Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Popular Library (1987), Edition: Reprint, 236 pages
Description
Comus, the communications network/police force, has spread its web of power all across an America paralyzed by the after-effects of limited nuclear war. But in California, resistance is building against the dictatorship of Comus and Andrew Raleigh, president for life. For now Raleigh is dying and the powers of Comus are fading. It's the perfect time for the Californian revolutionaries to activate the secret weapon that alone can destroy America's totalitarian system and re-establish democracy. Yet Comus too has powers at its disposal, chief among them Howard Rohan. A washed-up actor until Comus offers him a second chance, Rohan will head a troupe of players touring in the heart of rebel territory. Howard Rohan, double agent, caught between the orders of Comus and rebels demands. Which side will he choose? Who will he play false - himself, or the entire country?… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Lyndatrue
I prefer the Vincent DiFate cover on my later copy of this book. Still, I love them both. It's instructive to see how much times had changed. This copy may have been published in 1968, but the blurbs on the back are straight out of 1957.
"COMUS"
"A vast, complex, all powerful political machine known
"Comus knew what every man, woman, and child in the nation was thinking, feeling, desiring."
"Comus knew precisely how to shape, guide, bully and seduce its reluctant citizens into utter submission."
"Comus must be destroyed and an underground resistance forms to do that--even at the risk of destroying the country instead. Their one slim chance is contained in a piece of metal no bigger than a man's fist..."
What's not to like? Two copies is barely enough.
"COMUS"
"A vast, complex, all powerful political machine known
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as Comus (Communications U.S.) held the nation in its suffocating, merciless grip.""Comus knew what every man, woman, and child in the nation was thinking, feeling, desiring."
"Comus knew precisely how to shape, guide, bully and seduce its reluctant citizens into utter submission."
"Comus must be destroyed and an underground resistance forms to do that--even at the risk of destroying the country instead. Their one slim chance is contained in a piece of metal no bigger than a man's fist..."
What's not to like? Two copies is barely enough.
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LibraryThing member clong
This is my first solo offering from CL Moore, an author whose work I have previously experienced only through the short stories she co-wrote with her husband Henry Kuttner. In some ways Doomsday Morning is clearly dated, but I found many more things to like about it than not, starting with its
This is science fiction without much science--virtually all of the changes in this dystopian near future America are social, not technological; indeed it has more the feel of an adventure story than true science fiction. Many of the details as to how this society functions and evolved are sketchy, but the basic concept of a president for life supported by an all seeing communications monopoly if anything resonates more today than it would have back in 1957 (Rupert Murdoch may well have read this book back when it first came out).
This is character driven fiction, and it offers complex and distinct and interesting characters, each of which has a well thought out back story and complex motivations. I can’t think of another science fiction novel, especially of this era, with five quite distinct and reasonably complex female characters. This is a book in which the characters might be said to be plausibly irrational (as opposed to the people who inhabit the work of a rationalist author like Isaac Asimov). Our protagonist Howard Rohan is a washed-up drunk, haunted by memories of his unfaithful dead wife with whom he had been, for a time, on top of the entertainment world. As the conflict evolves Rohan plays both sides against the middle, leaving both himself and the reader unsure as to which side he will land on, in a way that might have especially resonated in the Macarthyism era.
I enjoyed Moore’s description of the magical process in which a script is transformed into live theatre--I can only assume that she was speaking from experience. I also enjoyed the ultimate explanation for Rohan’s mysteriously prescient dreams.
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solidly noirish tone, which reminded me a bit of Algis Budrys. The book also reminded me of (but was way better than) Poul Anderson’s Hugo winning novella from a few years later “No Truce with Kings.”This is science fiction without much science--virtually all of the changes in this dystopian near future America are social, not technological; indeed it has more the feel of an adventure story than true science fiction. Many of the details as to how this society functions and evolved are sketchy, but the basic concept of a president for life supported by an all seeing communications monopoly if anything resonates more today than it would have back in 1957 (Rupert Murdoch may well have read this book back when it first came out).
This is character driven fiction, and it offers complex and distinct and interesting characters, each of which has a well thought out back story and complex motivations. I can’t think of another science fiction novel, especially of this era, with five quite distinct and reasonably complex female characters. This is a book in which the characters might be said to be plausibly irrational (as opposed to the people who inhabit the work of a rationalist author like Isaac Asimov). Our protagonist Howard Rohan is a washed-up drunk, haunted by memories of his unfaithful dead wife with whom he had been, for a time, on top of the entertainment world. As the conflict evolves Rohan plays both sides against the middle, leaving both himself and the reader unsure as to which side he will land on, in a way that might have especially resonated in the Macarthyism era.
I enjoyed Moore’s description of the magical process in which a script is transformed into live theatre--I can only assume that she was speaking from experience. I also enjoyed the ultimate explanation for Rohan’s mysteriously prescient dreams.
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LibraryThing member cammykitty
I have to admire any science fiction that can remain available for over 40 years and not seem dated. In Doomsday Morning, the United States has become totalitarian. Even the actors are a part of the propaganda machine. (Remember World War II movies, followed by anticommunism with Ronnie Reagan as
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head of the actors union? It isn't impossible.) A washed up actor finds himself in the middle of a shift in power. He can either help an old friend slide into the presidency by acting in a slightly amusing but constrained play, or he can ad lib a bit and join the rebels. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lyndatrue
Yes, I have two copies if this book. One is from 1968, and loved nearly to death. The other is this one (published in 1987). I'm not sure I'm always fond of the need to "combine" works, even when it's clear that it's the same work. The cover artists are different, and there are other differences as
Still, it's a bang-up story from the days when you were never quite sure who wrote what (this was written before Kuttner's untimely and sad death).
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well. Still, it's a bang-up story from the days when you were never quite sure who wrote what (this was written before Kuttner's untimely and sad death).
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1957
ISBN
0445204621 / 9780445204621