Desperate Games - Softcover

Boulle, Pierre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843915359 ISBN 13: 9781843915355

Publisher: Hesperus Press, 2015

Synopsis

Long before Battle Royale or The Hunger Games, the author of The Planet of the Apes imagined a world governed by science and brutality gone mad in this long-neglected, dystopian sci-fi classic, now in a new translation

Despairing at the state of world degeneration, a group of the world's most renowned intellectuals form the new Scientific World Government, aiming to put the world to rights. Elected into power, they quickly start making changes for the better, eliminating world hunger and cancer, encouraging scientific thought, and banning frivolous entertainment. But while congratulating themselves on a job well done, they fail to notice that actually, people are not happy. The suicide rate has sky-rocketed and, strangely, it turns out the public wants a little risk and conflict in their lives. So to cater to the masses, the Department of Psychology forms a plan: they will stage an entertainment show the likes of which the world has never seen before. It starts with gladiatorial style battles, bloodthirsty and brutal, where the victors become celebrities of unseen proportions, and quickly escalates into entire historical battle re-enactments involving chemical warfare and mass destruction. The Scientific World Government has unleashed a monster. What has the world let itself in for? 

About this title

About the Author:

Pierre Boulle (1912–1994) was a French novelist best known The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes. David Carter is the author of Brief Lives: Honoré de Balzac, Brief Lives: Marquis de Sade and Brief Lives: Sigmund Freud.

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hesperus Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1843915359
• ISBN 13: 9781843915355
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208