2084

2084 is set in an England of the future taken over by a tyrannical and brutal regime after an insurrection called the Great Uprising and a bloody three-year civil war that devastated the country. Now two great systems confront each other - The Holy Eastern League and the Western Democratic Alliance. The story follows the events in the life of Len Deakin, a captain in the Resistance based in the West of England. Len is captured and pressured into undertaking a "mission" to assassinate persons unknown to him. When he discovers their identity he is unable to carry out the mission. They are the last members of the deposed English royal family. He then goes on the run. After rescuing his wife Rosalie from a public hanging in Bristol, the two end up on Dartmoor, where they hide out with a runaway Chinese army doctor Wu Chung. But when Len is once more taken by an army patrol he is imprisoned in Newmetro (old London). There, he undergoes a long battle of wits with an interrogator, Brian Melchior, who is intent on making Len convert to Alsiyada, the state religion, on the scaffold before his execution in front of a vast crowd. Len's resistance is finally broken when Melchior crushes his illusory ideas of the England of the past. The main theme of 2084 is not so much a political one as Len's personal struggle to come to terms with a reality in which the England he knew and loved has vanished. During Len's speech on the scaffold he is interrupted by the arrival of fighter planes belonging to the Democratic Alliance, which is now at war with the Eastern League. During the raid Melchior is killed and Len manages to escape. In 2090 Len sees Rosalie by chance in Newmetro with a boy she calls Len. They eventually come together and tell their stories. With the help of Dr Chung Rosalie had given birth to Len's child in an abandoned tin mine on Dartmoor. But in an attempt to avoid an army patrol hunting down escaped partisans she had faked her suicide in a quagmire. In the crowd at Len's execution, she fled from the planes and didn't see Len escape. Afterwards, she lives for three years with an ex-Resistance fighter called Redmond Higgins. One day Redmond disappears, leaving an autobiographical account and explanation. He is going to attempt the assassination of an important figure in the regime. He succeeds, but never returns, probably captured or killed.