Book review: The City Machine by Louis Trimble

Book Review: 'The City Machine' by Louis Trimble

3 / 5 Stars

'The City Machine' (143 pp.) was published by DAW in 1972 and features cover art by Kelly Freas. This is among the very first books in the DAW catalog, standing at No. 24.

Louis Trimble (1917 - 1988) published novels in a variety of genres, including detective / crime, westerns, and science fiction. Along with 'The City Machine,' his sci-fi novels for DAW included 'The Wandering Variables' (1972) and 'The Bodelan Way' (1974).

'City' is set on an un-named Earth-like planet where, some centuries after the arrival of the initial exploration ship, most of the population resides in an arcology known simply as the City. The upper caste of inhabitants, known as the Highs, enjoy lives of leisure and privilege in the apex floors of the arcology, while below them, but still comparatively affluent, reside the Uppers. 

The Lowers, as the name implies, are the unfortunates condemned to life in the arcology's dim and dirty lower floors. To them falls the task of maintaining the City and the comfortable lifestyle of the Highs. Life in the lower levels is bleak and devoid of hope, with the populace kept in check by gangs of malevolent 'Bully Boys.' 

Protagonist Ryne once was a Lower, but through smarts and initiative, he has worked his way into a slot as an Upper. As the novel opens Ryne is recruited by the City's overseer, a man known only as the Coordinator, for a clandestine mission.

It seems that a cabal of Uppers are intent on acquiring a quasi-mythical 'City Machine,' a device brought by the initial colonization ship, used to build the City, and then somehow lost. The Machine is remarkable, capable of erecting an entire city within a day or two. Acquisition of the City Machine could allow for construction of a new City, one with sufficient room and resources for all to thrive. The rebels envision opening this new city to the downtrodden Lowers.

For the Coordinator, acquisition of the City Machine by a rebel action will mean the end of the City, for without the Lowers, the City cannot be maintained. As Ryne is the only City resident who can understand the language used in operating the City Machine, the rebels are sure to try and co-opt him into their scheme.

As Ryne joins the rebel faction as a covert operative, will he stay true to his allegiance to the Coordinator and the class system of the City, or will Ryne side with the cause of freedom and an end to the oppression of the Lowers ? Does the City Machine even exist, or is the rebel cause simply a fantasy ? Ryne will find himself forced to choose sides, and his choice will be be fateful one for every Terran on the planet.....

'The City Machine' is a competent sci-fi adventure novel, written in clear and straightforward prose at a time when the New Wave movement made such things seem passe. Where it falters is in the final chapters, where the double-crosses and shifting alliances get a little too elaborate and make for confusion. This strains the narrative's credulity, and left me comfortable with assigning a Three Star, as opposed to a Four Star, Rating.