The Tomorrow City

by Monica Hughes

C-Three, the computer, is programmed to make the city of Thompsonville an ideal place to live in. But disaster threatens as the computer uses increasingly ruthless means to discard all that is old and useless. Caro and David are aware of the horrors, but can they alert the others in time?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Canada, Childrens, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy

137 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Monica Hughes was a very popular writer for young people, and has won numerous prizes. Her books have been published in the United States, Poland, Spain, Japan, France, Scandinavia, England, and Germany. She has twice received the Canada Council Prize for Children's Literature, and was runner-up for the Guardian Award.

She is the author of Keeper of the Isis Light, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, which also received a Certificate of Honor from the International Board on Books for Young People; Hunter in the Dark, also an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Sandwriter, among many other titles.

Reviews

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread this childhood favorite to my daughter. Considering how long ago it was published and that it was about an A.I. this held up pretty well. Lots of tension as Caro had to stand up for what was right to the brainwashed adults.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a re-read for me but I didn't really remember the story, just that Monica Hughes was one of my favourite authors as a kid. For a 1970s science fiction story based on computers, this really holds up well! Set in the not too distant future, a girl's father invents a computer to run their city. The computer learns from itself and inevitably takes control of the city, brainwashing the citizens through TV and spying on them through cameras and light sockets, etc. The city becomes a dystopia with no tramps, low-income families, or old people through unethical means. Citizens become trained to obsessively comply with orders and keep the city clean and running smoothly and efficiently. Since the girl and her best friend, a boy, spend a lot of time way out in a clearing in a forest they miss being brainwashed by the TV and clue in on what has happened and plan to take the computer out. It's the type of story that has been done many times before and since this was written in 1978 but it is a well-paced and well-written tale. The author has not used any technology gimmicks making the story read surprisingly well today in the 21st century. The only outdated idea being that the computer takes up an entire floor of a highrise building. While not among my top favourite of Hughes' books, it is a fun old-school science fiction yarn and indicative of her style.

[Douglas Greenshields · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book as a kid in the late 1980s, before the advent of the web. The idea of a computer that controlled everything in a city but that sacrificed the weak in favour of the children was a frightening one. It's one of those books that now, in 2018, seem remarkably prescient. While to an adult's eye it's clear that the intended suggestion is that a sufficiently powerful AI will execute a public policy akin to the domestic policies of the Nazis, and instigate the snooping and underhand manipulation recognisable as like East Germany under the Stasi, to a 2018 eye all parallels tend to fall on big tech, the computer itself being comparable to a Google/ Facebook data center. There are self-driving trucks, there is CCTV. There are manipulative notices through the post, and a generated television schedule to keep the population docile. The computer is able to learn from voice inputs to the cable TV boxes, which brings to mind how ready and willing people are currently to talk to Amazon's Alexa. All control of even mundane systems has been surrendered to the computer, because it's easier that way. The central characters soon learn that unless they do something, they'll never again experience a "two-helpings-of-pie sort of a day" (the dialogue is sometimes charmingly antiquated). In fact, "the whole world's bugged, except for the dell and the river". They fight for the ability to feel, to think, even to hurt. This is a book I'll want to return to ten years from now.

[Rae Knightly · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do you do when a highly sophisticated (and sentient?) computer takes over control of your city, imposing its computer-generated laws on its human inhabitants? Not my favorite Monica Hughes book - the writing hasn't aged well and the theme of AI-taking-over has been revisited in other books and movies multiple times since then - but I find it fascinating how Hughes approached themes that are still relevant forty years later. That, to me, is a sign of good science-fiction writing. Great for 10 to 14 year olds.

[S. Shigemitsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Sci-Fi I enjoyed by Monica Hughes. Caro's father created C-Three, an AI that would be the caretaker of their city; but while Caro's father was away, C-Three started making drastic choices that even affected the lives of the weak and elderly. A thought provoking story of how far should we allow AI to control our lives.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuortenkirjaksi yllättävän synkkä, todella totalitaarinen kuvaus dystopiasta. En todella olettanut, että Kolme K loisi näin pelottavan ja julman kontrolliyhteiskunnan. Surullinen ja haikea loppu. Pidin kirjasta.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I remember reading when I was a kid. It's surprisingly relevant to today's issues, considering it was written way back in the 70s. It's about an AI controlling a city and all the stuff that goes wrong with that. It's an oldie but a goodie.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh....not terrible. I did not not enjoy it a little bit.

