Gladiator-at-Law

Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth
Gladiator-at-Law Cover

Gladiator-at-Law

dustydigger
5/16/2015
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This harsh satire of consumerism and the way powerful huge corporations can suborn government to work in their greedy favour still has much relevance today as in the 50s when it was first published. Here workers are housed by the companies they work for,and losing a job means exile to terrible slums and a grim struggle to survive. The huge mass of the unemployed are kept quiet by Roman style bread and circuses,where the desperate risk life and limb in contests for money. A young impoverished lawyer becomes embroiled with a fight against a greedy corporation,in court,on the stock exchange, in the alleys of the terrible slums and on the arena floor amidst baying crowds - and piranha fish! Fast paced,with mildly amusing dialogue and quirky characters,this typically short 50s novel is still a an exciting and amiable read today