Michaelmas

This book seems to come alive by being uncovered. I found a copy recently in a 2nd hand sale at my children's school. What a find. Having read cyberpunk books since the late 80's this one stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of Gibson and Stephenson. It isn't as 'techie' as either of those; but it captures the essence of the hidden forces which guide our mediocratic world driven at the speed of technology. It exists to be uncovered, ironically like the strands of the plot. If you get it, enjoy it.

I am completely in agreement with my single fellow reviewer here. I read about this book in a recent Gene Wolfe reprint and decided to take a look. I found a beaten up copy at a local used book seller. That's the only place I've been able to locate it.I won't go into details of plot because the other review already did, but WOW! This novel will knock your socks off. It never insults the readers intelligence. It makes you work for it. I don't like to be hit over the head by the novelist and Budrys never does that. He forces you to pay attention to the words and the action, to draw your own conclusions about some things.This book made me feel hopeful. The character of Michaelmas felt so real, that I couldn't help but look out at our planet and breathe a sigh of relief that such wonderful people are not beyond our imagination.Thank you Algis Budrys. One of the greatest experiences I've had in reading.

So why did this one lapse out of print? This is a book I bought for 95 pence in the UK in 1979, and it wipes the floor with a large number of the 80's Cyberpunk generation output.Michaelmas is one of the icons of his time, in a more automated but recognisable future that is a backdrop to events, not a substitute. He is one of the faces that report the news; a travelling reporter with enormous cachet and friends throughout the business. He is also the creator of a machine, Domino, which has evolved from a means of getting free trunk calls to his wife into something teetering on the brink of self-awareness. Between them, for all intents and purposes, they run the world; only the world doesn't know it - a benign nudging and manipulation rather than an overt exercise of power.Then a news report starts engaging Michaelmas in paranoia; a swiss Nobel-prize-winner reports an astronaut believed lost in a shuttle explosion is alive, recovered and sitting in his sanatarium. The politics of space-flight are fully engaged, and as Michaelmas pursues his suspicions through the labyrinth more and more off-key notes are struck.It's an excellent novel, well ahead of it's time, has a fascinating central character, numerous interesting protagonists, leaves you wanting more, and asking what-if questions for a year or two. If you see it, buy it. If you're in publishing, reprint it.