Product Description

Customer Reviews (46)

A true masterpiece
Some troubledom just figured that if you allow for every codder and shiggy and appleofmyeye a space one foot by two you could stand us all on the six hundred forty square mile surface of the island of Zanzibar.

John Brunner is the type of author that you should be careful with. His work could be easily divided into different periods, and not all of those are equally good. However, there is no question of quality when it comes to his cycle of catastrophic SF books. Stand on Zanzibar is a colossal work - both literally, and figuratively. Completely revolutionizing the stylistic conventions of SF, it is one of the most significant pieces of dystopian fiction I've ever read, and a shining example of the many ways New Wave reinvented the genre.

Forty-year old predictions are rarely any good, and when you reach the year of an SF novel's "distant future", it is easy to smirk at the author's naivete. Not so in this case. Even if Brunner's vision did not come entirely true, the patterns he saw decades before mostly anyone else, are undeniable. And we can't really smirk at Stand on Zanzibar without the little nagging feeling that its prediction is just biding its time.

The year is 2010 and the world has gone crazy. Population has long since passed the seven billion mark, and the twenty first century is a whirlwind of hysteria. Computers on the verge of becoming AI take humanity's decisions for it, drugs are legal and used by everyone; politics are done through assassination in the shadows, and scientists burn incense to appease volcanoes. People could turn into mass murderers with no reason whatsoever, while simply crossing a street, commercials are all over the place and Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere have your faces and speak with your voices while taking you through your TV to places where you could never go in the real world. And as every advanced country has accepted laws for genetic purity that deny anyone with hereditary diseases the right to reproduce, and tensions between the superpowers constantly escalate into armed conflicts, two small countries focus the world's attention on themselves.

Beninia is a fictional African country that should have been assimilated by its more powerful neighbors, but for some reason hasn't been. And even though it is poor and underdeveloped, there are no internal conflicts there, while the rest of the world devours itself. Meanwhile The Enlightened Democracy of Yatakang (another fictional country, possibly cover for Indonesia) makes a startling announcement - a break-through in genetic engineering that could change the world forever.

The pacing of the story is slow and measured, but the plot is just one of many devices that John Brunner uses to paint the mad reality of a world where people are packed so close to each other that they've reverted to a state of neo-barbarism that I am pretty sure wasn't nearly as plausible in 1968 as it is today. Stand on Zanzibaris as much a warning as it is a prediction, and a disquieting quantity of elements from its monstrous reality are all too easy to recognize in our own. The author has been meticulous with every detail of his world. The book is written in an entirely fictional slang - a mirror of the hysterically fast day-to-day lives of the people in this dark twenty first century. Every other word is a combination of two longer ones. Everything is shortened, simplified, mass-produced, a tool for word-games. "Bastard" is no longer an insult, but "Bleeder" is - there is no greater fear than being found to have a hereditary disease. Drugs are so widely used, that everyone is "out of" or "in orbit", depending on whether some form of communication has been achieved.

The panoramic view of Stand on Zanzibar's world shows us a number of social phenomena. There are the "shiggies" - a class of women that have no home of their own (living space is now the greatest luxury and even the richest could rarely afford an apartment of their own) but change partners and live with them. Tobacco is no longer used, but marihuana is legal and more widely used than tobacco ever has been. But the most frightening example of Brunner's dystopian society are the "muckers". Derived from "amock", the word is used to describe people who couldn't stand the pressure and rhythm of their lives. When they break, they turn into mindless berserkes, killing sometims tens of people before being killed themselves. Even without the muckers, the world is filled with terrorists and saboteurs, often wreaking havoc and destruction just for the heck of it, as a hobby. Humanity's drive for self-destruction, fueled by something as simple as lack of space, is one of the most powerful points of the book, and one of the most horrifying.

Meanwhile, back at planet Earth, it would no longer be possible to stand everyone on the island of Zanzibar without some of them being over ankles in the sea.

