I had to have read this in the late '70s or early '80s in paperback. It was and alternate future type of SCI-FI that unfortunately I don't remember too many details of, but remember that is made me look at China different at an earlier age. What brought it back to mind recently was what was going on with GM - that will be the last bullet. Here we go with the few details that I remember:
- At some time in the future, the USA is under occupation by the People's Republic of China. Why, I don't remember - but they weren't invited.....
- The main character is a young man of standard American stock.
- Another of the main characters is a Chinese female who is either an PLA officer or mid-to-high level civilian bureaucrat who is part of the occupation force.
- I think it takes place in Louisiana - I am not sure though.
- The Chinese female, in line with their continued restrictions on birth, has a birth control device inserted under her skin - on her backside I think. This is standard in the novel - but I remember it because it seemed ahead of its time but plausible, and I was of the age that anything that hinted at s3x stuck in my mind.
- I think the two are lovers, and somehow the birth control device didn't work or was taken out by the female - I think - again, no shock that stuck in my mind at such a young age.
- The GM tie in is that the American cars they drove in the book were generally seen as cr@ppy, poorly made excuses for transportation - and forced that way by the occupation and the requirement to use substandard products as all the good stuff was going back to China. The one our hero drives had plastic windows that didn't properly roll down, if at all, and I believe were scratched up or becoming opaque.
A 72hr pass over any three day weekend for the first person that can identify the book ... please!
UPDATE: Thanks to Paul and Byron, I think we have a winner, Frederik Pohl's Black Star Rising
from 1985 ... I read it later than I thought. Nice and thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment