City of Darkness

Ben Bova, a master of futuristic novels, presents a dystopian Manhattan, where a dome covers the city's decay and decadence and is only "open" two months a year to the outside world of programmed, ordered society. Teenaged Ron Morgan rebels against his orchestrated life and finds himself stranded in the Dome, beset by gangs and scavengers. Harlan Ellison himself writes in a similar vein and has collaborated with Bova on science-fiction projects--he knows the territory. Ellison fully inhabits the characters, em-bracing the desperation of the gangs, the base instincts of predators and power-brokers, and the adolescent's desires and fears. His spirited performance is a tour de force of energy. His pace leaves the listener a bit ex-hausted, but the frenetic momen-tum seems integral to this future society. R.F.W. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine