Homeworld by Harry Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for a straight-up espionage adventure that reads like Harrison but feels like Brave New World, then you've come to the right place.

It's basically taking us on a descent from the high-caste rich overworld into the rigidly poor underclass future world, trying to spark a light of outrage in our hearts, and do it with spy stuff and action.

It's a call-back to the golden-age SF even if it was pubbed in 1980. A strong, capable man/spy gets the girl, takes on the rigid western caste system, and has fun while doing both. It's cliche, but it's still a good cliche. Fun, light (for what it is), and fundamentally hopeful.

Of course, Harry Harrison was disparaging the massive amount of economic inequality of the time. Of course, we'd read this "dystopia" and say, hey! Isn't that TODAY? Well, yeah, we've got it even worse, but what we don't have NOW is that sense of optimism and drive and HOPE that our strong arms and sharp minds can see us through.

That's what Homeworld offers. :)

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