Garbage World

Garbage World, Charles Platt, Belmont/Tower Books, 1973

The United Asteroid Belt Pleasure Worlds Federation is a group of prisitne pleasure worlds on asteroids in a certain star system. What do they do with their garbage? Recycle it or burn it? In specially packaged containers, they rocket it to the asteroid Kopra, whose sole function is to act as the Federation's garbage dump.

Kopra brings new meaning to the word "disgusting." The layers of trash are miles thick. The smell is overpowering. It has artificial gravity and an artificial atmosphere, so a few hundred people live on top of the trash. They are just as dirty as their surroundings, but they grew up there, so they like it.

One day, a survey ship from the Federation lands on Kopra. Larkin, and Oliver, his assistant, tell the residents that a temporary evacuation is needed. The gravity generator needs replacing, requiring the drilling of a hole into the center of the asteroid, and installing a new one. If not, some of the trash could fly off of Kopra, and land on the pleasure worlds (heaven forbid). Anyone left on the asteroid could be killed by the new gravity generator, before it stabilizes. That's the official story, but, as Oliver discovers, it's not the real story.

Larkin thinks of the Koprans as little better than animals, for choosing to live like this, but Oliver isn't so sure. He volunteers to take a truck into the wilderness, to collect anyone he can find, to get them off the asteroid. Oliver takes Isaac Gaylord, headman of Kopra's only village, and Juliette, his daughter, along as guides. The truck breaks down miles from the village (sabotage), and after barely escaping from a giant mutated slug living in a mud lake, the three have to walk back to the village. By this time, any inhibitions or phobias that Oliver may have about cleanliness are long since gone; falling in love with Juliette certainly helps. When they get back to the village, Oliver discovers the real reason for getting everyone off Kopra. It involves turning the residents into "good" Federation citizens, with help from some personality surgery.

There are very few novels of any genre that take place in a garbage dump. This belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.

Protektor

Protektor, Charles Platt, Avonova, 1996

The pleasure plant of Agroima is the place where citizens of the 100,000-planet Protektorate go to party and otherwise let themselves go in all senses of the term. That is, until someone sends a very contagious virus into the system which causes, for instance, the lights to go out, and burning debris from mid-air crashes to rain down on the ground. Protektor Tom McCray, a sort of interplanetary troubleshooter with total authority, has very little time to find the source.

The Protektorate is the sort of place where citizens are biologically immortal, there is no need for anyone to work, and smart machines fulfill every need, breeding the independence out of humanity. The planet is quarantined, to prevent the virus from spreading to other planets, leaving McCray on his own. Not completely alone, he does get help from Eva Kurimoto, a local reporter.

Set in the 2600s, when everyone has bio-implants of some sort, this novel is especially recommended for those who can't get enough cyberpunk in their daily reading. It's also recommended for those who like good writing and a good mystery.