Just read this and amazed that despite the fact that I had read all of his other novels, this was actually the third written after Stark and Gridlock. Given its early 1990's origins I think it could be considered somewhat prophetic; the original cover (I picked it up in a charity shop) had an apple covered in glass panels - just like the Eden Project domes in Cornwall. The explicit criticism that US big business puts its self-interest before global sustainability is also bang on the mark. Perhaps the US will sign global treaties when the President or Bill Gates no longer have snow to ski in Aspen.... Plot-wise I was struck by the number of times we were given warning that the 'Rat Run' was inevitable; there was one phrase in particular - we cannot continue to consume a finite resource without ultimately destroying it - that strikes me not as science fiction but as clear fact. As anyone who lived in the coal communities of South Wales. As such, Elton is preaching a strong message - that we must desist from using unrenewable resources and rely solely on those which the planet will, with our care, renew quite naturally. I love the twist at the end (if such it is); a ray of hope.