cover image Perfect People

Perfect People

Robert Lieberman. Dell Publishing Company, $3.95 (294pp) ISBN 978-0-440-16866-9

The background of this novel is standard Brave New World: a genetically engineered, deracinated future without sex, art or music. The protagonist is a cop, though, and he sees through the myths of Creatoria, the huge underground city whereso they are toldthe last remnants of mankind are hiding in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The same elements of curiosity and empathy that make Creally Leemling a good Peace Monitor separate him from his cool, placid society and prepare him for his meeting with unreconstructed humans and subsequent revelations about Creatoria. Lieberman departs from his hand-me-down premise in the telling. The suspenseful narrative and the unusually sharp, evocative visual sense speed from stainless Creatoria to gritty outlying farms to a lush rain forest (a museum of the old days) and finally to the sewage pipes and ventilation shafts that offer escape. (May)