Stand on Zanzibar's most interesting quality, however, is the structure. Its chapters are more or less equally divided between four completely different categories, but mixed together and following no distinguishable order. Each chapter starts with the label of its category and there are four separate contents for each, although reading them separately seems to me to be completely pointless.

continuity is the main story-arc that follows the few "main" characters of the book and the events around the countries of Beninia and Yatakang. Although Brunner isn't overly concerned with character development, the protagonists are still fully developed and believable. The story itself is nothing special and on its own wouldn't merit any attention. Good thing it's not on its own.

context gives us background information on Stand on Zanzibar's world through different means - news snippets, articles, book excerpts or interviews with various people.

tracking with closeups follows little story-lines that have n influence over the continuity line (although a few tracking characters appear there in minor roles), but give broader view of Brunner's Earth of 2010. Almost none of the lines appear in more than two tracking chapters, and yet characters are just as fleshed-out as those in continuity.

the happening world is possibly the most innovative and atmospheric part of Stand on Zanzibar. It is also the hardest to digest. It follows context's idea, but goes to the extreme. Each happening world chapter is a seemingly random collection of little pieces of commercials, messages, word-games, songs or other symbols of this new world. Brunner plays a lot with rhythm in those parts of the book and combines different snippets in monolithic walls of text, changing the source faster and faster until every word comes from a different place and the reader feels like his or her head is about to explode.

Stand on Zanzibar uses those four drastically different ways to offer its content, but all of them are united under the single purpose of world-building. The effect is so powerful, that at times I wanted to close the book just to catch my breath. The psychic intensity of the novel could actually be partly a weak point. The information overload is intentional, but that doesn't make it any less... well, overloading. This is not a book you read in huge chunks. It is just too intense for that.

That said, Stand on Zanzibar is still extremely engaging. It pulls you in and never lets go, even when you want to take a break from its psychedelic, self-destructing world. True, it is a bit outdated - computers haven't been taking up whole rooms for decades, and we're halfway through 2010 already - but Brunner's tale of an inverted apocalypse is still so shockingly plausible and compelling, so thought-provoking and unsettling in its accuracy, not to mention so darn well written, that it fully deserves a place in SFF's hall of fame.

10/10


[...]

Takes place in 2010 in an over populated world
Interesting to read a book that takes place this year with one President of a small African country with a name uncannily similar to the current US President!Be that as it may, this is a tough read until you grasp that much of the content is simply there to set the stage for this society where population numbers are extreme and drugs are there for everyone and for every ailment and cloning is a possibility.Although written in the sixties, much is valid today and the ideas and predictions do resonate somewhat (advertising is everywhere, for instance).The plot is scattered among all the little chapters that provide context, and this is somewhat irritating, although the writing does hold one's interest.Only read if you like Brunner in general and have the time to devote to this work!

Too little time and too much book
I've attempted to wade through this tome several times over the years. Although my home has so many books that it's almost a library, this book has defeated all my attempts, although I love to read.

It reminds me of the required reading books from both high school and college - it's both ponderous (maybe endless) and depressing, and it's also a great way to put oneself to sleep. A book that doesn't start until you've read 100 pages has a problem.

Still a Classic and Still Worth Reading
Sure it's frequently called a classic science fiction novel, but it's also one of that variety that can date horribly fast:the near future novel.Is it still worth reading 40 years later?On the whole, yes.

The novel surprises for what it isn't.For a novel with the reputation ofbeing about overpopulation, it doesn't have the squalid and packed future of Harry Harrison's classic (if extrapolatively dishonest) Make Room! Make Room!.There isn't a lot of mention of scarce commodities.Technology continues to develop.Wars continue to be fought.New entertainment media still is invented.The effects of overpopulation mainly seem to be an extensive adoption of worldwide government eugenics programs to ensure only the healthy procreate and the appearance of "muckers", people driven into mass killing sprees by the pressures of overcrowded living.And, from the author who went on to write the famous polluted dystopia of The Sheep Look Up, there is little talk about the effects of overpopulation on pollution.

