Kindle Price: £6.39

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will pre-order your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships and Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a group.
Learn more

Buying and sending Kindle Books to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Choose delivery method and buy Kindle Books
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These Kindle Books can only be redeemed by recipients in your country. Redemption links and Kindle Books cannot be resold.

Added to

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Philip Wylie
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Los Angeles: A.D. 2017 Kindle Edition

by Philip Wylie (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
See all formats and editions
A stark and terrifying vision of an apocalyptic, environmentally ravaged near-future world from a twentieth-century master of thought-provoking science fiction

In a writing career that spanned six decades, Philip Wylie created an astonishing body of work that ranged from science fiction to suspense to philosophy to social criticism, while inspiring the creation of such iconic characters as Superman, Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, and Travis McGee. In Los Angeles: A.D. 2017, based on Wylie’s own teleplay written for the hit 1970s TV series The Name of the Game and directed by a young Steven Spielberg, the author imagines a dystopian future in which environmental disaster has driven the remnants of humankind belowground.
 
By the year 2017, a series of ecological catastrophes have eliminated most of the earth’s population while destroying the America we once knew. The few who have survived live in underground bunkers beneath the ruins of the nation’s major cities, controlled by ruthless corporate entities that have remolded the devastated society into USA, Inc. This is the nightmare into which crusading magazine publisher Glenn Howard awakens after forty years of sleep. As a powerful twentieth-century entrepreneur, Howard is expected to join the elite. But in this dark future age, population numbers are strictly controlled by computer; the aged, infirm, and unproductive are mercilessly eliminated; and all dissent is punished by death. For an idealist like Howard, accepting the new status quo is unthinkable. But the alternative—working with a secret rebel committed to overthrowing the cruel corporate masters—could prove the most dangerous route of all, a path that leads inexorably to one unthinkable outcome: erasure.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    204 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
  5. Publication date
    9 Dec. 2014
  6. File size
    1249 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next slide of product details

Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
18 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from United Kingdom

Top reviews from other countries

Ron M
3.0 out of 5 stars A dystopian vision of the future
Reviewed in the United States on 9 July 2019
Verified Purchase
The book expands on a screenplay "LA 2017" filmed for the NBC-TV series "The Name Of The Game". Glenn Howard (played by Gene Barry, a regular in the series) attends a high level corporate conference in current day (1971). The meeting is about what the corporate leaders can do suppress these "environmentalists" who are complaining about the poisoning of the environment via industrial wastes.

Glenn Howard leaves the meeting early to return to his publishing offices in LA. He stops at a rest stop and the next thing he knows it's 2017 and the air is unbreathable. He is found by a search and rescue team and taken to the underground city of LA which is now a bunker.

There he recovers and comes face to face with a "Brave New World" dystopian system. The government of the city (and what is left of the country) is corporate fascism. Status is determined by class and grouping based on the level of genetic damage.

Because the book and the screenplay were written in 1971 ("free Love" and all of that), there is a lot of focus on sex. There is a drug similar to SOMA from "Brave New World" which enhances sex drive and encourages lots of sexual activity in the underground bunker. Sex is used to calm and control the population.

Despite that, there is a lot of discord and things are not as they seem.

This book is probably one of the last things Philip Wylie wrote prior to his death. Wylie was a strong proponent of the looming disasters related to the environment and climate. I remember the Cuyahoga River in Pittsburgh catching fire because of the polluted water. The book is very relevant to its time.

I have to say the focus on sex in the book can become tedious after a while. Nevertheless, I found the book to be a quick read. And, there is quite a twist at the end. But, remember, it's based on a screenplay so that's not too surprising.

I would say it's an "average" dystopian novel.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
GENE ADDINGTON
5.0 out of 5 stars MUST
Reviewed in the United States on 3 September 2005
Verified Purchase
I THINK IT WOULD BE A BENEFIT TO EVERYONE INCLUDING THE

READER TO READ THIS BOOK. I AM NOT MUCH ON MESSAGES BUT

THIS ONE WILL MAKE YOU THINK WILL KEEPING YOU DEEPLY

ENGROSSED. THAT IS SAYING A LOT BECAUSE I'M A HARD GUY

TO CAPTURE.

GENE ADDINGTON
4 people found this helpful
 Report
Roan Purgatory
1.0 out of 5 stars Not for my taste
Reviewed in the United States on 21 August 2019
Verified Purchase
This was just dull. I read this on a recommendation. My fault, I should have known better, considering the source.
Report
Mia
3.0 out of 5 stars Detours from social relevance to overplayed sex politics
Reviewed in the United States on 1 March 2017
Verified Purchase
This was essentially an ambitious expansion of a screenplay from the 1970s tv show that dropped flat on its face. The author was a strong early proponent of the climate crisis theories and as such the book reads eerily prescient in the actual year 2017 where the budget cuts to environmental protections agencies have just been slashed. But while the book starts off promisingly and socially relevant (some paragraphs can be ripped right out of modern newspapers, the top financial magnates refusing to reign in their abuse of nature's resources citing this impediment to progress as unAmerican and son on is practically a satire), it soon remembers that it is a child of the 70s (1971 to be precise) and proceeds as such, a sort of prurient gallop through the futuristic subterranean fascist like society that has developed very specific survival strategies/sex politics including reasonably well argued for eugenics and creepy argued for, not to mention absolutely inexcusable, pedophilia. And so it goes on with a distinctly 70s vibe to its tiresome sex scenes until the inevitable and hugest cop out of all time ending....it was all a dream. Disappointing as a book, this one probably should have been left as a tv episode. At least a pretty quick read.
7 people found this helpful
 Report