A Generation of the Dark Heart

This glib, essentially weightless futuristic novel from the British author of Mag offers yet another dystopian fantasy. As England undergoes an undefined societal collapse, the self-named Mark First, born as a dark observer of humanity, forms an organization called The Brotherhood and tries to establish a new state based on order and self-denial. The writing is accessible, but its tone is pretentious: ``He made no friends, established no loyalties . . . but he managed, nevertheless, always to be there, somehow. At the darkest edges of the school, he stood like a shadow.'' The author's decision to portray Mark First as an emotionless void cheats the reader of insight into the nature of an evangelistic potential dictator, and neither Mark First nor his philosophy is attractive enough to justify the extent of his success. The narrative ends none too soon, drowned in a stream of bathetic outpourings. (Jan.)