The plots involving the main characters are pretty straightforward.Hogan, a seeming layabout who spends all day reading, is activated as a spy.The American government wants him to discredit or stop the announced program of the Yakatang government to edit human genes.It fears the population pressures resulting from the millions, denied the right to reproduce, suddenly allowed to via gene editing.House, an angry, young black executive (and, in this future, living space is expensive enough where even corporate executives have to share apartments) gets put in charge of his company's collaboration with the American government to bootstrap the poor African country of Beninia into prosperity, protect it from its neighbors, and use it to process ore from deep sea mines.Along the way, he has to find out why the impoverished Beninia is so lacking in the social pathologies of wealthier countries.Oddly, their stories lag a bit at times when, in the second half of the book, they arrive, respectively, in Yakatang and Beninia.

Like Brunner's literary model, John Dos Passos' U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money (Library of America), the joy and interest of the book is when the focus is off the main characters.Their lives are covered in the Continuity chapters.Brunner alternates those chapters with others labeled Context (usually news reports), The Happening World (a scattershot of vignettes and quotes from books, ads, and tv as well as just brief statements of fact about the world and variouscharacters),and Tracking with Closeups (following several minor characters and their lives).To my mind, this Dos Passos technique is perhaps the most dramatic, interesting, and effective expository method a science fiction writer can use to show off his world building.

And there is an impressive amount of world building.I suspect that Brunner's serious look at the possibilities of genetic engineering (allowing for changes in terminology, they seem pretty accurate predictions) and pheromones was among the first in science fiction.The man who is credited with inventing the computer worm in the The Shockwave Rider gives us the beginnings of artificial intelligence and sort of an internet service (asking questions of an automated service via phone of an automated service).

Some of that world building, though, is bound to be dated and especially so given its origin in the 1960s.Like so many other authors of the time, he thought the future would hold many new and bizarre art forms.Instead, the computer game is really the only new art form of the last 40 years. His picture of Communist China was too kind, his opinion of the tractability of African problems too kind. He thinks too much of Marshal McLuhan.

Critic John Clute has contended every novel has three dates:when it was written, when it was set, and the year it's really about.Brunner's style makes this novel enjoyable even though it's now more a time machine back to the late sixties than any credible view of the future.But it is a glorious example of a technique still not used enough by writers.

And Brunner was smart enough to know what his novel's ultimate fate would be.There's a scene at a party where the fashions from the late sixties until the novel's year of 2010 are closely described.I like to think Brunner was brazenly rubbing it in that he wasn't trying to be a true prophet, that he was going out of his way to risk looking silly someday - and was going to proceed anyway.

Stand on Zanzibar
Was very happy with the service I received and the fast delivery. Gave the book as a gift and the receipent was very happy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

As you wish, so shall it be!
My copy is almost falling apart; I think I bought it in 1970, in high school - This is one I've loved to share, and have re-read over and over. The traveler is an avatar of reason in a universe of Chaos, and one with a mandate to grant wishes and an ultimate goal of bringing order out of chaos, but not by direct action. The stories illustrate how love and innocence often trump greed, stupidity, and unenlightened self-interest. I love this book!

Ending the age of magic
That's the job of the magical Traveler, to use his magic to end magic. That underlying paradox provides the premise of this connected set of short stories. He travels the world at intervals, surveying the realm of unreason on each trip, and taking satisfaction in watching it shrink. Where he can, he applies his subtle magic in support of Reason's expanding domain.

Brunner explores Chaos's control and degradation of humankind in several of its ways. The first story tweaks mindless religion. It might even show how one can choose atheism, after encountering a god face to face and finding him unworthy of belief. Another of these gentle stories undermines magical thinking - again, not because it fails, but because its success is not worth having. And so with the faith in luck that makes Las Vegas the holy city of Chance, and so the unwarranted sense of entitlement that demands ever-richer result for ever-poorer effort at earning it, and so for blind pursuit of power irrespective of the cost or of who pays it. Since these stories are built around layers of paradox, Brunner's mechanism is itself a paradox, the smallest of magics to achieve the largest of consequences.

Brunner was one of the best SF writers of the 70s and 80s, author of "Shockwave Rider" and other stories of chilling prescience. Among all of his writings, though, "Traveler in Black" may be his finest and most under-stated, under-rated achievements. These stories have held up well over the thirty years since they were written; since they pass in a distant place and age, there is little in them that can look dated. I recommend these stories to any thinking reader.

