Enemies Of The System, a novella dealing with a tale of how some one million years from today the next branch in human evolution- Homo Uniformis - reacts to a totally alien world. On the planet Lysenka II a group of these uber humans are left stranded in the semi desert conditions of a planet entering into a geological age equal to the Devonian period on Earth which occurred some three billion years in the past. A group of six volunteers brave the open and desolate landscape but are unfortunately captured by the local apex predators which are the tragic descendants of a group of Homo Sapiens whose spacecraft crash landed on Lysenka II millennia past and have de-evolved in order to survive. After I finished this very short novella I was left wondering what I had learnt or benefited from it. The answer is nothing. Brain Aldiss creates a group of human beings who are so regimented and disciplined that I felt absolutely no compassion or empathy for their plight. His polemic in this short lived odyssey is without doubt, I felt, scornfully anti communist. Sardonically we are left with no doubt that the individual is nothing more than a small and well behaved citizen in a society dominated by fear and paranoia. The ending to this novella packs a wallop worthy of a scorpion's sting which I personally liked. I have no doubt this read will leave some feeling dejected. It's definitely a tale with more substance over style but I found it very dry and can only recommend it for those whose tastes are more eclectic than action orientated.

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