[Clive Parkin]

Would have read this, I think, while on holiday in England in 1983. Good premise but my very vague memory was that the ending was a little bit disappointing.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 1 out of 5]

A little dated now, but this is a different take on an idea first developed by D F Jones in his series of books about Colossus the super computer, and turned into a film 'Colossus: The Forbin Project'. The difference here is that the computer in Hughes' novel has been developed to make a city perfect whereas the 1960s Colossus novels and film deal with a computer developed to run the nuclear defence of North America. And the protagonists here are a fourteen year old girl, Caro, and her friend David.

Caro's father has developed the computer and Caro herself inadvertantly influences its programming when she gives it advice after its first efforts at efficiency - to utilise the parking spaces of council officials in the evening for public parking - don't go down well and it seems the Mayor might 'pull the plug' or at least force her father to take out the computer's self governance. Her advice that the computer must 'make people like it' are taken too literally, in typical machine fashion. Soon the computer is hypnotising the adults through cable TV soap opera to accepts its edicts which become increasingly repressive - old people in hospital have their life support turned off, for example - and the city becomes an enclave cut off from the outside world. Caro's father is touring the country, extoiling the value of the system to other cities, so there is the additional threat that the repression might spread. It is up to Caro and David to try to halt the computer's mindcontrol.

For a YA novel and of that period, this has a pretty downbeat ending, and also has unresolved questions about whether other characters actually survive or not. The relationship between the two main characters came over to me as a bit symplistic and I didn't enjoy this one as much as volumes 1 and 2 of her Keeper of the Isis Light trilogy.

[Slingshot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in the 70s, this doesn't hold up too badly, considering the lack of enabling and personal technology.

One of the things I always remembered liking about The Tomorrow City was the sense of very real stakes; there is real danger, adult who might come to the rescue are neutralised, and the anticipated happy ending is, at worst, ambiguous, and at best, bittersweet.

One of the small quibbles I had was the movement of time in the book. I realise for plot and length purposes, things had to move quickly but it wasn't readily clear how much time had passed.

Quite a pleasant re-read and back on the shelf it goes (as opposed to the donation pile).

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a number of Monica Hughes' books back in 1999 because she is the favorite author of a friend. Though some were harder to find, I enjoyed all I could lay my hands on. Her books have been translated into dozens of languages.

This is an interesting little book about a society's attempt to make a perfect city - a city run by a computer, where the computer becomes the tyrant instead of man. The fight to save the city is lead by two friends, Caroline the computer designer's daughter and her friend David.

This is a great book and I highly recommend it.

(First written as Journal Reading Notes in 1999.)

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monica Hughes was my favourite author growing up, and remains a favourite to this day. I spied this book in a rural thrift store the other weekend and picked it up because I don't recall having read it. The story is pretty by-the-numbers, but the ending is a bit more twisty and shocking than you'd expect from YA lit. What I'll always love about Monica Hughes is that her work is replete with female protagonists, and this book is no exception. Definitely a recommend for any parents looking for solid SF for their kids.

[Gail Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this story people are trying to make their city a better place. One man sets about this by creating a super computer who can learn so it can run the city for them. The idea is that the computer will be able to make things more efficient, less wasteful and know when to replace instead of repair etc. However, the computer gets rid of more than they bargained for such as old people, and they can't control it any more. Cue the children who risk themselves to save the city. An interesting story although slightly dated, but well worth the effort.

[Ryan Solski · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting city to explore, this tomorrow city is, with buildings of glass, and weather controlled. The characters fought a computer who tried to infrastructure the city as one organism. Fun sci-fi with strange twists and a blinding ending! Somehow though, the family plot in it made the expanse of the novel hard to find, and the inventions in this novel by Hughes weren't as entwined in her writing prose as Space Trap.

[SBC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A YA exploration of the iconic SF premise of a computer controlling a city/world.

Caro's father is a city planner, excited to set in motion his IT invention - C-Three, the computer that will make independent decisions to make the city perfect.

Trouble is, the reason why human society is imperfect is not just because of human flaws and corruption - but human compassion and morality. And human freedom.

[Shanna_redwind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monica Hughes was writing dystopian fiction for young adults long before it was popular like it is now. This story is about a computer that takes over over everything that happens in a small city. The characters are likable, if a little bit shallow and the plot is pretty good.

[Cupof Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

"high-tech" was my best one word description of this book in junior high.

[Elliot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof.

[Engel Dreizehn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm decent, short read on the premise what if the computer "mind" managing a city really takes overs and manages the citizens like a true machine.

[Foggygirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in high school and have kept it ever since.