Home > Coventry (short story)

David MacKinnon, a romantic idealist, is forced to escape the boredom of a too-civilized future by emigrating to the rugged outland beyond the Barrier, where people who refuse to abide by social norms are exiled, rather than submit to radical psychotherapy. He finds not the peaceful anarchy he envisioned but a corrupt democracy and is immediately jailed, losing all his goods. Befriended by the Fader, he breaks jail to warn of an attack on civilization.