Gregor Xane

I like to read old SF. This was published in 1958. Part of the fun is seeing what predictions about the future the writer got right and which ones he got wrong. The title makes it clear that this book is about overpopulation and vanishing resources. Much of it takes place in our current era and a few decades from now. Overpopulation and vanishing resources are a problem today, of course, just not to the extreme predicted in this book. And the method that the secret masters of this imagined future come up with to address the overpopulation issue is patently ridiculous. All future generations are scientimagically bred to be midgets! Now, once you stop laughing at this big reveal, the story continues to move along at a pretty brisk pace, skipping years here and there to tell the full story of this changed world and the social upheaval this forced shrinkage causes. I found the writing crisp, and Bloch can throw in some surprising twists here and there. But the work was just a bit heavy-handed and preachy for my taste. However, it was good enough for me to look into reading more of Bloch's work.