Doppelgangers by H. F. Heard

A spiritual sequel to Brave New World, this dystopian novel of psychological horror is a landmark early work of hard science fiction

In the years since the psychological revolution unlocked man’s consciousness, civilization has split into two halves. The people of the surface bow at the foot of Alpha, an all-powerful dictator who satisfies their every whim and uses his limitless might to keep his subjects as docile as children. But beneath the earth, in the shadowy kingdom of the Mole, revolt is brewing. And when the Mole launches his final assault upon the world above, new meaning will be given to the termpsychological warfare.

The first wave of the attack is a single man, a deep-cover agent who has been rigorously trained and surgically sculpted to be a perfect double for Alpha. The fate of humanity rests in his hands, but his hands are no longer his own. When this revolution begins anew, the battleground will be the soul of mankind.

Before 1984 or The Hunger Games, there was Doppelgangers. Hailed as “a blend of Wells, Poe, and Graham Greene” by the New York Times, this thrilling piece of speculative fiction was decades ahead of its time, and remains one of the most original science fiction novels ever published.

“A remarkable tour de force—a thriller with depth.” —Richard Plant, The New York Times