Term used in this encyclopedia to cover various sf extrapolations of the walled, gated or segregated community; it is very roughly equivalent to the Edifice in fantasy [seeTheEncyclopedia of Fantasy underlinks below]. The sf term. It is taken fromFury (May-July 1947Astounding as by Lawrence O'Donnell;1950; vtDestination Infinity1956) by HenryKuttner and C LMoore, where Keeps are fortified domesUnder the Sea into which humanity has retreated from the savage environment ofVenus. Similarly on Earth, hostileUplifted animals force humanity to retreat to armed keeps in J TMcIntosh'sThe Fittest (1955; vtThe Rule of the Pagbeasts1956). As isolation from the outside world increases, the concept overlaps with – or reaches as a limiting case – thePocket Universe.

The "Last Redoubt" of humanity in William HopeHodgson'sThe Night Land (1912) is an early example of a full-blown keep; it was intensively homaged and replicated in GregBear'sCity at the End of Time (2008). Many futureCities have keep-like qualities, most typically an agoraphobic withdrawal from the world outside, as in IsaacAsimov'sThe Caves of Steel (1954), Diaspar in Arthur CClarke'sThe City and the Stars (November 1948Startling as "Against the Fall of Night";1953; exp and much rev vt1956), theUnderground world-city of MichaelFrayn'sA Very Private Life (1968), and the vast "Urban Monad" towers of RobertSilverberg'sThe World Inside (1971). Frayn's keep is echoed metaphorically inInner Space terms, with good citizens usingDrugs to withdraw from disturbing emotion "to an inner keep whereeverything was under our control."

MackReynolds offers a cheerier view of the keep inThe Towers of Utopia (1975), though the defensive convoys of linked mobile homes in hisRolltown (July-September 1969If as "The Towns Must Roll"; exp1976) prove to be stifling; andThis Other Eden (1993) by BenElton refers to its keeps as Claustrospheres. Several of J GBallard's novels, fromHigh-Rise (1975) onward, exude a sense of transition from present-day urban landscape toDystopian keep society. TheMedieval Futurism associations of "keep" are often appropriate, as witness the explicitly feudal social contract of the Todos Santos arcology inOath of Fealty (1981) by LarryNiven and JerryPournelle. The largest sf keeps are perhaps the enclosed, space-proof, galaxy-crossing cities featured in JamesBlish'sCities in Space sequence, the greatest of these being Manhattan (seeNew York).

The only explicit recognition of the usefulness of the original coining of the term inFury appears, perhaps surprisingly, in theMainstream writer HughNissenson'sThe Song of Earth (2001), much of the tale set in aNear Future keep restricted to the wealthy: two of the streets within the walls are named after Kuttner and Moore. [DRL/JC]

see also: FrederickDunstan; JeanneDuPrau; Marie CFarca; ColinFree.

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• The Encyclopedia of Fantasy:Edifice

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