THIS PERFECT DAY [Mass Market Paperback]

This is a great book. As easy as that.
Though 1984 and, maybe 451 fahrenheit may be the closest to what could happen in a real-life situation, I like "this perfect day" the most.
Basically it describes what happens in a world based on societies where everything and everyone is standardized. Even the people. Everything changes with the birth of Chip, with two eyes of different color. Why is he different? What does it mean? It's a futuristic book, picturing a dark and authority-controlled society where everything goes by the rules, and dissenters are removed.
It's scary, intimidating and brilliant. Read it.

This book has not gotten the attention it deserves, in my opinion. It's better than Huxley's "brave new world", and still that book is the most famous.

Anyway, if you like "1984", "Brave New World" or "451 fahrenheit", check out this one. And while you're at it, read Ayn Rand's "Anthem", the book that started it all. See if you figure it out why she wrote it.

One of the best books in the genre!

This book is bound to draw comparisons with the like of 'Brave New World', '1984', 'Logan's Run' and so forth but it's strange that it's nowhere near as well known. I've read all of those books, and this one is at least as good, in my opinion.

The story centres around Chip (as he thinks of himself) who is a member of a worldwide society governed by a single supercomputer. Almost every aspect of the citizen's lives are regulated by the computer, including whether particular people are permitted to have children, what they are called (out of 8 potential names), what jobs they do, where they live, and pretty much everything else. Everyone has an injection once a month that dulls their desire to rebel, their sex drive etc, and they are subject to constant propaganda and brainwashing that the computer, UniComp, knows best and will give them appropriate guidance.

The older generation still have some individual attributes and attitudes, but everyone that is young has a very similar appearance and the same sort of personality. Following some 'anitsocial' thinking from his grandfather, Chip begins to have feelings that it might be nice to be able to choose things for himself. This is the start of his exploration of what really is true and what UniComp has falsified in order to keep order. The majority of the book then follows his discoveries as he gradually begins to question the way the society functions while attempting to appear to be a normal citizen. I won't spoil the story by giving any more details.

This is an absolutely excellent book and I would recommend it to fans of any genre, although it fill particularly appeal to sci-fi fans I would think.

A hundred and fifty years hence what John Lennon could only imagine, Chip's society has realised. War has been beaten, hunger satiated. Borders have been crossed out. There is no more religion and the human race is now a family. And everyone is a member of it. Not only are they one, they're the same. Eugenics has proven to be the jewel in the crown of scientific advancement. Progress has achieved its apogee. Chip has as much Totalcake to eat as he cares for (even if there's only totalcake to eat). Vitamins are readily available. No one ever need feel ugly or unwanted as sex is compulsory and avoidance of it is seen as an illness. Chip doesn't even need to shave. His day has his TV viewing scheduled in to it. Even the rain only falls at night. All this under the benevolent gaze of a super computer-UniComp-who knows best and is there to gently guide humanity to its peaceful existence. An existence where a member's birth, life and death are all preordained along with all other points on that mortal trajectory. And yet Chip slowly begins to feel that surely living is more than existing and so begin his efforts to grow up. Discretion suggests that no more be said for risk of spoiling the book.

It is inevitable that any dystopian novel will be compared with Orwell's Nineteen eighty-four and Huxley's Brave New World. And while it's true Levin is not in the same class as these two as a writer, he is by far a better writer of thrillers. Consequently, This Perfect Day moves at a heady pace and is more action packed. However, where both Huxley and Orwell are trying to grapple with the issues of humanity and freedom in general and the society of their day in particular, Levin's work seems to be a pushing of his political views. Orwell uses his novel to develop his ideas of the nature of a totalitarian society with emphasis on what an English totalitarian state might look like. He also explores the effect on language that such a totalitarian state may have. For Huxley state control consists of what Neil Postman would later term amusing ourselves to death. Civilised humanity has disenfranchised itself for the sum of soma and games; political awareness swapped in favour of hedonism. Levin doesn't endeavour anything as subtle as them. For him freedom is all, or rather the free market is all and where the super computer's binary efficiency can be seen as a stand in for a command economy. Just as Huxley was satirising H. G. Wells it seems, at times, Levin is satirising the pristine vision of SF writers of the forties and fifties where we'd all be as one with the appliance of science. And he does have a point- those SF writers did sometimes miss the human element of the equation, paradoxically treating the mass of humans as children who need to be commanded for their own good. Though not as cerebral as Nineteen eighty-four, nor as insightful as Brave New World, This Perfect Day is a worthy inclusion in the dystopian oeuvre; it is a thrilling read, makes some good points and raises a few interesting questions whether one agrees with Levin's conclusion or not.