2009 books
28) Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore), Tomorrow and Tomorrow, 1947
In the mid-21st century the world is stagnating under the Global Peace Commission, a body made far more powerful than the UN by its appropriation of the world's weapons technology and control of atomic power after an aborted Third World War. Joseph Breden is in charge of Uranium Pile Number One, but he's becoming susceptible to dreams that suggest he should create a nuclear explosion and bring the world back to the edge of destruction - what forces are at play here? Despite the Shakespearean allusions in the title this has all the hallmarks of an interesting premise that soon descends into a poorly executed and far too hurried story, and ideally Kuttner and Moore ought to have slowed things down and allowed themselves another fifty pages. Written two years after Hiroshima it questions the motivations behind ideologies that take humanity to the very edge, and while the plot twists get you to the desired conclusion they are often put across in a more exaggerated fashion than they need to be. Somewhat disappointing, but then the far better Fury came along very quickly after this in the same year.