As a kid, I read a science fiction book about the future where the earth had been made almost uninhabitable, so humans all lived in cities enclosed under glass. In the story, humans have been living this way for generations. But some kids get the idea (maybe from a teacher or discredited scientist) that maybe there is life beyond the enclosed city. They find their way out, and yes, life is returing to the world–I remember that it was the first time the kids had seen any kind of animal–I think everything was supposedly extinct, though maybe the very rich had dogs or cats). Then the kids have to convince the grown-ups to move outside the dome or something like that. It may have been called “Out Beyond” but I’ve never been able to track down a plot summary for a book with that title. Sound familar to anyone? It was definately a book, I remember it had a white cover and was written by someone with a name from the latter part of the alphbet (I have a very visual memory and I remember where the book was located in the children’s section).
It sounds an awful lot like Logan’s Run (that’s a link to the movie plot, but it says it was a novel, so perhaps you’re thinking of the book the movie was written from?).
When were you a kid? These sorts of questions could be answered quicker if people would remember that we didn’t all have our childhood at the same time. The novel that Logan’s Run was made from was by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson and was published in 1967. The details you give don’t match Logan’s Run.
Your description makes me think vaguely of This time of Darkness by H. M. Hoover. The enclosed under glass and kids going out are what specifically make me think of it, but depending on when you were a kid (I originally read it in about 1986 or so), it may not be the right one.
I tried to post last night (okay, early this morning) but it didn’t go through. I read the book in the late '60’s or early 70’s, so that lets out This Time of Darkness. And there was none of the the ‘be killed when you hit 30’ stuff, so Logan’s Run is out. Outside also is not the book I’m looking for–in my book, society was managing just fine in their enclosed cities, and the kids didn’t have to survive on the outside–they took a visit (like a camp-out), and then returned home–they may have decided to live outside at the end of the book, though.
It was definitely a kid’s book–one ot the early ecological science fiction books. The world had been destroyed by overuse, I don’t think there had been a war or radiation. The culprit was pollution, the air and water destroyed by pollution, so all the animals and plants not protected by the domes died. I’m sure if I ever find it, it will be heavy-handed and preachy, but at the time I liked it enough to re-read it later (my re-reading habit became selective at an early age–just as Elaine from Seinfeld had “sponge-worthy” dates, I have “re-read-worthy” books).
Thanks for the sugestions, but we still have a mystery, folks.
I can’t find a more detailed description than mentioned here, but could it be Seed of Light by Edmund Cooper (1959)? All it says about it is, “Industrial pollution means domed cities.”
