Molly Zero

by Keith Roberts

Raised, tested, trained and indoctrinated in the Blocks, Molly Zero is being groomed for the governing Elite. Rebelling against her fate, she flees. An innocent searching for truth, Molly finds the world outside the Blocks alien and frightening. Her flight plunges her first into the heart of a small community. Next, attracted by their eccentric gaiety, she joins the travelling gypsies, roaming the country in Commercial Air Cushion Vehicles. And then Molly gets caught up in urban terrorism...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1980

About the author

Used These Alternate Names: Alistair Bevan , John Kingston , David Stringer

Keith John Kingston Roberts was a British science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" (the first of a series of stories featuring a teenage modern witch and her eccentric granny) and "Escapism.

Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym Alistair Bevan. His second novel, Pavane, which is really a collection of linked stories, may be his most famous work: an alternate history novel in which the Roman Catholic Church takes control of England following the assassination of Queen Elizabeth I.

Roberts wrote numerous novels and short stories, and also worked as an illustrator. His artistic contributions include covers and interior artwork for New Worlds and Science Fantasy, later renamed Impulse. He also edited the last few issues of Impulse although the nominal editor was Harry Harrison.

In later life, Roberts lived in Salisbury. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1990, and died of its complications in October 2000. Obituaries recalled him as a talented but personally 'difficult' author, with a history of disputes with publishers, editors and colleagues.

Reviews

[Printable Tire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A coming-of-age novel by one of British science fiction's most distinguished authors. Molly Zero begins the novel as a sort of prisoner of a boarding school where order and hierarchy are everything. Something Happened in England it seems, and now a totalitarian government has been set up to segregate and control everything. Dissatisfied with the school, Molly escapes with a boy into the wilderness.

What follows is a story that strangely reminded me of My Antonia as Molly tries to make her way in the world. Each section of the book takes place in a different place and presents a different outlook and way of life: the world of roaming gypsies, working class townsfolk and the hypocritical and decadent urban bohemian are all presented. Gross caricatures of all these types are used, but it did little to hinder my enjoyment of the book.

The ending of the book if very bleak. I don't think it's giving too much away to say that Molly eventually is forced to give up her ideas of freedom and actually embrace the fatherhood figure of the totalitarian regime. I'm not quite sure what the implications of this realization are, or if the story has really earned the paranoid conspiracy driven ending it has, but it was a most depressing ending and it has stuck with me.

Another interesting thing to note is that this book is told in the 2nd person; that is, "You are Molly Zero, you walk down the street, blah blah blah." I'm not sure what that means either, other than to call to mind the universality of Molly's plight. Except for some racy passages, I believe this would be an excellent book to introduce young adults to feminist and dystopian science fiction.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this is post-apoc. SF, it actually reads like history, of the period from the 1950s to 70s (less the Vietnam War). Molly goes from community to community, the equivalent of Square -> Hippy -> Anarchists. I'm particularly appreciating the portrait of the anarchists right now, fervent young intellectual men and the reverent 'girls' who dress like them, serve them, but get no appreciation, much less love... with none of them having a clue about real life & how things actually work.

I'm also reminded how much SF relies on girls/ women in particular roles. Molly is our heroine, spunky, courageous, compassionate, smart... but always vulnerable, always diminished as someone who needs someone else to lead or rescue her. And she keeps letting this rather selfish, scummy boy come back to her, tangle her emerging 'self' into his ridiculous dreams. (Although, maybe the question is, are his dreams ridiculous, really?) At one point Molly imagines she could "Use others as you had been used so often, turn events to your advantage for once" but she doesn't follow through. In fact, later, when she meets an older man who seems to know stuff, she chooses to "sit at his feet while he talked."

When Molly is accused of being in love with a girl, she recoils with disgust.

Otoh, the second-person present pov, "You go there, you do this..." is effective and mesmerizing.

Well, I have about 1/4 left. Let's see how it ends....
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Hmm. One of *those* kinds of endings, common in *L*iterature. Unsatisfying, but kinda brilliant.
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"You feel the tears sting at that and fight them back, coldly. You're not going to wash it away in a flood of self-pity, either. That's too easy."

"Talk without action equals silence."
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Engaging, immersive, in many ways well-written. Very few 'happy' bits and almost no humor to relieve the tension & ugliness at all. I say, 3.5 stars.

Overall, I recommend it to ppl who are trying to figure out what they truly believe and value. What kind of political system might be 'best' if we had a chance at a fresh start. What 'best' means. I don't think it worth hunting down, though; read it only if you happen to have ready access to a copy.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revisiting some of the SF favourites from my youth, I've just read Molly Zero by Keith Roberts. This came from the second phase of Roberts' career. He started out with sub-Wyndham SF disaster novels like his The Furies featuring physically impossible giant wasps, but then wowed the literary world with his bucolic alternative history novel, Pavane, set in a modern day Britain where technology was held back to the steam level by a controlling Catholic church.

Molly Zero also feels like an alternative history novel, though it isn't. We meet the eponymous schoolgirl heroine being sent by train from the 'Blocks', where she was brought up, to another location. This could easily have just been another Brave New World derivative, but it's far more. My 1970s copy has a huge plot spoiler in its blurb (as does at least one of the Amazon pages) - I'm not going to do that, but I am about to discuss its main theme.

This book proved a particularly appropriate re-read in 2017 as, despite being a very readable adventure story, it is a fascinating study of a society that decides to withdraw from globalism. What seems at first a straightforward dystopia is, in fact, the playing out of the idea that globalism inevitably leads to rampant consumerism and eventually the attempt of governments or corporations to build empires - which then leads to mass slaughter and untold horrors. In response, British society is cut off from the world and managed by an elite. Molly experiences a number of different versions of isolationism, and though we may dislike them, we are challenged to think what really is the best approach.

