Dayworld Breakup

Concluding the trilogy begun with the excellent Dayworld (1984) and feebly continued with Dayworld Rebel (1987), here's an enterprise ludicrously overexpanded from a fine short story, "The Sliced-Crosswise. Only-On-Tuesday World." In the fourth millennium, people live only one day a week, spending the other six "stoned," in stasis capsules. But "Daybreaker" criminal William Duncan (he lived every day, using a different personality to suit) has discovered that the Earth is no longer overpopulated - which also means that there's no longer any justification for the Dayworld system's existence: it's merely a method of ensuring power and immortality for the ruling elite. So Duncan and his renegade-cop girlfriend, Panthea Snick, determine to destroy the entire Dayworld system. The pair enjoy a measure of success, and uncover some powerful allies - but the composite William Duncan persona is still unstable, so he surrenders in order to undergo prolonged therapy and stir up popular support for the revolution. Jolting, churning, pointless action-adventure shading off into soporific, numbing psychoanalysis, devoid of vitality and bereft of new ideas: altogether, a wretched wrap-up. (Kirkus Reviews)