Kane's Odyssey

by Jeff Clinton

Rufus Kane is a born rebel. Forced to flee from the tightly controlled life of an isolated commune, he finds safety in a large city. But his dream of freedom to live is soon shattered. He is betrayed by a friend and his incredible trial reveals a society gone mad. Law and order are absolute, human rights have surrendered to fear. Hope has vanished fromt he world. In this exciting tale, Jeff Clinton is at his storytelling best. Rufus becomes a rebel with a cause: the creation of a world fit for men!

Genres: Science Fiction

190 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Apseudonym used by Jack M. Bickham

Reviews

[Ben Boulden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim novel by Jack M. Bickham, published as by Jeff Clinton, is a nice piece of social science fiction. Rufus Kane is a farmer in a "family commune" somewhere near Taos, New Mexico, in a post-apocalyptic world riddled by the effects of industrial pollution and nuclear fallout. Kane's world crumbles when he discovers the elders of the commune are lying about almost everything. He escapes to a nearby city, but the secrets propping-up the fragile American society threaten the life Kane has carefully built.

There is something here about the nature of identity, freedom, truth, and how we barter these concepts for the security of living in society. No answers are provided, but the questions are what's important here. A solid tale with enough twists and ideas to keep it interesting until the last page.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as a scanned paperback copy on the Internet Archive. Yes, I am once again slumming in the Laser Books catalogue, and this entry is nothing to write home about. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic America. Pollution and the fallout of limited nuclear exchanges have ravaged the environment. The population has dwindled and society has fragmented. Isolated agrarian communities scrape out a living from the degraded land. What population centers still around exist as city-states. The Federal government still exists, centered on the east cost, but exerts little influence on the far-flung western cities. At the beginning of the tale we find one Rufus Kane working in an agricultural commune somewhere in the former New Mexico. He experiences stabbing pains in his head if he thinks about forbidden topics, such as what lies beyond his small community, or about his personal history. He is forced to periodically use a device called a "Learner," which we later learn conditions his brain to suppress thinking on forbidden topics. Influenced by a friend, he indulges in forbidden thinking and fakes his use of the Learner, so that he experiences a growing awareness that things in his community are not what they seem. Eventually circumstances force him to flee the commune and wander in the wilderness until he winds up in a city where a kindly resident helps him establish a new identity and find work. Eventually he is found out and arrested. His crime is having a fake identity, and during his trial he learns that he is the son of America's chief executive, and has undergone mind erasure before being sent to the commune. He escapes custody and flees the city to the wilderness, where he falls in with a fellow wanderer and eventually they make their way to Washington DC. Will Kane find his destiny as the scion of a powerful political family? The book is a quick read, and pretty silly in parts, and at the end seems to set up a possible sequel. I haven't researched whether there is a second book, and probably won't. Three out of five stars.

[James Dick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novel of a kind which has been seen countless times in science fiction canon: the "Good German" (an authoritarian, book burner, etc.) suddenly awakens to the injustices of his society and breaks free of the thought controls which bind him. He goes on to become a rebel and fight for the cause of knowledge/life/free potato chips, whatever. It's basically Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The problem is that Ray Bradbury perfected this story with Fahrenheit 451. This tale has been remixed, rebranded, and repackaged as films such as Equilibrium and The Matrix. Do yourself a favour, and read Fahrenheit 451. The essential plot has not been bettered since.