//wiredweird

Beautiful
I read this book when it first came out and read it again a few years back and again just recently. John Brunner is one of my favorite authors. This is at the top of my list of all the books I've read by him. A concisedescription of The Compleat Traveller In Black would be -- poetic prosethat sings an unknown myth.

Wonderful
This is one of the most wonderfully incitefull fantasy books I have ever read. It is very unfortunate that this book is out of print but if you can get your hands on it, well, do. You will probably keep them there if you like intellagent fantasy is seeped with understanding of thehuman condition.

Perhaps the best, if unknown, of modern fantasy
This is one of the most evocative, intriguing and thought provoking books in modern fantasy I have ever came across. Brunner creates a unique character in a unique world in a truely masterfull way. Recommended for all those who loved Gaiman's Sandman and similar novels, and people who like to think about life in general.

The magnetic opening line says it all: "He had many names, but one nature, and this unique nature made him subject to certain laws not binding upon ordinary persons. In a compensatory fashion, he was also free from certain other laws more commonly in force." ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (36)

THE SHEEP LOOK UP
THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN IN THE EARLY 70'S AS A NOVEL.BUT HOW VERY PROPHETIC IT IS. THE THINGS IT REFERS TO SUCH AS; SUPER POLLUTION OF OUR AIR , WATER AND ENVIRONMENT IN GENERAL AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPERBUGS THAT ARE ANTIBITIC RESISTANT.THIS AUTHOR WAS REALLY SPOT ON.THE VENDOR I ORDER FROM HAD THE BOOK IN MY HANDS IN A MARVELOUSLY SHORT TIME.WELL DONE AMAZON AFFILIATE, WELL DONE. THOROUGHLY SATISFIED WITH THIS PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.

The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner
First read Brunner's The Sheep Look Up when it came out in 1972.It was cutting edge back then when the world he wrote about was only a prediction of what we may be faced with.Today, nearly 40 years later...in only 40 years...we stand at the precipice of Brunner's "future" world where everything from the food we eat to the air we breathe is making us sick and our world "leaders" are anything but.An excellent read; more timely now than when it was first written.

Read this book!
I am SO glad this book is available again! Years ago I found it in a second hand shop and since then I have been looking for it everywhere, in order to be able to give it to other readers.

When you start reading, please be patient. The first 60 pages or so, you probably won't understand what it's all about. Then, suddenly, you will realize you are 'in' the story, and that the prime character is... humankind as a whole. This is rather shocking, because individuals you thought to be very important may die or vanish, and others may fill their niches, just as in real life. And, just as in real life, don't expect a happy end. Although the details may be dated, the overall story is still as valid as ever.

This is one of the most intelligent books I ever read. I welcome it back, and will order several specimen at once!

A powerful vision of an unlikely future.Read it with relief and amusement.
Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this book.The fast-paced and unmerciful brutality of the story brings the horrible future to life in a frankly scary way.The choppy an abbreviated structure of the book provides a sense of panic as far too much is happening much too fast, just as Brunner intended.While the characters are empty shells, their horrifying experiences give this story the power to scare.This is the first Brunner book I've read, and I have to say I was impressed by his style and power.I hope to check out his other work sometime soon.

As I made my way through this book, most of what I felt was relief and amusement.Relief that this vision (or anything close to it) has not come true.Think about the very worst possible ecological and environmental situation the world could be in, and the vision Brunner presents here is probably worse than that.Air and water are poison, disease is the norm, Earth is unstable, super-pests have us confounded, and society has regressed.Thank God, none of these things have come true.I felt amusement because Brunner (and many people of the time) really did believe that this was the future.And, they saw this future coming before 1980!Almost 40 years after this book was written, it is fair to say that we have made positive progress.While I understand that the dawning of realization about ecology and environmentalism that occurred in the 60's and 70's profoundly impacted many people, I can't help feeling somewhat amused by the mortal fear and hysteria which people had for the future.Brunner and many of of his readers would have never believed that the world would be as beautiful today as it is.

