Fury
By Henry Kuttner

Henry Kuttner died young in 1958, only 42, and so we did not get a chance to see him develop as a writer over a long period. However, given that, he managed to write a lot in his short life, much in collaboration with his wife, Catherine Moore (C L Moore). They would often write together using pseudonyms (e.g. Lewis Padgett). This is my first read of either of them.

In Fury, the human race has fled an uninhabitable Earth for the oceans of Venus, living underwater in cities called "Keeps". The story follows the up and down trajectory of Sam Reed, an angry young man born in a Keep to parents he never knows. Sam is different, and not just because of his extreme ambition and intelligence (his fury) to get ahead. The Keeps have a hierarchy. There is the normal mass of people, happy to stay subdued as long as they are entertained and have a living; and the "Immortals" whose genetics give them a high intelligence and a long life. Sam looks like a base level human, but is he?

Sam Reed is certainly not a very moral or agreeable man and he uses both fair and foul means to rise to the top of the heap, if he can. And if he can stay there. Humanity is stagnating and the Immortals are standing in the way of any reform or progress. They also fight dirty, but so does Sam. Not everyone is happy with a managed life free of adventure or progress, and some want to see some of the excitement of old, perhaps by returning to fight and conquer the inhospitable Venusian land.

This novel is written in a basic "hard-boiled" type of sharp prose reminiscent of a crime thriller, with a clever underdog seeking revenge on the boss. Short and to the point, it is not a masterpiece but a readable pulp science-fiction classic.