The Splendid Freedom

by Arsen Darnay

Sentient missiles, telepathic rabbits, consciousness-expanding machine and soul-catching nets: these are just a few of the elements Amen Darnay conjures up with his special blend of fantasy and technology—from the torture camps of the Third Reich to the corridors of contemporary Washington, D.C. and into a variety of possible futures where religious cults worship atomic wastes; where decent folk live in ordered harmony while Peacefreaks and other dangerous elements of society are sealed off and left to exterminate each other in the war for dwindling food rations; where Earth is the tourist center of the galaxy, even though it has nothing left to offer, nothing at all except—

Collection of three related novellas which first appeared in Galaxy Magazine: The Splendid Freedom (1974); The Eastcoast Confinement (1974); Plutonium (1976).

Genres: Science Fiction

244 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1980

About the author

Arsen Julius Darnay. Hungarian-born writer, in the USA from 1953 and a US citizen from 1961. He resides in Michigan with wife Brigitte Theodora nee Schulz, retired reference publisher, also born in Europe. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 2+ great-grandchildren.
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/B...

Since age 7, he has considered his "calling to be a writer, even poet". His first sf story, "The Splendid Freedom", appeared in Galaxy in 1974; his first novel, A Hostage for Hinterland, set the pattern for much of his work: in a Post-Holocaust USA, where floating Cities depend upon land-dwelling ecofreak tribesmen for the helium that cools their reactors, crisis erupts into a bleak and somewhat metaphysical confrontation, at the end of which the cities die. A similarly abstract dichotomy, set on a Rimworld, is destabilized in The Siege of Faltara (1978). The Splendid Freedom (collection of linked stories, 1980) carries its protagonists, who are linked through Reincarnation, into a variety of Dystopias. Darnay did not publish fiction 1981-2009.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of the titular novelette and two novellas (The Eastcoast Confinement and Plutonium; Plutonium was later expanded into a novel published both as Karma and The Karma Affair, which (confusingly!) appeared before this fix-up version) that were published in Jim Baen's Galaxy magazine 1974 - '76. The three stories are linked by characters who are reincarnated into alternate Dystopian futures. It's pretty good adventure with a somewhat Libertarian flavor.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

3½