The Dreaming Earth

Normally I don't read science fiction, but this paperback caught my eye in a bookstore, so I decided to take a chance and pick it up. It only runs about 150 pages, and I read each half on a recent plane trip. The story takes place in the future where overpopulation and limitations of raw resources are great problems. The world is more actively run on a global level by the (much publically hated) UN. The ever increasing problem though is with "Happy Dreams", an ultimate hallucinate drug. Despite its widespread use, the government has very little information to go on. It's always sold at a ridiculously low and fixed price, its central dealers or origins can't be determined, funding for research is low, and so little is known about the drug. Nick Greville, a UN officer who works in the Narcotics department, looks into the happy dreams problem. Along the way he must deal with red tape, crazed users, his own marital problems at home, and all while resisting his own personal temptation to the drug. The book keeps you reading, as questions beget more questions, until finally a climax of it all is revealed in the last two chapters. If you enjoy futuristic disutopia stories that focus more on the characters and their stories with very little description of their futuristic technology, this one's worth checking out.