Looking for a 60's Sci-Fi book

[vodkafan]

I have been looking for years for a book I read as a kid. The problem is I cannot remember the author or the British title-but I do remember the book had an alternative American title which was Time: 11000 or something very similar.

Google searches have all come up blank on this though, so if I describe what I remember of the plot maybe somebody else may have read it.

 

A man wakes up accidentally from suspended animation in a casket as a result of a minor accident. There are several other caskets with people asleep in them. (I am not sure on this, I think one of the other caskets is also empty) He doesn't know how he got there or who he is. A feature of the room is a large numeric display which appears to be counting down. The man leaves the building he is in in search of answers, and finds that the world is populated by robots, artificial humans called simulacra.

While most of the simulacra are passive and cannot give him any information, a few of them seem to be main characters (as if actors in a play) who shape events good and bad. One of them in particular seems to hate the man and does his best to kill him. Anyway after many adventures he finds another human, a woman who also woke up and came out of a casket like himself. Eventually they discover that they are the last surviving real humans (along with the others still in the caskets) who were put in the caskets by aliens , and the robots were constructed to act out their dreams - the half dozen main character simulacra are the direct representations of the sleeping humans, and the one who tried to kill the man is actually his own simulacrum.

The aliens purpose in doing this was to study the humans to determine whether they should be allowed to survive or not- the numeric countdown was the time limit before a decision is made.

Fearing that the human race has failed the test and realising they are running out of time, the man and woman hurry back to the building containing the other humans but arrive just as the countdown is reaching zero and the aliens arrive-the ending does not say what happened.

 

Does this ring any bells for anybody?

PS, it is not The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick

Edited September 24, 2011 by vodkafan

[bobblybear]

I'm bummed no-one knows what this is, as it sounds like my kind of book. I did a few google searches, but didn't come up with anything.

[Hayley]

I had a look and the book 'The City Underground' by Suzanne Martel came up a couple of times. It was published in 1963 but I don't think the plot looks quite the same from what I've seen