This Perfect Day

Generations after the Unification, everyone belongs to one contented Family run by UniComp, a global computer. It assigns each person a name from a short approved list, a vocation and a spouse. Every month it also administers a chemical treatment that dulls aggression, curiosity and desire.

There is no war, hunger or crime, and there is no freedom. Li RM35M4419 grows up inside this order. His nonconformist grandfather, Papa Jan, calls him Chip. Chip is an ordinary member in every way except one: a genetic flaw has given him a single green eye among the brown.

As an adult, Chip has a treatment interrupted, and his mind slowly clears. He starts to sense the limits of the comfortable life around him. Other people have half-woken as well, and he meets them one by one. Lilac is the one who matters most to him.

Together they plan to slip out of the Family's reach and face the intelligence that governs it. The book is a science fiction thriller from 1970 with a tight plot and a fast pace, and it won a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. The question driving it is who actually gains from a world engineered for happiness.