chabot@miles.DEC (Bits is bits) (05/15/85)
Chuq's request reminded me of a book I own but can't find: it was a novel by D G Compton about a penal colony on Mars. The existence there is marginal. A large dust storm arrives just at the time the ship arrives, preventing the current penal colony inhabitants from reaching it and bringing the newcomers to their new home for a couple of weeks; many of the new arrivals starve; it turns out later that this always happens: the "dust storm" is contrived to eliminate all but the strongest, so as to stretch resources, get rid of the weak quickly, etc. It's a rather depressing story--no chance of return, no chance of escape, no chance of a life that at all resembles what the prisoners might have had on earth. Does anyone else remember this one? L S Chabot ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot chabot%amber.dec@decwrl.arpa