Mark Clifton was not that prominent of an author in the 1950's, but he did have one decent and fairly influential novel. Mostly he wrote about issues dealing with the upcoming computer revolution, artificial intelligence, and about telepathy. He wrote a few popular short stories as well, notably What Have I Done? and Star Bright.
They'd Rather Be Right
This novel was originally serialized in Astounding, was co-written with Frank Riley, was the second novel to win a Hugo, and also republished as The Forever Machine. This is one of the earliest novels dealing with the issues of artificial intelligence and computers. The plot is two scientists create an intelligent computer called Bossy that will solve any problem dispassionately and objectively when presented with enough correct information. Bossy can be hooked up to a person's brain and will rejuvenate people's bodies and make them young again and practically immortal by removing conflicts in their mind. But the price is you give up many of your previously held beliefs and understandings, hence the two titles. Conflicts ensue as everybody (politicians, business leaders etc.) now wants Bossy for themselves or for no one to have it.
The novel and writing style was very dated when I read it years ago as was a lot of the technology and the writing itself is not that great, but the ideas were interesting enough. Really most sci-fi novels like this dealing with computers and AI that were written decades ago (such as the similar novel When Harlie Was One) feel very dated when dealing with these issues even when they do bring up interesting concepts. This is mostly worth reading since the ideas of the book were fairly new at the time and are influential for later writers.
Its appropriate for a older teen audience, but I am not sure how many would enjoy it. A lot of the anti-authority themes might be appealing to some readers and it has some thought provoking themes at the very least.
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