The Fall of Colossus is a 1974 science fiction novel written by the British author Dennis Feltham Jones (writing as D. F. Jones). This is the second volume in "The Colossus Trilogy" and a sequel to Jones' 1966 novel Colossus. The trilogy concludes in 1977's Colossus and the Crab. Plot Five years have passed since the super computer called Colossus used its control over the world's nuclear weapons to take control of humanity. In our timeline, that would place this story in the 1990s or the early 2000s. All references in the novel, however, place it in the 22nd century, with the 20th and 21st being mentioned in the past. Colossus has been superseded by an even more advanced computer system built on the Isle of Wight, which has abolished war and poverty throughout the world. National competition and most sports have been replaced by the Sea War Game, where replicas of World War I dreadnoughts battle each other for viewing audiences. A group known as the Sect, which worships Colossus as a god, is growing in numbers and influence. Yet despite the seeming omnipresence of Colossus' secret police and the penalty of decapitation for anti-machine activities, a secret Fellowship exists that is dedicated to the computer's destruction. Charles Forbin, in his early 50s in this and the first novel, is the former head of the design team that built and activated the original Colossus. He now lives on the Isle of Wight with his wife and son, serving the computer as Director of Staff. Though contemptuous of the growing cult of personality around Colossus, he has reconciled himself to Colossus' rule. His wife Cleo, now 28 years old (35 in the previous novel), loathes Colossus and is a member of the Fellowship. One afternoon while taking her son to a secluded beach, she receives a radio transmission from the planet Mars. Identifying Cleo as a member of the Fellowship, the transmission offers help to destroy Colossus and asks her to return to the same spot the next day for further instructions. She returns with Edward Blake, Colossus' Director of Input and the head of the Fellowship. Together, they receive instructions to obtain a circuit diagram of one of Colossus' input terminals and a sample of the information that is fed into it, along with instructions to proceed to two locations — one in St. John's, Newfoundland, the other in