review of
Mark Adlard's Volteface
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 3, 2012

I'd previously read Adlard's Interface & added it to my Goodreads list back in January 2008 when I didn't even necessarily bother to review or rate bks. When I found this one I picked it up b/c I vaguely remembered liking the last one. Then I realized that Volteface is the sequel to Interface.

They both revolve around a city where the occupants are 'benevolently' overseen by administrators living outside the city. In the case of Interface I remember the residents living in what seemed like a giant shopping mall, a world of plenty. Nonetheless, the occupants are dissatisfied & eventually revolt & escape.

In Volteface, the administrative Central Executive is concerned about the well-being of the city dwellers & tries out various new tactics to reinvigorate them as the residents seem to be losing their lust-for-life. One of the tactics is to create new fantasy clubs - a simulation of being on the moon, a simulation of sped-up mortality. While these aren't central to the plot they give Adlard a chance to go off on some interesting descriptive tangents.

The Executive plan also includes reintroducing work wch in turn introduces the unfairness, sleaziness, & competitiveness that'd been hitherto done away w/ by social planning. This is probably the most interesting part of the novel. Adlard uses the future to recontextualize (what was) the present in order to re-examine business, in particular, from a new light.

Adlard's one of those mysterious authors to me. The wikipedia entry on him is sparse - only 4 bks are listed even tho he's 80 yrs old as of this review & has therefore had plenty of time to either write alot or otherwise lead an interesting life. Both Interface & Volteface seem pretty critical of contemporary society so it seems like Adlard wd've been highly motivated to continue saying what he had to say. ( )

Most of humanity is packed into "cities" and have "no needs." A group of managers lives outside and runs industry. After humanity riots and escape from a "city," the managers decide to make jobs for humanity.