Of my four Laser Books titles, this is the only one I wrote specifically for that line. The book is very much a product of the mid-70s, when there were meat shortages, gasoline shortages, and an apparent breaking down of Western society's infrastructure. Nowadays you can think of it as being set in an "alternate world" 1980s. This is a gloomy "if this goes on" sort of book, but with a hopeful ending.