Coming Down to Earth

After a deceptively conventional opening, with a disaffected child from a pioneer satellite bunking off while on an expedition to the sub-civilised mother planet, Susan Price unleashes a firestorm of imagery and language. Azalin, fleeing from a future determined for her by her oppressively 'sporting' society, becomes involved with a robot who is also discovering the perils of autonomy, and with a group of street performers who live in a lawless ghetto. The authorities' two-faced attempt to recover the fugitives provides a bleak, violent lesson for Azalin, but also a confirmation of her ideals. Compassion for outcasts, and ferocious anger at the venal, lying hypocrites who oppress them, blazes from every page of this book, giving it vivid contemporary relevance. Don't miss the splendid neologism at the foot of page 133.