Doomsday Morning

By C.L. Moore

The classic vision of a dystopian America created by C.L. Moore, an undisputed master of science fiction’s golden age.

In the wake of a nuclear war, the totalitarian system known as COMUS has restored order in a shattered America. COMUS controls every aspect of American life, from communications to transportation to law enforcement, but cracks are beginning to show: rumors of a rebellion in California are brewing, and COMUS’ leadership is aging. History is at a crossroads, and the man who will decide the outcome is a washed-up actor named Howard Rohan.

Leading a troupe of theatre players to perform in the heart of rebel territory, Howard’s true mission is to gather intelligence on a device which could bring down COMUS. But Rohan finds himself slipping between his roles as a double agent and supposed revolutionary sympathizer, to the point where even he isn’t sure where he stands. As America edges closer to its reckoning, Rohan will need to decide who he’s been lying to: the rebels, COMUS, or himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Release date: Sep 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781682301128

Reviews for Doomsday Morning

[cammykitty · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to admire any science fiction that can remain available for over 40 years and not seem dated. In Doomsday Morning, the United States has become totalitarian. Even the actors are a part of the propaganda machine. (Remember World War II movies, followed by anticommunism with Ronnie Reagan as head of the actors union? It isn't impossible.) A washed up actor finds himself in the middle of a shift in power. He can either help an old friend slide into the presidency by acting in a slightly amusing but constrained play, or he can ad lib a bit and join the rebels.

[clong_818048 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my first solo offering from CL Moore, an author whose work I have previously experienced only through the short stories she co-wrote with her husband Henry Kuttner. In some ways Doomsday Morning is clearly dated, but I found many more things to like about it than not, starting with its solidly noirish tone, which reminded me a bit of Algis Budrys. The book also reminded me of (but was way better than) Poul Anderson’s Hugo winning novella from a few years later “No Truce with Kings.”This is science fiction without much science--virtually all of the changes in this dystopian near future America are social, not technological; indeed it has more the feel of an adventure story than true science fiction. Many of the details as to how this society functions and evolved are sketchy, but the basic concept of a president for life supported by an all seeing communications monopoly if anything resonates more today than it would have back in 1957 (Rupert Murdoch may well have read this book back when it first came out). This is character driven fiction, and it offers complex and distinct and interesting characters, each of which has a well thought out back story and complex motivations. I can’t think of another science fiction novel, especially of this era, with five quite distinct and reasonably complex female characters. This is a book in which the characters might be said to be plausibly irrational (as opposed to the people who inhabit the work of a rationalist author like Isaac Asimov). Our protagonist Howard Rohan is a washed-up drunk, haunted by memories of his unfaithful dead wife with whom he had been, for a time, on top of the entertainment world. As the conflict evolves Rohan plays both sides against the middle, leaving both himself and the reader unsure as to which side he will land on, in a way that might have especially resonated in the Macarthyism era. I enjoyed Moore’s description of the magical process in which a script is transformed into live theatre--I can only assume that she was speaking from experience. I also enjoyed the ultimate explanation for Rohan’s mysteriously prescient dreams.