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story identification - Book with boy with one different colored eye



I once read a sci fi novel where the protagonist was a boy with one different colored eye, maybe gold colored.


It must have been sometime in the 70's. It was written in English. Unfortunately I have no recollection of the cover.


The time was in the not too distant future.


Actions, relationships and all other aspects of life were controlled by a central computer. As the boy grew he heard stories from his grandfather about how the central computer was built. When he became an adult he joined a group of free thinking rebels that planned to destroy the computer, but were foiled when they bombed the fake computer that was set up as a display/decoy.


One scene sticks in my mind. The group used to meet in a museum where one of the displays was an "antique" car and the people marveled that drivers had control over their own vehicles. One person remarked "I don't think that accidents happened as frequently as we have been told" or something like that. Another detail that I remember is the referral to an aluminum manufacturing plant, specifically an ALCOA factory.


He was captured and offered a chance to become of the "programmers" but eventually found and destroyed the real computer, which was right where his grandfather had said it would be.


The story ends with the now young man heading home in a helicopter as rain begins to fall during daylight hours, a sign that the central computer had relinquished control back to nature.



Answer



This sounds like the 1972 novel This Perfect Day by Ira Levin.


Points that match:




I once read a sci fi novel where the protagonist was a boy with one different colored eye, maybe gold colored.



Check. Chip, is a typical child Member who, through a mistake in genetic programming, has one green eye.



It must have been sometime in the 70's. It was written in English. Unfortunately I have no recollection of the cover.



Check. From 1972. English



Actions, relationships and all other aspects of life were controlled by a central computer.




Check. The world is managed by a central computer called UniComp



As the boy grew he heard stories from his grandfather about how the central computer was built. When he became an adult he joined a group of free thinking rebels that planned to destroy the computer, but were foiled when they bombed the fake computer that was set up as a display/decoy.



Check. As Chip grows up and begins his career, he is mostly a good citizen, but commits minor subversive acts, such as procuring art materials for another "nonconformist" member who was denied them. Chip conceives of a plan—destroy the computer, UniComp, by blowing up its refrigeration system. He recruits other incurables to join him, and they make their way to the mainland.



He was captured and offered a chance to become of the "programmers" but eventually found and destroyed the real computer, which was right where his grandfather had said it would be.



Just as they reach UniComp,




one of the incurables—an agent of the programmers—betrays his partners and leads the rest of group at gunpoint to a secret luxurious underground city




The story ends with the now young man heading home in a helicopter as rain begins to fall during daylight hours, a sign that the central computer had relinquished control back to nature.



Check. The book ends with Chip riding a helicopter toward Majorca where his wife, son, financial sponsors, and friends are hopefully waiting for him. For the first time in his life, he sees raindrops in daytime—nature’s affirmation that the era of slavery and total control is finally over.


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