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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Some violence as Chip discovers and confronts the world's true power structures
Language
Barely any
Mild language in Levin's SF register
Sexual Content
Some
Adult content in the community that lives outside the controlled society
Substance Use
Some
The mandatory drug injections that keep the world's population compliant are the novel's central mechanism; substance use as social control
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological horror of a world of enforced contentment — and the question of whether freedom to suffer is worth more than happiness without agency — is the novel's enduring and effective subject
What this book is about
Ira Levin's dystopian novel is set in a future world governed by a central computer called UniComp that manages every aspect of human life — work assignments, reproduction, daily injections of tranquilizing drugs. Chip — born Karol Marxweber Friedrich Engels Li — is different, and his difference eventually leads him to the world's edges. Levin writes prescient and efficient dystopian SF; the controlled-society horror is effective and the world-building is original. Adult content and drug use are central. A significant dystopian novel often overlooked beside Orwell and Huxley.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
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