In a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of
governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to ensure the
survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising has become hugely
aggressive and by far the best-paid profession. Through advertising, the public
is constantly deluded into thinking that the quality of life is improved by all
the products placed on the market. However, the most basic elements are
incredibly scarce, including water and fuel. The planet Venus has just been
visited and judged fit for human settlement, despite its inhospitable surface
and climate; the colonists would have to endure a harsh climate for many
generations until the planet could be terraformed.
The protagonist, Mitch Courtenay, is a star-class copywriter in the Fowler
Schocken advertising agency who has been assigned the ad campaign which would
attract colonists to Venus. But a lot more is happening than he knows about. It
soon becomes a tale of mystery and intrigue, in which many of the characters
are not what they seem, and Mitch's loyalties and opinions change drastically
over the course of the narrative.
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All books by Frederik Pohl
