just smart enough to make it work.