So far, so brilliant. There are a few issues, though. Roberts takes the brave decision to write in the second person - so Molly is referred to throughout as 'you'. The idea of this style is to immerse the reader, but I find it really grates on me - though, to be fair, by about 50 pages in I was noticing it less. Some of the situations Molly find herself in feel rather stereotyped (though arguably they are designed to be so by the elite). I think Roberts struggled with Molly's sexuality in a way that wouldn't be an issue for a modern writer. And the ending is odd. I really can't decide whether it's terrible or very clever.

While probably not the equal of Pavane, this is a really interesting and thought-provoking book that manages never to let the message overwhelm the narrative. I'm very glad to have revisited it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting coming-of-age story with a very evocative writing style. What fascinates me most is that the protagonist doesn't know much about the world she lives in, nor does the reader. You get little tidbits throughout the book, but most is open for speculation. Even in the end when much is revealed, you still don't quite know how to judge Molly's world. The ending is quite a twist, and a little bleak in an open sort of way.

[Greg Sloman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautifully written tale, cast unusually in the second person present tense, places Molly, an adolescent orphan, in a post-apocalyptic landscape two hundred years after a calamitous war has left English towns and cities in rubble. The children of this world are housed in single-sex concrete "Blocks," where the outside world is glimpsed only through rumour and hearsay. Both tuition and activities appear to be forms of brainwashing. What is the children’s purpose, and what are they being brought up to do? What does the broken chain symbolize?

The novel is divided into three segments over six chapters, with the first two segments being the strongest, although the paradigm shift in the third section is a bravura concept. The landscape, together with the inhabitants of Seatown and the indomitable Romani, is a main character. England is divided into areas such as Mercia and Wessex, separated by fences and guarded gates. Access to the sea is barred. The ensemble cast in the final segment is not as well-defined and is perhaps the weakest aspect. Also, Molly seems less self-determined in the finale, more subsumed by societal anarchy and devastation.

The prose is indelibly warm and kinetic. The second person present tense is easily assimilated by the reader and feels fresh, as demonstrated in the description: "There's a great curving bay; you watch the waves come in like lines of lace, losing themselves against the pale brown beach. The sound comes up to you, a dim murmuring; and gulls are wheeling, tiny scraps of whiteness." Roberts’ stage setting and vivid descriptions linger in the memory, propelling you to read on to discover what’s next for Molly.

Molly Zero is to be treasured and is certainly worthy of a re-read. A flawed masterstroke.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually haven't read this one for years, and am going to pick up my copy at the weekend, so I might read it again and update my rating based on that.
It's notable in that it's probably the only second-person present tense novel I've read, certainly the only one I've read all the way through without getting annoyed. Excluding Fighting Fantasy etc, of course.
Mostly what this means is that it's one of those books that's hard to get into. It takes a few pages before it feels like a book and not just someone's experiment, and that means if you go have lunch and come back to it a few hours later, well, you just have to go through the few pages of everything feeling clumsy again.
It's very authoritative. An author might engage you by using a suggesive phrase like "Thrust your hands into your pockets to keep them warm", but Roberts would write something more like, "You thrust your hands into your pockets. You need to keep them warm". Molly has to undergo tests early on in the story. Or rather, you do. "You" make your choices like which button to press or which colour to choose, and you provide the reasoning behind it. You think it through, and you're told how Molly thinks it through, and wanting to make a different choice makes it a little uncomfortable sometimes.

I haven't touched on the plot. It's generic dystopian SF future with lots of running-away and hiding and things not being what they seem. It's less important than it seems; the main enjoyment I got out of this book was feeling like I got to know the character intimately, through a very unusual style.

[Jay]

This is a really weridly written book as it's writtern like a choose your own adventure novel. You go here, you feel this etc. It takes a while to get into but defently worth the effort.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wouldn't have likely read this if it weren't in Robert Silverberg's Triax, a collection of novellas, a length that our editor believes tends to produce particularly good SF.

I can't say this one supports that thesis. In fact, I find the currently first three reviews here, at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..., are all more interesting than the novella itself.

Still, it gets competently where it wants to go, so 5 stars on my idiosyncratic meter.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A disturbing coming of age novel set two hundred years in the future. Britain has withdrawn from the rest of the world and is a totalitarian state. Written in the second person, the eponymous protagonist’s discovery of the world is also the reader’s. A fascinating, thought-provoking book posing more questions than supplying answers, if you like that sort of thing. I do.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Keith Roberts and I remembered this book fondly. However, when I reread it now, I found it very slow going. There were good bits but on the whole, it was a bit confusing. I am disappointed.
Admittedly, the writing must have been difficult because he used 2nd person, present tense.

[Snakes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly slow. Clones or artificially created entities living in a post apocalyptic world. Or an artificial enclosure or possibly a virtual reality. It got so convoluted at points I lost the thread. Was expecting much better. The whole shtick of the book was it was written in second person.

[Ayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found it odd, got to the end, realized that it's technically YA lit, was surprised, then realized it was written in the days when si-fi YA was thought provoking and more than just teenagers being angsty. Weird, solid, and fascinating to ponder once it's all over.

[Janet Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Malcolm Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book when I first read it as a teenager in the early '80s. Much of it is just an episodic 'on the run from the man' story but harsher than your average escapist novel. The continual emphasis on moral choices and their consequences stuck with me far longer than the details of the story or even the author's name.

I was prompted to search out a copy and re-read this by Ken Macleod's excellent 'The Execution Channel' which has a similar dystopian image of Britain and Europe where authoritarian national governments struggle to maintain order and legitimacy in the face of massive civil unrest.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entire novel in 2nd person.