Indoctrinaire

by Christopher Priest

ISBN: 978-0-575-12119-5

First published 1970

202 pages

Cover image: Edward Parker / Alamy

Cover design: Sidonie Beresford-Browne

Publisher(s) : gollancz.co.uk / orionbooks.co.uk

3.5/5 Stars

This is Christopher Priest’s first novel. A simple story involving nuclear war, personality drugs and time travel. He focuses closely on a few main the characters, and that enables us to see the effects of these huge worldwide events on people whom we care about. We can maintain our disbelief.

There is pace throughout the novel. Revelations occur in each chapter. We move from Antarctic wastes to Brazilian jungle. We move from the skies to the ground to the subterranean. We move from 1989 to 2189.

Perhaps the ending could have been more uplifting, although, where is there for a writer to go after nuclear war? The book is split into ‘The Jail’, ‘The Hospital’ and ‘The Concentration’. Perhaps the last section could have been resolved better, and at a sixth of the size of the other sections, could have been longer. But it is a good read. It bears comparison to the great story writers of the Golden Age of science fiction.

Read and enjoy.