Night Operation, his only work of science fiction, was written when he was well into his seventies.
In the 22nd century humanity has taken to inhabiting the sewers serving our present society because of a dread of terrorist and bio-chemical threats.
The overwhelming fear engendered by these phenomena coupled with economic collapse, as given rise to a society obsessed with security, standardisation and control of information.
It is only through a mixture of luck and the continuing existence of a few elderly people who have a dim awareness that life has wider significance that the chief character in the story, is able to break out of this horrific mental and physical prison, where the glories of human culture have been buried in a virtually inaccessible library and replaced with aspirational hedonism and an obsession with rote learning.
I think I'll get a copy, it may speak to us about what our response to COVID has wrought.
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