What really surprised me was looking through the other Amazon reviews before I got ready to write my own.Nearly everyone seems to think Brunner's vision has come true or is just about to.Statements like:

"I think we're doomed"

"..much scarier because it is closer to the way it really is. Read it and weep."

"All of these ... visions of the future have come true."

"Scariest ... predictions about the future environment are correct."

"It is still coming"

Is it just that the people who tend to read this book are still convinced that the world is crumbling around them?Are these people who just cannot accept that positive gains have been made?Do they not believe that the air is cleaner now than when this book was written?Or that more attention and awareness of the environment are prevalent around the world than ever before?Or that resources and protections are being placed (with great success) on endangered animals that nearly went extinct in the 70's but are now on the road to recovery?Or that we now live in a more affluent society, with more people being more successful than ever before?Or any number of ways that life is better now than when this book was written?I suspect that most of these people have lived their lives with the constant feeling of impending doom.Reading books like this only help them justify their impulses of fear.

I am not trying to say that we shouldn't continue to be concerned about the environment or about the future of mankind on Earth, but at least let's acknowledge than in many respects, things are looking up.Thank God they haven't turned out the way Brunner predicted in this book!I encourage people to read this book.It is an exciting and scary story that is well told in a vivid way.And keep in mind that while it may come across as seeming ridiculous now, it was written as (and taken as) a very serious warning to the world.Might help give you some insight into the thinking of radical environmentalists even today.The future used to scare the [poop] out of some people, and visions like this help us see why.

The version of this book I read (published 2004) contained an afterward by a noted environmentalist.It followed along the same lines of most of the Amazon reviews here, supporting the myth that Brunner's vision has come true.It also celebrated the encouragement this book has given the more radical wings of the environmentalist movement (think planting bombs in Hummer dealerships), and gleefully noted the similarity (in his mind) between our former President Bush and the figurehead Prexy.Finally, it lambasted the field of crop genetic engineering with a fear mongering tirade sure to turn off anyone with real knowledge of the field.A poor choice for an afterward, left a very negative impression on me, and partially ruined this otherwise enjoyable book.

fantabulous book, a must read for modern times
Anybody living today can relate to this book.All of John Brunner's work is amazing but this one is particularly on point.I read it a number of years ago and reread it about every three to five years.It does not get less true over time.
highly recommend ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

An entertainingly fresh contribution to the time travel genre
Don Miguel Navarro is a man with a most unusual job.As a Licentiate of the Society of Time, he is a time traveling agent for a Spanish Empire that continues to thrive four hundred years after the Armada successfully conquered England in 1588.Tasked with observing the past, he is always on the lookout for improper uses of time travel lest it bring about changes to the present.A casual encounter at a party results in just such a discovery, one that leads Don Miguel to a sinister conspiracy that threatens to alter history and undo the entire empire itself unless it is stopped.

John Brunner's novel is a cut above most of its counterparts.A collection of three interlocking tales that were originally published as separate short stories, together they offer a series of entertaining adventures in an imaginative setting.His Spanish Empire is one not much more advanced technologically than its 16th century predecessor, with time travel apparently more an accident of alchemy than science.Such a premise allows Brunner to offer some fresh approaches to the concept, most notably in the notion of the careful management of time travel by religious authorities.This serves as a springboard for some interesting metaphysical observations that, when combined with Brunner's entertaining writing style, makes for a time travel novel that any fan of the genre will enjoy.

Time Travel Conundrum
The concept of time travel, one of the most conventional of science fiction themes, has been used and abused by numerous authors over many years. Truthfully I find these stories very challenging to take seriously. This book is no exception but the author's formidable knowledge of history, geography and religion does keeps the action moving along quite agreeably so you don't mull over the inherent absurdity of time travel and all it's related conundrums.

Author Brunner gives time travel an interesting twist in these three related and connected stories. The Spanish Armada defeated the English fleet in 1588 resulting in the conquest England. Now fast forward 400 years we have North America as a Spanish possession being exploited for natural resources and Catholic Dons ruling England. Somewhat incomprehensible with the discovery of time-travel is that no technology has evolved from what existed in the 16th Century. Travel is by horse drawn coaches and telecommunications are non-existent.

