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.
The virtue of this book is that it has a twist that you won't see coming despite all the clues. You won't see it coming because it's an utterly ridiculous twist that surely nobody would dare to use as the basis of a story. But Colin Kapp did.