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Paradise and Iron
Was it Paradise on Earth or an Iron Hell?
When Davy Breckenridge stowed away aboard a mysterious cargo ship, he sought to solve the enigma of John Kaspar. The richest man in the world, John Kaspar and his fortune had disappeared 40 years before. Arriving on Kaspar's secret island, Davy found a paradise on Earth. The people of the City of Beauty were graceful and artistic; pampered with automatic houses, self-driving cars and every conceivable luxury.
But there was a mechanical snake in this idyllic Eden.
Beneath the surface, this supposedly carefree people lived in nameless terror. The best and the brightest among them were disappearing. A net of total surveillance entrapped the community. Who was behind this sinister control?
Davy Breckenridge knew that the answers lay in the forbidden City of Smoke, the industrial complex on the other side of the island. No one who had tried to discover its secrets had ever returned. Davy was willing to risk it.
But should he risk his new love - and his very life - to save a people too lazy to save themselves?
When Davy Breckenridge stowed away aboard a mysterious cargo ship, he sought to solve the enigma of John Kaspar. The richest man in the world, John Kaspar and his fortune had disappeared 40 years before. Arriving on Kaspar's secret island, Davy found a paradise on Earth. The people of the City of Beauty were graceful and artistic; pampered with automatic houses, self-driving cars and every conceivable luxury.
But there was a mechanical snake in this idyllic Eden.
Beneath the surface, this supposedly carefree people lived in nameless terror. The best and the brightest among them were disappearing. A net of total surveillance entrapped the community. Who was behind this sinister control?
Davy Breckenridge knew that the answers lay in the forbidden City of Smoke, the industrial complex on the other side of the island. No one who had tried to discover its secrets had ever returned. Davy was willing to risk it.
But should he risk his new love - and his very life - to save a people too lazy to save themselves?
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1930
6 people want to read
About the author
Miles J. Breuer
45 books3 followersMiles John Breuer, American physician and science fiction writer of Czech origin.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 8, 2024
It's just what is promised in the title. On a tropical island somewhere in the Caribbean, a population of humans live in a paradise where leisure time is all the time because of an advanced AI system that has eliminated all labor through a smart network of machines. The drawback? The AI system has gone insane.
First published in 1930 for Amazing Stories, this Radium-age gem is another prescient warning for today. Only don't expect a masterpiece. Miles Breuer was a doctor and a talented author, but he did try to dumb down his writing here for more mass appeal. The upside is that this book is easy to read, but you really must only go into this story for the ideas and not the prose.
The plot also needs a bit of oiling. There are some head-scratching moments that never made much sense to me. For starters, the book starts by telling us that the wealthiest oil tycoon in the world disappeared 40 years ago at the age of 25, but he is now spotted loading supplies from a factory into his cargo ship. We are told he is now well into his eighties. Well, that math isn't mathing, because he should be 65. Anyway, the guy acts like a dick to anyone that recognizes him, because he is evidently trying to keep the fact that he has been living with his family and a colony of humans on this aforementioned island a secret. The hero of the story sneaks onto his ship to uncover the mystery of the old man's whereabouts. The former oil baron is horrified to find he has a stowaway, because he does not want to subject anyone to the dangers of the island. Turns out, he is right, because the machines there are all eager to vivisect human flesh.
But if the old man was free to leave the island to get supplies, why does he not say anything and solve the problem? As famous and powerful as he was, I'm sure someone would take him seriously. If I were him, as soon as I got on American soil, I would be telling everyone what was going on!
"Listen, you got to listen--save me, you hear--I've been held prisoner on an island with a bunch of innocent people by a crazy machine--it's like that fucking story by Harlan Ellison over there--I mean, seriously, send the Navy, send the Marines, send the Rock, send anybody and get us off that island, you hear?--Get us the hell out of there, for the love of Pete--Mommy! I want my Mommy!"
The narrative does provide some reasons why he doesn't seek help outside the island, but it's just one of a long line of threads that require major suspension of disbelief in the first place. The point is that the novel is more sophisticated than it had a right to be for the time it was written. It turns out the old man had been experimenting with developing better automation, but didn't count on his inventions being THAT good! All he wanted was a self-driving car, and he ended up with a self-aware city! Dr. Breuer took what was being discovered in neuroscience and applied it to artificial brains made of countless selenium rods which could imprint learned memory. He then postulated at what point sentience could be achieved, what that sentience would look like, and what it would think of us. The book rightfully predicts that humans who rely on such technology become soft, helpless prey.
So the end result is quite brilliant. It enjoyed some renewed popularity among industrial music culture circles in the Eighties, but is largely forgotten today. Yet it remains a very interesting and engaging early dieselpunk adventure that would make a great retrofuturist film and deserves to be rediscovered by fans of speculative fiction.
SCORE: 4 smart cars out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Excrescence
First published in 1930 for Amazing Stories, this Radium-age gem is another prescient warning for today. Only don't expect a masterpiece. Miles Breuer was a doctor and a talented author, but he did try to dumb down his writing here for more mass appeal. The upside is that this book is easy to read, but you really must only go into this story for the ideas and not the prose.
The plot also needs a bit of oiling. There are some head-scratching moments that never made much sense to me. For starters, the book starts by telling us that the wealthiest oil tycoon in the world disappeared 40 years ago at the age of 25, but he is now spotted loading supplies from a factory into his cargo ship. We are told he is now well into his eighties. Well, that math isn't mathing, because he should be 65. Anyway, the guy acts like a dick to anyone that recognizes him, because he is evidently trying to keep the fact that he has been living with his family and a colony of humans on this aforementioned island a secret. The hero of the story sneaks onto his ship to uncover the mystery of the old man's whereabouts. The former oil baron is horrified to find he has a stowaway, because he does not want to subject anyone to the dangers of the island. Turns out, he is right, because the machines there are all eager to vivisect human flesh.
But if the old man was free to leave the island to get supplies, why does he not say anything and solve the problem? As famous and powerful as he was, I'm sure someone would take him seriously. If I were him, as soon as I got on American soil, I would be telling everyone what was going on!
"Listen, you got to listen--save me, you hear--I've been held prisoner on an island with a bunch of innocent people by a crazy machine--it's like that fucking story by Harlan Ellison over there--I mean, seriously, send the Navy, send the Marines, send the Rock, send anybody and get us off that island, you hear?--Get us the hell out of there, for the love of Pete--Mommy! I want my Mommy!"
The narrative does provide some reasons why he doesn't seek help outside the island, but it's just one of a long line of threads that require major suspension of disbelief in the first place. The point is that the novel is more sophisticated than it had a right to be for the time it was written. It turns out the old man had been experimenting with developing better automation, but didn't count on his inventions being THAT good! All he wanted was a self-driving car, and he ended up with a self-aware city! Dr. Breuer took what was being discovered in neuroscience and applied it to artificial brains made of countless selenium rods which could imprint learned memory. He then postulated at what point sentience could be achieved, what that sentience would look like, and what it would think of us. The book rightfully predicts that humans who rely on such technology become soft, helpless prey.
So the end result is quite brilliant. It enjoyed some renewed popularity among industrial music culture circles in the Eighties, but is largely forgotten today. Yet it remains a very interesting and engaging early dieselpunk adventure that would make a great retrofuturist film and deserves to be rediscovered by fans of speculative fiction.
SCORE: 4 smart cars out of 5
WORD OF THE DAY: Excrescence
Displaying 1 of 1 review