What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

The book was translated from English to Dutch and available in the Dutch library system in the 1970's.
The hero visits a world which is divided between offliners and onliners. The onliners are a sort of aristocrats, living the good live in a protected environment, and communicating via screens built in the walls. The offliners live on the surface of the planet, a life of hardship and regarded by the onliners as primitive. The hero enters the onliners society and meets a girl who helps him in his fight for a better life for the offliners.

Any help to find this book is much appreciated!

Kind regards,

Frankie

Hmm, if it was translated into Dutch does that suggest the author was well known? Remember the cover?

Hero visits (implying that this is not Earth, the Hero is human(?), and that there's interstellar travel (FTL?)) - are there many travelers, or is he some type of very rare/privileged/lucky guy? Is he part of a government or organization? Is investigating this planet part of his mandate, or is he a rich (working class?) voyager who happens upon it and decides to get involved?

Offliners don't have screens is implied, is this correct?

What type of un-protected environment is it? Where is the protected environment? It looks like it might not be the surface of the planet given your description - but I'm not really sure. Is it a protected enclave/arcology/domed city on the surface perhaps?

Lobstergirl wrote: "Hmm, if it was translated into Dutch does that suggest the author was well known? Remember the cover?"

Thank you for your reply. Indeed, that's why I mentioned the fact that it was translated and available in a Dutch village library. I do not remember the cover.

Justanotherbiblophile wrote: "Hero visits (implying that this is not Earth, the Hero is human(?), and that there's interstellar travel (FTL?)) - are there many travelers, or is he some type of very rare/privileged/lucky guy? Is..."

Thank you for your input. I am pretty sure the hero was human. I do not remember why he happened to visit the planet.

Trouble is that I read so many sci fi books in those days that I am not sure if some other details that I seem to remember belong to this book or are overlays from other books.

Offliners don't have screens is implied, is this correct?
Hence the term offliners, they had no access to the information.

Is it a protected enclave/arcology/domed city on the surface perhaps?
What I remember is that the onliners were in some kind of walled cities, and the offliners were living below, on the surface, in squalid conditions.

I always remembered the book because of the online technology, that really caught my attention. It took another 10+ years until I learned about telnet, realizing that the fiction from the book had become reality, beyond the military, that is. I have often searched the web to find the book, but no success. The library is long gone.

Apart from the onliner bit, I do not remember concrete details about the rest of the story. The few details I seem to remember may come from other books that I read around that time: Aliens with a music device on their shoulder to indicate their mood, people eating behind a screen as it was taboo for others to see the act of eating, the hero taking a lot of vitamin pills which help him survive being poisoned, some dagger or sword hanging on the wall.

Not much to go on, and again, it may be stuff from other books. But then again, how many books were there in the 70's using the terms onliners and offliners? As far as I know, only one. Just wish I would find it back!

Welll....

The Shockwave Rider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sho...

Talked a bit about computers and stuff in 1975. I think there were other books that talked about being "online".

Frankie59, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Frankie59 (OP) was last active on the site in December 2016.