In a future world run on Marxist-Leninist principles, the son, Peter Uldanov, of the world dictator, brought up on a small island near Bermuda without any political or economic education, is summoned to Moscow by his failing father. The dictator, like so many, has come to the conclusion that leadership should remain in the family and arranges this before his death. No. 2 in the Politburo is understandably miffed by this move so Peter is fortunate to have an ally in No. 3, an American who fears liquidation if No. 2 comes to power.

Most of the book is taken up with conversations between Peter and No. 3 about what is wrong with the communist system and the working out of a capitalist alternative. The world power had deleted all reference to capitalism from history, so the process has to develop from first principles; even double-entry book-keeping has to be reinvented. It is, to be truthful, a very tedious way of writing, with only the occasional assassination attempt or all-out war to enliven the narrative.

The capitalist model that Peter comes up with would probably have gone down well with Thatcher and Reagan with light regulation relying on efficient markets, and minimal state intervention in citizens' lives. He eschews quantitative easing, has no real answer to inflation and skirts around state welfare, apparently relying on individual altruism and charity. I cannot see his ideas providing answers to 21st.C.problems.

The book was recommended by Merryn Somerset Webb in the Financial Times as a reminder of the problems of communism and a primer for capitalism. The book does meet those objectives but is a dull read. As a bedtime book I was asleep within three or four pages. ( )

The book is dated. And his economics is as good as any of his books. But he is not a fiction writer, so things can be a bit stilted, and the economic theory is forced into everything in the story.

As a novel, this is a terrible book. As a didactic fiction, it has some charms. A very, very odd book that should probably only be read by those who think socialism makes sense. Those of us who know that socialism is a perverted, twisted idea with no practical hope of bringing prosperity, freedom, progress, or even peaceable human social life, might find it more than a little lackluster. ( )