Brunner's attention-grabbing `alternate history" concept, participation by priests and Popes in the administration of the Society of Time and a sub-plot involving American Indian tribes did kept my interest on a superficial level.

Just to keep the record straight you should know the evolution of this title because it gives an insight into how authors can "fix-up" their stories for future sales. On the copywrite page to this book we are informed that shorter and substantially different versions of the three sections of this novel were published as three separate stories in British SF magazines. Then the three sections, with numerous minor alterations were published in 1962 by Ace as part of a "double novel" under the current title Time Without Number. The 1969 version, the edition reviewed, had been completely revised and considerable expanded. The page count the 1962 Ace edition was 139 and the 1969 Ace edition 156. This is not uncommon for Brunner. Many of his earlier books are expanded from magazine stories and from prior editions.

An excellent alternative reality and science novel
A classic novel from Brunner, dating from the 60s. This is an interesting tale that starts in 'modern' Spain, where the Reconquista and the Siglo de Oro never ended with Spain's bankruptcy and fall from world domination. Science has taken a completely different path, and technology revolves around time travel. The protagonist is a member of the time police. He is sent to the Americas to investigate disturbing suspicions that renegade time machines are being built and used to attack the Monarchy.

For as old as the novel is, it doesn't feel very dated. The fact that elements of history and alternate reality are thrown into the mix certainly helps. But, the story moves along quickly, the investigation is interesting, and the world that Brunner created is well-imagined. I think this novel stands up very well to many of the more well-known 'classics' from the time period.

Time travel and the church
Set in an alternate reality, where the Spanish Empire and the CatholicChurch run most of the world, this story follows a member of the timepolice. A great adventure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting and good, but not great
I read this book in two nights or so, and I thought this book is interesting, but not among the greatest. It must be said that the story is original.
You see, in the future the human civilization decays, there are only few cities left and everyone is apathic (regarding this last part - maybe we are in that future). An astronomer finds that an asteroid will hit the Earth and wipe off the civilization. No one would listen to him, so he leaves looking for people to help, accepting with him everyone that likes to come. After some adventures he finds out that the ancestors were very... brilliant. I won't say more, just that the message is optimistic: it only takes one man to make a difference.

A memorable journey
There are few books that I have kept nearby for as long as I have this novel.First read as a teen-ager in the late 70's, John Brunner's literary style and vivid discription embedded in me a love for a well-written jaunt through fantastic futures.A gem, a joy, this book will stay with me to enjoy over and over again for many years to come.

Worth the effort
Set in the very distant future, this book showcases the triumph of the human spirit even in the face of universal apathy.

Mr. Brunner's eclectic British compositional style (as evidenced by the opening sentence of thenovel) makes this a challenging read, but the atmosphere and pace of thebook make it both interesting and rewarding. Nice ending.

Wandering - but captivating
Seeing this book in a used bookstore, I snapped it up, and was not dissapointed.

The golden age of humanity has passed, leaving behind a self maintinging organic city where the story picks up.A hobbyist astronomer discovers a meteor headed for earth.He tries in vain to warn people but everyone is too self-centered or apathetic to bother paying attention.

So he sets off into the world searching for answers, and discovers not everyone has well cultured plants to live in.Brunner leads us through a strange and greately varied earth of the distant future.

Brunner's unique style grabs ahold and refuses to let go until the end of the last page. ... Read more

Product Description
A Science Fiction Book Club Selection

"When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since."

-- Alvin Toffler

Author of Future Shock

He Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist!

Nickie Haflinger had lived a score of lifetimes...but technically he didn't exist. He was a fugitive from Tarnover, the high-powered government think tank that had educated him. First he had broken his identity code -- then he escaped.

Now he had to find a way to restore sanity and personal freedom to the computerized masses and to save a world tottering on the brink of disaster.

