Mockingbird (SF Masterworks)

Review "A moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Superman, and Star Wars."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "Set in a far future in which robots run a world with a small and declining human population, this novel could be considered an unofficial sequel to Fahrenheit 451, for its central event and symbol is the rediscovery of reading."--San Francisco Chronicle "Because of its affirmation of such persistent human values as curiosity, courage, and compassion, along with its undeniable narrative power, Mockingbird will become one of those books that coming generations will periodically rediscover with wonder and delight."--The Washington Post "I've read other novels extrapolating the dangers of computerization but Mockingbird stings me, the writer, the hardest. The notion, the possibility, that people might indeed lose the ability, and worse, the desire to read, is made acutely probable."--New York Times bestselling author ANNE MCCAFFREY "Walter Tevis is science fiction's great neglected master, one of the definitive bridges between sf and literature. For those who know his work only through the movies, the lucid prose and literary vision of Mockingbird and The Man Who Fell to Earth will come as a revelation." --AL SARRANTONIO, Author of The Five Worlds saga From the Inside Flap Mockingbird is a powerful novel of a future world where humans are dying. Those that survive spend their days in a narcotic bliss or choose a quick suicide rather than slow extinction. Humanity's salvation rests with an android who has no desire to live, and a man and a woman who must discover love, hope, and dreams of a world reborn. This sci-fi masterpiece is “a moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Superman, and Star Wars” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). In a world where the human population has suffered devastating losses, a handful of survivors cling to what passes for life in a post-apocalyptic, dying landscape. People wander, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss, through a barren landscape with no children, no art, and where reading is forbidden. From this bleak existence, a tragic love triangle springs forth. Spofforth, the most perfect machine ever created, runs the world, but his only wish is to die. Paul and Mary Lou are a man and a woman whose passion for each other sparks a jealousy in Spofforth—and provides the only hope for the future of human beings on Earth. Walter Tevis, author of The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Color of Money, delivers an elegiac dystopia of mankind coming to terms with its own imminent extinction. “Because of its affirmation of such persistent human values as curiosity, courage, compassion, along with its undeniable narrative power, Mockingbird will become one of those books that coming generations will periodically rediscover with wonder and delight.” —The Washington Post In a dying world where humans are drugged and lulled by electronic bliss, where there are no children, where some would rather burn themselves alive than endure, Spofforth is the most perfect machine ever created. But his only desire is cease to be. Yet there is hope in the passion and joy that a man and a woman discover in love and in books, hope for the future, hope even for Spofforth In a future world where mankind is dying, humans wander through life in a drugged electronic bliss. Quick sex is the norm, and some people would rather commit suicide than live in hopelessness. But two people find themselves drawn to each other in an orchestrated coupling by an android that can never die, but who has no desire to continue living A Futuristic Tale Set In A World In Which Reading Is Forbidden, Citizens Are Drugged From Childhood On, And Machines Dominate Humans Focuses On Two Individuals Who Teach Themselves How To Read And Think Independently As They Become The Hope Of Humankind's Salvation. Reprint. Walter Tevis is the acclaimed author of The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Queen's Gambit.'A moral tale that has elements of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Superman and Star Wars' LA TIMES