Why is the government deliberately destroying all trace of Man's past? Why are the laws of gravity and momentum strangely altered? Why has the world's population continually increased without the predicted eco-crisis taking place? Why is there an international conspiracy to conceal the future of the human race? These are just some of the reality-shattering questions that face Manalone, a brilliant computer scientist, when he tries to find out exactly what has happened to humanity. Manalone, outcast from society, must fight the entire machinery of a ruthless police state to discover the truth. And the truth is an awful, chilling one, that sounds only too real in today's world.
Colin Derek Ivor Kapp was a popular UK science fiction author, but one who never became a success in the USA. He was active, though not prolific, as an author in the 1960s through to the 1980s.
He is best known for his "Unorthodox Engineers" stories, which recount an eccentric group of engineers, who accomplish impossible feats of engineering against all odds.
Very very strong little novel. If you take a drink every time Kapp's character Manalone says "Manalone" in his endless dialogues with himself, you will die. I bet I could do it but they don't allow me to drink anymore BECAUSE SUFFERING IS MY ONLY APPARENT FUNCTION etc. Anyway, slightly annoying but otherwise solid "mindfuck" (uggghhh I hate that term but can think of no alternative).
A little dated, but entertaining and thought provoking nonetheless. A product of 70's British New Wave SF, weaving the concerns of the era (still relevant now) in to a rather chilling depiction of future consequences.