Synopsis
|
The
world has
degenerated into a
disease-ridden,
overpopulated
rubbish
dump.
Chemicals had
poisoned the
landscape and
reduced most of
the people to the
edge of
starvation.
Ecology has
become a
meaningless word
from the
past. The
planet earth
speeds on its
collision course
with
disaster.
There is a
solution but it is
so frightful that
man cannot
conceive of it
ever being put
into operation.
Only one man,
Knowle Noland,
ex-convict, ex-traveller,
and captain of the
tramp freighter
Trieste Star, is
prepared to
try. He
alone is prepared
to fire a shot
that will throw
the world into
hideous war, but
may leave a brave
new world for the
survivors.
If there are any
survivors. |
Review
|
Earthworks
is a strange and
compelling story
written with all
the poetic imagery
and perception of
human fallibility
that we expect
from Brian Aldiss.
We are shown a
bleak and arid
future. Too
many people have
consumed and
exhausted Earth's
natural
resources.
Strict, almost
inhuman,
supervision of all
human activity is
the price people
pay to live at
bare subsistence
level. There
is no more hope,
no worthwhile
ambition; and Man
is characterized
by the ill-fated
Knowle Noland,
plagued with
guilt, sickened
with
hallucinations,
eking out an
existence that has
lost
meaning.
Only in Africa is
there any vigour,
any really fertile
soil. And it
is in Africa that
Noland meets
Justine and the
destructive
destiny that can
cleanse his
spirit.
Earthworks is a
superb science
fiction tale,
brilliantly
written,
completely
convincing and,
perhaps ominously
prophetic.
It is a pungent
comment on
tendencies all too
easily detected in
our world today.
Tom Boardman Jr |
