Too Long In Paradise

Too Long In Paradise is a novel set in a future time when people have created a paradise on Earth. It is both an adventure story and science fiction -- the kind of science fiction which is based firmly on 21st Century science fact. Five emissaries from one of Earth's interstellar daughter colonies travel to Earth on a fact finding mission and are treated with cold indifference by Earth's ruler. One of their number, convinced something is being kept hidden, defies the ruler and makes contact with an apparently insane rebel. The result of this disobedience is that the five emissaries are ordered to return immediately to their home planet. However, before their expulsion can take effect, three of them are 'rescued' in an act of horrifying violence by the rebel and some accomplices. The three, now on the run, are at first appalled by the destruction which freed them, but gradually they come to identify with the rebels, as they learn ever more about the boredom and passivity that go with life in paradise. After one of their number is killed in an ambush, the two survivors realize that the facts they have uncovered hold the key to the future survival of all the interstellar daughter colonies. Unfortunately, Earth's ruler refuses to let them return home, demanding instead that they must first answer for the crimes they have been involved with. They conclude their only hope of getting a message to the daughter colonies is to steal a spaceship. The escape attempt, in which they are nearly killed, does not go according to plan. Ironically, what subsequently happens to them provides them with one final stark revelation about the reality of living in a paradise. If you've ever wondered what the ultimate goal of human endeavour is, or wondered, should we succeed in our efforts to build a paradise on Earth, whether you'd truly be happy to live in it, this novel of prediction will provide plenty of food for thought.