V W Smith

Michael Remembers V W Smith

In the Twenty-Fourth Century, when crime is at an all-time high, and human fertility at an all-time low, both problems are alleviated by a medical breakthrough--the Retrogression Procedure. Instead of serving long prison terms, serious or repeat offenders are retrogressed, i.e. medically transformed back into the beings that they were at one tenth their current age. Thence, with new parents and reeducation, maybe they will turn out the model citizens they weren't before. Soon, however, "retros" become the major target of prejudice. Despite mistakes in his remote past, retro Michael Tadlock, once more an adult, has lived an exemplary life for thirty years. A devoted husband and father, he is also a distinguished professor, teaching history at Burroughs University on terraformed Mars. Yet, when he travels to Earth to receive a prestigious award, he is arrested on an ex post facto law, convicted by a kangaroo court, and sentenced to another retrogression. As a child with an adult's perspective, Michael sees much in a different light and undergoes many adventures, some harrowing, others hilarious. Michael Remembers is not just an exciting future fantasy novel. It is also a mordantly funny and keenly insightful allegory about political abuse and rampant injustice in our own time. The perceptive reader will recognize and appreciate both the manifest comedy and the serious message between the lines.