Book description
A Taut Story of Terrifying Credibility
The Bitter Pill is a novel of the near future as seen from
1974, extrapolating contemporary political and sociological trends to
develop with frightening plausibility to growing importance of youth
as a political power.
To Paul Clayton, obscure shipping clerk, his forty-fifth birthday
was not an occasion for celebration. It meant the achievement of
status of Senior Citizen, and with it several dubious privileges-not
leas to of which was voluntary euthanasia, facilitated by the
government issue suicide pill. Those who changed their minds, once
they had broken the capsule containing the lethal pill, faced the
prospect of forced labor camps in the Australian desert of the penal
colony on Mars, where convicts toiled to make more space fit for
Earth's over-spilling populations.
Under the supervision of the corrupt and brutal Mars Corps, Clayton
crosses paths again with others he once knew on distant Earth. They
find themselves caught up on a maelstrom of terror and political intrigue.
A. Bertram Chandler was a British-Australian science fiction
writer with more than forty novels and 200 works of short fiction
published. He was known internationally for turning his personal
experiences as a maritime marine officer into realistic
characterization of a spaceship's crew. He won three Ditmar Awards for
achievement in Australian science fiction, as well as Japan's
prestigious Seiun Award.
