Cracken at Critical

Cracken at Critical: A Novel in Three Acts. US title: The Year Before Yesterday.

Contents:

• The Mannerheim Symphony (1987)
  
• The Impossible Smile (originally published in Science Fantasy magazine by Jael Cracken, 1965)
  
• Equator (1958)

All over the world corrupt dictatorships and fascist regimes have seized power – except in the Scandinavian countries. Here, in obscurity, an enclave of freedom still survives. But which Scandinavia are we talking about, and in which world?

The moon has been colonized, and crucial events under the airtight domes may yet revolutionize the lives of people on Earth. But which moon is this, and who are these people?

Global corporations are building a stratified utopia when the homeless invaders arrive. The invaders are offered a share of utopia; but what kind of gift is it, and what exactly are these invaders?

In The Year Before Yesterday, Brian Aldiss playfully takes the predictive visions of yesterday and transplants them into a disturbingly realistic global future. Alternate worlds are woven into the everyday life of a man faced with a personal crisis, and as fiction and reality intersect, nothing is actually as it seems.