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32nd out of 56 books
—
52 voters
Gladiator-at-Law
America two hundred years hence with the population strictly divided into the 'haves', who live in electronically operated dream-dwellings, and the slum-dwellers.
The chief hope of escape for the latter is to win a prize at one of the organized Field Days that are bloodthirsty reminders of the Roman Games.
Lawyer Mundin and a strange bunch of friends plan to change all that...more
The chief hope of escape for the latter is to win a prize at one of the organized Field Days that are bloodthirsty reminders of the Roman Games.
Lawyer Mundin and a strange bunch of friends plan to change all that...more
Published
(first published 1955)
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Feb 15, 2012
tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
critics of corporations
Shelves:
sf
review of
Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth's Gladiator-At-Law
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 13, 2012
This is the 3rd Pohl/Kornbluth collaboration I've read so far. W/ each new one I'm more & more impressed by their skill at social analysis & at their ability to just tell an engrossing tale. Reading this one led me to compare them to Aldous Huxley & the comparison's in their favor. When I was a teenager & 1st hearing about what I'd now call dystopian novels or social...more
Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth's Gladiator-At-Law
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 13, 2012
This is the 3rd Pohl/Kornbluth collaboration I've read so far. W/ each new one I'm more & more impressed by their skill at social analysis & at their ability to just tell an engrossing tale. Reading this one led me to compare them to Aldous Huxley & the comparison's in their favor. When I was a teenager & 1st hearing about what I'd now call dystopian novels or social...more
This book is a timeless classic. It holds up amazingly well, although, along with every SF writers of the 50's, these two (Kornbluth and Pohl) completely undersold the computer age. Otherwise, their vision of the future was frighteningly clear. The world they describe has not yet come to be, but it still might happen.
The story is pure black comedy and the laughs are painful, but still laughs. Belly Rave (Belle Reve) can be found in the flat-tops of North Sunnyvale. I've walked through that neigh...more
The story is pure black comedy and the laughs are painful, but still laughs. Belly Rave (Belle Reve) can be found in the flat-tops of North Sunnyvale. I've walked through that neigh...more
The title (and the racy covers on some editions) might lead you to expect a little more swashbuckling than is actually present in this book. This is mainly a corporate finance thriller, with a few hard-sf elements mixed in. Apropos of the current economy, suburbia has been laid waste by a housing bubble, but then real estate world is turned on its head by... bubble houses. With some very grim consequences for society. Overall, though the book comes off as very dated. There's lots of rapid-fire 5...more
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Pohl and Kornbluth's's sharp satire of the consumer society and corporate corruption of government is as relevant today as when it was first published 50 years ago. "Gladiator at law" describes a possible future for the 1950s in which the working and middle classes are kept under control by the threat of losing their job and with it their tied housing--and the unemployed masses are kept quiescent with bread and circuses, Roman style. Reality tv may not have gone quite as far as the entertainment...more
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If you enjoy science fiction about corporate takeovers, science fiction with little-to-no actual science fiction, or smelly old paperbacks, then I highly recommend this book.
this book introduces reader to Pohl's dark-humor tailored mild dystopia. Prefer to read if you look for something more casual than 1984. Prefer to read before "The Age of The Pussyfoot"
Not really my kind of SF, although others may like it. Rather slow and sometimes it seems with tongue too firmly in cheek.
Já o li e reli vezes sem conta, uma história fantástica!
OK. The Space Merchants is far better.
Interesting idea - dated now of course
I'm re-reading this - great masterpiece! But in the Goodreads directory there are two books, one by C. Kornbluth, one by Fred Pohl. er, just one book, 2 writers...
May 22, 2013
Spes
is currently reading it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
foreign,
science-fiction
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