We’ve got a proto-fan here at work. She came to it late (in her 40s) and pretty much is doing that shy, introverted read every SF book ever produced thing that so many of us know so well.
She asked me today (as someone who ‘might know’) if I could help her identify a book for her that she read in either the 1970s or 1980s.
It was a story of a repressive United States (present or future). And a group calling themselves ‘The Minutemen’ are plotting rebellion.
Their plot centers on being a part of the ruling bureaucracy and, when they acheive real power, increase the level of repression until the population revolts, kills the Minutement, and then lets freedom ring.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, just to show that I know what I am on about:
Christ, Marx, Wood, and Wei
Led us to this perfect day.
Marx, Wood, Wei and Christ;
All but Wei were sacrificed.
Wood, Wei, Christ, and Marx
Gave us lovely schools and parks.
Wei, Christ, Marx, and Wood
Made us humble, made us good.
THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATES by Taylor Caldwell. I have it. Caldwell was kinda
a Christian Birchite version of Ayn Rand for a while in her voluminous but now
mostly out of print writing career. Her best seller that is still in print is CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS, a historical novel about an Irish Catholic political family dynasty
(modeled after- oh, I don’t know) which rises to power through the New World Order conspiracy until its young heir runs for President & turns against the Conspiracy.
You haven’t lived until you’ve read Damon Knight’s evisceration of this book in the Chuckleheads chapter of his seminal critical work In Search of Wonder. It begins:
For that matter, you haven’t lived until you’ve read In Search of Wonder. Do so now.
'the hell?