Wikipedia's all-too-brief entry for Mark Clifton and Frank Riley's The Forever Machine (AKA They'd Rather Be Right) has an unattributed review of it as “the worst novel to ever win a Hugo”. This is debatable - particularly in light of a couple of recent winners - but could well be true. Or at least true when said, by whoever said it.

The plot revolves around the young Joe Carter, a rare natural telepath in an odd capitalist/communist mish-mash future 1985 America. Joe hides his talent and his intelligence behind perfectly average scores until Professor Billings - who's aware of Joe's talents and managed to arrange for his scholarship to Hoxworth University - comes to ask for help. Billings has been ordered by Washington to work on a guidance system for planes and the like and, in the early 1950s, this obviously seemed harder than it was, so Billings decides he's been asked to work on, essentially, an artificial human mind. As a telepath is obviously best at knowing minds, he turns to Joe - failure is not an option because in this strange America, people who fail or refuse jobs given by Washington - which “doesn't have to explain itself to citizens” - are jailed.

Soon “Bossy” (named because it looks like a cow, apparently) is under construction at the University with Billings in charge and Joe helping out. Great progress is made, with some neural net like learning going on, but soon the news leaks and the general public goes all Frankenstein's monster on Bossy, which is dissasembled by the powers that be.

But Joe's expected this all along and spirits Bossy, Billings and a third member of the team, Hoskins, away to continue development because he believes Bossy can cure all man's ills. Holed up in a warehouse rented from ex-prostitute Mabel they get Bossy up and running. Joe's belief is that what holds humans back from their peak is that they look at the world in a “single-valued” way, whereas it's actually “multi-valued”. To test this out, he wants to let Bossy relieve someone of all their cares, woes, inhibitions, repressions etc. After Mabel spends a few weeks under Bossy's care and comes out some 60 years younger, slimmer and less worried about clothing his theory seems supported.

The next test though is a failure as Billings proves unable to give up his existing beliefs to be re-generated (hence 'They'd Rather Be Right'). Meanwhile, the multi-millionare industrialist Howard Kennedy comes in to support the project against the government, which is still trying to shut it down. Another succesful test is made, and the government starts looking more favourably at Bossy - which brings worries they'll keep it just for the top dogs. However, Kennedy then agrees to mass produce Bossys for everyone.

So... how bad is it? Well, the characters are all pretty wooden. Joe's practically comatose through the entire book, even when he gets his wish of a live, breathing, gorgeous telepath chick. And he's the most rounded - the others are barely fleshed-out stereotypes, including the tart-with-a-heart Mabel and the millionaire-industrialist-with-a-heart Howard Kennedy. Some of the fleeting characters are hideous, particularly a Dr. Ames who espouses a spare the rod, spoil the child theory to Joe's stereotypical parents.

The multi-valued physics, despite hints of quantum, are so off the wall as to fit in with Scientology (and some have suggested, since old mother Hubbard's Dianetics was released only a few years earlier, this may not be a coincidence). Around this point in the book I had to take a break, and found myself reading some six or seven of Terry Pratchett's books before I could force myself back. Rating: avoid.