Theatre of Timesmiths

An undistinguished "hollow Earth" yarn with minor embellishments. First City is a strange, dank, dismal place, buried in and cut off by an impenetrable cone of ice, run by an unapproachable cybernetic brain that supplies just enough heat to keep the ice at bay, and ruled by the megalomaniac Raxonberg and his secret police, the Trysts. The inhabitants' lot is a miserable one, ameliorated only by "timesmiths" who can create happy illusions as temporary relief from the grim reality. Brave Ben Blakely wants to escape, preferably by ordering the controlling brain to provide an exit; so, teaming up with talented ex-whore Morag MacKenzie, he tries to contact one of the five persons secretly permitted access to the brain. After various complications, Morag confronts the brain, which is dying; it tells her that either she or Raxonberg must succeed it. The brain examines them both, chooses Morag, and expires; the ice melts - to leave some dreary conundrums centered on Morag and her possible reality-controlling abilities. A glum, colorless reality-puzzle, with a mildly intriguing first half, thereafter increasingly bland and drawn-out: a less engaging effort than the imaginative if cold-hearted story collection The Songbirds of Pain (1984). (Kirkus Reviews)