PLAYER PIANO, Kurt Vonnegut's debut, marked the arrival of a wildly inventive and devilishly satiric voice in American letters. Set in a science fiction dystopia where society is almost entirely run by (and for) machines, Doctor Paul Proteus is one of the privileged few: the engineers that actually maintain the machines. However, he's increasingly disillusioned by the corporate mechanized reality, and eventually becomes the leader of secret revolutionary group known as The Ghost Shirt Society, dedicated to dismantling the machines and reasserting humanity's significance on the planet. However, in the end, their dream is threatened, not only by the machines themselves, but the follies and idiocy of human beings. Upon publication, PLAYER PIANO was considered a minor cult genre fiction novel, but its themes of absurdity, social disruption, and doomed idealism in a science-fiction reality would become significant tropes of Vonnegut's future work.

Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. His rebellion is a wildly funny, darkly satirical look at modern society.

Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. His rebellion is a wildly funny, darkly satirical look at modern society.