The Age of the Pussyfoot
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Cover of first hardcover edition
(Trident Press, 1969) |
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| Author | Frederik Pohl |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
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Publication date
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Oct. 1969 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 212 pp |
The Age of the Pussyfoot is a work of science fiction by Frederik Pohl, first published as a serial in Galaxy Science Fiction in three parts, starting in October 1966. It was later published as a novel in 1969.
The novel was inspired by Pohl's own experiences in a local volunteer fire department and by the early computer time sharing systems, along with advances in medicine, such as transplants, extrapolated to the point where anyone with enough money can command huge resources and essentially live forever. There are some unusual social consequences of these advances, however.
Charles Dalgleish Forrester is revived from cryopreservation in the year 2527, having been killed in a fire 500 years earlier. Thanks to his insurance, after the expenses of his revival are paid he has a quarter of a million dollars, a fortune in his eyes. He can afford the luxuries of 26th century life, such as a Joymaker, a scepter-like portable computer terminal with some extra features like a drug dispenser.
After a heavy night partying, with some distant memory of an argument with somebody, he wakes in his new apartment, and over a 20th-century breakfast, checks in with his Joymaker. The Joymaker communicates by voice, and addresses him always as "Man Forrester". He is informed that he has a message from a woman whose name he doesn't recognize, and that someone called Heinzlichen Jura de Syrtis Major has taken out a hunting license on him. Baffled, he eventually encounters the woman from the party who he believes is called Tip. She maintains she is Adne Bensen, the woman whose messages he has been ignoring. Apparently she got on so well with Forrester that she is ready to begin a relationship. She takes him back to her apartment, where he finds she has two children, around 8 years old, who seem somewhat precocious for their years. With names like "Tunt" and "Mim" flying around, he mistakenly assumes those are the children's names, baffling them when he uses them that way.
Later Forrester encounters Heinzlichen with a few friends, who without much ado beat him up so badly he goes to the hospital. It transpires that Heinzlichen's hunting license allows him to kill Forrester providing he pays for the revival, and the whole vendetta is over some insult at the party, which Forrester can barely remember. It's possible Forrester trod on Heinzlichen's foot. Since Heinzlichen is from the human colonies on Mars and is adapted to low gravity, this is a major faux pas.
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Wikipedia