Garbage World — Charles Platt

THOUGHT-PROVOKING ADVENTURE ON THE WEIRDEST PLANET IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE HUGO, LOCUS, CAMPBELL & PROMETHEUS AWARD NOMINEE AUTHORThe radical, disturbing classic that helped usher in the age of ecological science fiction.The story is good entertainment... quite amusing. SF CommentaryKopra is The garbage dump of the United Asteroid-Belt Pleasure Worlds Federation, who citizens can't stand the sight of the waste products they produce. A small asteroid, miles deep in unimaginable filth and debris of all shapes and sizes., Kopra's sole function is to receive waste materials its sister asteroids send.Its inhabitants are a dirty lot, long accustomed to working in the waste materials of the solar system. They disdain bathing and wear soiled rags like a medal. They are considered subhuman wretches by the citizens of the Pleasure Worlds. But the Koprans see it differently, they keep the system running by doing the work no one else can do. They are everything the Asteroid-Belters Pleasure Worlds are not - and proud of it.Avoided by Off-worlders for centuries (the stench alone is enough to repel any sentient being) Kopra suddenly becomes an object of extraordinary interest to Federation government officials. So, send assign the Oliver Roach, qualified Federation Observer and Recorder, to visit the asteroid. and report back on conditions, physical, psychological, and political.From the moment the fastidious Oliver cautiously sets foot on the asteroid, he is plunged into an adventure as bizarre as it is exciting-filled with danger and plenty of surprises. And a quite unexpected denouement....The Federation had believed an asteroid as big as Kopra solved their waste disposal problems forever. But can any civilization really do that?Read the explosive climax and find out.The Incendiary Book That Announced The Arrival Of The Most Scathing SF Satirist Since Jonathan Swift!What an interesting concept and study on human nature. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is a fast, easy read, just right for a rainy summer day. I really liked it. Beverly, GoodreadsA fastidious spacer lands on an asteroid used as a galactic dumping ground that is inhabited by dirty trash-collecting hoarders. Humorous, light-hearted sci-fi adventure. SMCA, AmazonGarbage World was actually a sort of Freudian parable. In the novel, there is a near-perfect split between inhabitants of the asteroid who embrace garbage (metaphor for excrement) and sensuality versus everyone else, who are compulsively clean and inhibited. The protagonist succeeds in ditching his inhibitions by finding true love with an uninhibited, free-spirited young woman who seduces him in a pile of mulch, thereby proving that one can touch messy, dirty, taboo things and not only survive but enjoy it immensely. Once he recognizes and accepts the resulting changes in his outlook and his personality, he becomes a much healthier, much more well-adjusted person. In the cultural milieu in which it appeared, Garbage World was one distinctive voice among a deluge of others asking the day's youth to question the assumptions of society and to shake off the shackles of convention to find one's true, if messier, self. I liked it. -Gregory S., AmazonI have students using this book for an environmental reading/writing project. So far the reviews from them have been great. Deb E., AmazonThis book is awesome because it's proto-hippy science fiction about someone who learns to love living in filth with a society of scavengers. It's got brilliant class politics and it's entertaining as hell. Margaret K., GoodreadsAbsurdly fun. From action to political intrigue to weird garbage-mud sex, it has everything you didn't know you needed. It was amazing. Kevin M., GoodreadS