Having never saw the movie, I didn't exactly know what to expect from the original book, but I was not disappointed. Suitibly creepy, the world this takes place in is not that implausible. A semi-totalitarian government rules the day, adolescent street gangs rule the night, the cops are recruited from the street gangs, so as redirect their violence into "constructive" activities, and the prisons are so overflowing with political prisoners that there is barely any room for actual criminals. The central plot centers on a governemnt experiment to eliminate crime through mind control, and leaves the reader asking, "Is it better to be evil by one's own choice than to be good without a choice?"