A dark warning on the perils of surrendering to fear
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Its black cover is suitable: this is meant to be a dark warning about what happens when fear - of industry, science, of human learning and rationality itself - takes over. This book should be read by doomongers of all kinds, right and left.
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Insightful and sharp-witted satire
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The Great Before is a road story from the mid-21st century, when all the roads have been overgrown and the only permissible form of transport apart from walking is the skateboard. The story is told by an 84-year-old professor, making his way from Cambridge to London for an exhibition of the lost wonders of the now-despised 'industrial age'. Along the way his companions and the people he meets give their various perspectives on what went wrong and who is to blame. Though manifestly a 'be careful what you wish for' satire on the views of anti-globalisers, the book also has some telling things to say about the flimsy foundations on which life at the turn of the century is built. The beginning of the book isn't its strongest part, but it's worth sticking with it.
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A witty satire as a black picaresque.
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A trenchant satire which leaves one yearning for the present and not 'the good ol'days'! This black picaresque will purge the Luddite in any reader and make him happy to be a member of our 'souless' age! The book is full of pertinent observations couched in the the weird world of a post industrialist, future, and thouroughly medieval environment.It makes me appreciate my toaster all the more.
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