The Mind Riders

Bread and circuses. Or in the case of this story “.....the same old circus served up with stale bread.”

Science Fiction that was released in 1976 The Mind Riders is written as a first person narrative. Ryan Hart, a cynical boxer is bought out of retirement to fight a long standing champion and with it we see the world through his thoughts. He is bitter towards the chew them up and spit them out corporate world that forced him out of his given sport as he did not fit the mold of hero or villain.

“Commercials live on the naïveté even more than plastic drama. It takes some simplicity of the mod to be able to generate wild enthusiasm over some bland crud. It takes a kid who needs to feel good- can't get a day through without it.
The people know it fake even when it's on course. They know the sun-bronzed Apollo poncing about the beach is being puppeted by a bored handler while some kid radiates his glamour. But if its good, if it feels right, they play the game. They go out and buy the crud. They buy the plastic drama too.”

Boxing is now virtual reality. Each boxer no longer has to take real punches but hooks up to a simulation unit. In this future the boxer feels the pain and can actually die psychologically. The commercial attraction is that the audience can also hook in to one or the other boxer and ride their mind as they go through the agony of both pain and the psychology of the fight in process. Of course the elation or despair of winning or losing is the ultimate attraction. Those millions who hook in via an E-link are described as vamps, an excellent metaphor for blood sucking masses and does the corporate overlord, Network, lap this up.

Hart may not like “the prerogatives of pure wealth” to be able to force him into making a comeback but he himself is aware that he is caught up with a modern “feudalism as a social system....” by those that have the money to make him do it. He actually admires Network in a cynical way.
“Somebody has to make the masses believe that tomorrow it is all going to be new, unexpected , exciting” “You have to admire the technique. The sun never sets on Networks Empire”

A few themes come through this short book. Corporate greed, control of the individual and the masses, psychosis of the plutocracy, the need to win at all costs. The characters do lack any kind of warmth. They were all part of the act, the daily drama that is sport that we live via our TV's, in this case via virtual reality. Maybe that coldness is the point. Is it a good book? Yes but with much Science Fiction writing it is of it times. For all the forward thought of the population at large being mentally plugged into the thought process of sportsmen it is very dated in parts and as mentioned there is a coldness of character that may or may not appeal to some.

Recommended to those that may want a short Sci Fi read to while away the hours.