The Space Merchants

How it reads

The Space Merchants is science fiction (satirical dystopian science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in several locations, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are class and society, power and politics and art and creativity. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 186 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.