NORMAN SPINRAD – Bug Jack Barron. Avon M206; paperback, June 1969. Cover art by Alex Gnidziejko, Hardcover edition published simultaneously by Walker. An abbreviated version appeared earlier in New Worlds SF, December 1967 through October 1968.

   From the back cover: POWER PLAY. The lines of power are tangled in a future America threatened by a conspiracy of evil. Politics, communication, sex, love – all are sources of power, all are tools for the maniacal ambitions of one man of vast wealth, Benedict Howards. Opposing Howards is Jack Barron, who has incalculable power of his own – but who first must learn how to use it,,, Combines the soaring imagination of science fiction with uncompromising realism.

   The issue if immortality (is there anything so rank you wouldn’t do for immortality?)

   The language is necessary.

Rating: *****