Fury by Henry Kuttner
"Fury" is a science fiction novel that serves as a sequel to "Clash by Night," set in a future where remnants of human civilization exist in domed cities called the Keeps on Venus. The story unfolds several decades after the previous events, focusing on the power struggle between Zachariah Harker, an Immortal—humans with extended lifespans—and Sam Reed, a driven criminal unaware of his own Immortal status. The plot centers around the challenge of colonizing the planet's surface, a task complicated by harsh environmental conditions and the differing motivations of the characters involved.
As tensions escalate, Reed engages in manipulative tactics to promote surface colonization, viewing it as an opportunity for personal gain. The narrative explores themes of ambition, identity, and the societal dynamics between the powerful Immortals and the disenfranchised. Following a catastrophic conflict that renders the Keeps uninhabitable, humanity is ultimately forced to the surface, paving the way for a new beginning. The story culminates with Reed realizing his potential as a leader, while the Immortals remain conflicted about his role in the future of human civilization. Overall, "Fury" delves into the complexities of power, legacy, and the human desire for survival and progress.
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Fury
First published: 1950 (serial form, Astounding Science-Fiction, May-July, 1947; also published as Destination Infinity, 1958)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—dystopia
Time of work: About seven hundred years in the future
Locale: Venus
The Plot
This novel is a sequel to “Clash by Night” (Astounding Science-Fiction, March, 1943), which told of the Free Companions, mercenaries hired to fight for the warring human colonies on Venus so that what is left of human civilization after the atomic destruction of Earth has a chance to prosper in the Keeps, domed cities on the ocean floor. The Free Companions play only a minor role in Fury, which takes place several decades later, when the Keeps have been united and most of the Free Companions have died. Fury relates the great contest of wills between Zachariah Harker, one of the Immortals, mutated humans with seven-hundred-year life spans who exert de facto rule over the Keeps, and Sam Reed, a vicious, driven criminal who at first does not realize that he is an Immortal. The stakes are the colonization of the surface of the planet, a job that will be fantastically difficult because of the savage plant and animal life. The Immortals, taking the long view, know that colonization must occur eventually or the human race will stagnate. They fear, however, that if it is attempted too soon, it will fail, and humanity will lack the will to try again. Sam sees it as a way to build an empire and is determined to carry it out as soon as possible.
The book opens as an Immortal, Blaze Harker, goes mad following the death of his wife in childbirth. Blaming the child for his wifes death, he has it surgically altered and raised by foster parents so it will never learn its true heritage as an Immortal. Young Sam Reed inherits superior abilities and a predisposition to anger and resentment. He quickly becomes frustrated, rebellious, and bitter in a world in which the most coveted positions are held by Immortals, who have decades to prepare for them. Sam resorts to crime, including theft, fraud, and murder, to satisfy his ambitions.
Life is so comfortable in the Keeps that men and women seeking excitement are drawn to drug use, violent entertainment, affectations of barbarism, and (mildly portrayed) sadomasochistic relationships, such as the one between Sam and Immortal Kedve Walton, a former lover of Zachariah. When Immortal Robin Hale, the last of the Free Companions, announces his plan to colonize the planets surface, many in the Keeps falsely see it as a romantic adventure. Sam sees it as a tremendous moneymaking opportunity. In the guise of promoting Hales idea, he unscrupulously oversells shares of a public corporation, uses the media to manipulate public opinion and promote class warfare against the Immortals, and eventually broadcasts the colossal lie that any human who stays on the surface for five years will become an Immortal.
The Immortals countermoves culminate in a failed attempt to kill him, which puts him in a drugged state of amnesia for forty years. When, as a result, Sam discovers that he is an Immortal, the only difference his knowledge makes is that he is no longer content to cash in on the colonys failure. He wants it to succeed under his rule. When war breaks out between the Keeps and the surface colonists, atomic weapons are used, taking few casualties but leaving the Keeps uninhabitable. Once humanity is thereby forced to the surface, the eventual success of the colony is ensured.
Although the Immortals are forced to admit that Sam was right about when colonization should take place, their mutual animosity endures. The Immortals believe that Sam is the wrong man to build the colony into a civilization and try one last time to assassinate him. Sam is not mortally wounded and is cared for by Ben Crowell, the Logician, an Immortal who acts overtly as a forecaster of events and covertly as a manipulator of them. The Logician tells Sam that humanity needed him to force it to take the first step toward eventual exploration and colonization of the stars. Sam will be placed in suspended animation until humanity once again needs him to spur it on. The last line of the book is “Sam woke.”