SOLAR LOTTERY

British Editions

Solar Lottery was first published in GB under the title "World of Chance"



From the back cover of the Arrow 1972 edition

Random selection: that was the operating principle.

Positions of public power decided by a sophisticated lottery. Everyone had a chance, could live in hope. Opium for the people. One day you too could be boss. And with it: the Assassination Game, which you could watch on TV. Would the new man be good enough to avoid his chosen killer? Survival of the fittest formalised into a game. Lots of excitement for everyone, keeps them all happily distracted while the Big Five industrial complexes run the world, the solar system, the people, unremarked, unopposed.

Then in the Year 2203 a hitch developed in the system.


From the back cover of the Arrow 1979 and 1987 editions

As faith in economic stability and the old social order crumbled, a new basis for society had to be found by the governments. Minimax supplied that need-a sort of elaborate solar lottery based on quiz games that spanned the nine planet system. A lottery that offered power and social status rather than consumer goods as its prize-with the ultimate prize being the post of Quizmaster himself. Yet even the Quizmaster had to fight off constant challengers and public assassins. The only real safety lay on the legendary tenth planet of the Sol System - that fabulous world beyond the known universe...


From the back cover of the Collier Nucleus Editions

THE ULTIMATE LOTTO GAME!

The year is 2203 and the Earth is governed by a bizarre system of random selection wherein public officeholders and the victims of political assassination alike are chosen by the luck of a mad draw. 'n this maniacal world Ted Benteley is an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job. Working at the Solar .Lottery he becomes a pawn in a power struggle that changes his life forever, and the direction of his century's history. Although Benteley doesn't realize it at first. by saying no to the inhuman system he has challenged the most diabolical power broker of the age to a winner-take-all duel of psychic trickery. ..
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick's first novel. published in 1955. Dick was one of the foremost exponents of psychologically intense science fiction. as exemplified in his Eye in the Sky which is also part of the Collier Nucleus Series. His career spanned the early 1950s until his death in 1982. during which time he published twenty-five novels.


From the back cover of the Gollancz 2003 edition

The operating principle was random selection: positions of public power were decided by a sophisticated lottery. Everyone had a chance, everyone could live in hope that they would be chosen to be the boss, the Quizmaster. But with the power came the game - the assassination game - which everyone could watch on TV. Would the new man be good enough to avoid his chosen killer? Which made for fascinating and exciting viewing, compelling enough to distract the public's attention while the Big Five industrial complexes run the world, the solar system and the people, unnoticed and completely unopposed. Then, in 2203, with the choice of a member of a maverick cult as Quizmaster, the system developed a little hitch...