Pendulum

Book Details:

Hardback edition published by Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1974.

Sleeve notes:

This is not science-fiction but terror-probability, as the England we know - 'the guardian of justice and peace' - is thrown into violent convulsions by an economic depression reminiscent of the gloomy days between the two World Wars.

For those who can remember those days of evil it is something to be accepted. But for the young, it is a call to strike. Gangs of Hooligans rampage throughout the land bringing in their wake a bitterness and anger that is almost sub-human.

Action, as always, produces reaction. The pendulum swings yet again, but the stability that follows is that of supra-discipline, of grim religious retaliation. And the England that had been warm is now a country of freedom-frozen despondency.

Originally published in 1968, the nightmare happenings of Pendulum seem if anything even more probable today.

Book Source:

Terry Jenkins

Book Details:

Paperback edition published by Hodder and Stoughton, 1969.

Sleeve notes:

Not science-fiction but terror-probability, as the England we know - 'the guardian of justice and peace' - is thrown into violent convulsions by an economic depression reminiscent of the gloomy days between the two World Wars.

For those who can remember those days of evil it is something to be accepted. But for the young, it is a call to strike. Gangs of Hooligans rampage throughout the land bringing in their wake a bitterness and anger that is almost sub-human.

Action, as always, produces reaction. The pendulum swings yet again, but the stability that follows is that of supra-discipline, of grim religious retaliation. And the England that had been warm is now a country of freedom-frozen despondency.

Book Source:

Terry Jenkins

Book Details:

Unknown

Sleeve notes:

Unknown

Book Source:

Colin Brockhurst

Book Details:

Hardback edition published by Simon & Schuster, New York 1968. First US Edition.

Sleeve notes:

The Saturday Review has praised John Christopher as "the discoverer of a new approach to the art of inducing terror by inventing characters who are human and engaging."

His new novel, Pendulum, succeeds brilliantly in achieving this, with a theme as timely as today's headlines.

The place is England today, its traditions crumbling under the assault of The New Hedonism-pop singers, student rebellions, teenage motorcycle gangs, permissive morality...

When a devastating financial crisis overwhelms the country, the thin veneer of civilization is stripped off-power passes into the hands of the young, and England becomes a country ruled by feudal gangs of teenagers imposing their own lynch law and terrorizing the adult population.

Against this background of national collapse, the characters of Pendulum seek to rebuild their shattered lives, to go on living. Their predicament is terrifying but entirely believable, and its resolution-as the inevitable revolt of age and order against youth and anarchy takes shape-is a masterpiece of convincing horror.

Readers who are familiar with John Christopher's novels will know what to expect in the way of drama and excitement; those who have not yet had the pleasure are in for a new dimension in realistic suspense.

Book Source:

Peter Stevenson