C. M. Kornbluth 3 hr 24 min read

Two generations after the government fled to sea, the easygoing, semi-anarchic Syndic runs North America, and young Charles Orsino's comfortable life ends when the old regime strikes back.

C. M. Kornbluth's 1953 novel is a witty, provocative social-SF utopia-and-adventure. Sharp, inventive, superbly told. Read it for classic Kornbluth, a gangster-run 'crime syndicate' recast as a benign anarchist society, in a fast, funny, genuinely thoughtful tale that turns our ideas of law and order neatly on their heads.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

3 hr 24 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).