Steel Beach

Author: John Varley

Alien invaders have obliterated human life on Earth, and the survivors have scattered through the rest of the Solar System. The most heavily populated colony is Luna, the Steel Beach of the title. Here a dystopian society has developed in which the Central Computer controls every aspect of life. The story follows a journalist, Hildy Johnson, who begins to uncover groups of people hiding from the Central Computer, and in the course of the research learns secrets about the Central Computer that threaten the stability and even the survival of the entire colony.Why it's on the list:Between the last manned mission to the Moon and the renewed technological interest in a lunar colony that we are beginning to see in the 21st century, the Moon tended to be of interest less for realistic accounts of life on the Moon than as a setting for satire. This dystopia is a superb example of the way the Moon served that purpose.

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