He didn't care how he did it...but the government did. That's when his Tarnover teachers got him back in their labs...and Nickie Haflinger was set up for a whole new education!Amazon.com Review
This book has always been popular with the techy-geeky crowd,but, since it was first published in the '70s, it missed out on thecyberpunk revolution of the '80s. It's too bad, because this is acompelling story of a future world tied together by a universal datanetwork, a world that could be our tomorrow. It's a tense place filledwith information overload and corporate domination, and nearlyeverything is known about everybody. Except Nickie Haflinger, aprodigy whose talents allow him to switch identities with a phonecall. Nickie plans to change the world, if only he can keep fromgetting caught. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Dystopian and Philosophical
Shockwave Rider uses a fictional vision of the society constructed in Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, basically 'family' is a legacy concept and the majority of people are 'plug and play' in terms of work, personal relationships, and living arrangements.The novel only follows the intellectual elite, as Toffler never really covered what would happen to lower classes.Brunner puts them into violent gangs.

The first half of the novel is slow (two stars), as Brunner mangles the plotline into a series of flashbacks, introduced by ethical policy arguments between Nick Halfinger and his sage-like inquisitor, which are not always chronologically connected.While it does highlight the 'plug-in and live' theme of the society, it also is annoying to read for a coherent story.The early book introduces our main character, the Shockwave Rider.'Nick' is a man without an identity who has hacked his current system, so he can ride the 'Transition Shock' of his future society into as many system-assigned new identities as he wants.He is a chameleon-like genius, changing identities searching for the meaning he didn't find while being raised by government creche for brilliant minds.

In the second part of the novel, our unflinchingly rational main character finds love.This leads him into changing his pattern and getting caught (where the flashbacking comes from).The latter half, especially towards the end, is much more interesting (four and a half stars) as all the elements of the book merge, leading to an interesting climax that attempts to redefine the entire Dystopian society into a more Utopian ideal.

What makes the book wild is the integrated use of today's technology.I can see calling it 'cyberpunk' when I think it isn't (though you probably will).This is more like a 70's version of a 2010 bond movie, and what it reminded me of was Jason Bourne The Bourne Identity: A Novel.That whole 'one-supremely competent man vs. the system' vibe.

Prediction wise, Toffler predicted 'neural devices that increase sensitivity' and most of the described society.Brunner does have an internet with cloud computing and bot-net like worms.The really important parts of technology were spot-on for 1975, and that's why I bump my final rating up to the 'I liked it' four stars despite my distaste for the early novel.Like other good philosophic novels, I found positions I both agreed and disagreed with, and those which were insightful.

Finally for additional reviews look here: The Shockwave Rider.This is the version I own, so I reviewed this one.

Surprising
This is the most offensively bad book I have read in recent memory.

I wanted to like it. I really did. Some of the fictional science themes hit points decades before their time and some of the asides did not revel in exacting pointlessness. However, the dialogue fails, almost taking pains to avoid any resemblance to actual human speech. Characters behave inconsistently. The science, even for the seventies, is very, painfully, soft. An undercurrent of pretentious political activism -- something akin to the inane mutterings of a burned out, hippie anarchist -- runs through most of the book, making for an unpleasant read.

Considering the author's apparent notoriety and the book's apparent popularity, my incredibly negative experience really surprises me. As I am clearly in the minority, you can only trust my opinion so much, but please consider this. No book before or since came so close to convincing me that justification for the burning of books for their content exists.

Not Free SF Reader
Shockwaver Rider is a cyberpunk precursor style of book, written before there were even personal computers, Brunner comes up with a very extensive multi-user system that everyone is connected to.

That is obviously open to abuse, and a talented rebel sets out to do something about what is happening.

Excellent, but it could have been more
First cyberpunk!Got the internet's effect on people right in 1975!Got the "wisdom of crowds" right in '75!And, of course, future shock and Brunner's style of short "chapters" tangental to the plot to flesh out the world.There is a lot of good stuff to think about here.

But, its all exposition.Characters talking about how they think the world should be run.Events happen, many integral to the plot, but they are all basically resolved in a section break then characters talk about the results.Don't get me wrong, I really like the book and think it is worth a read for almost everyone.I just don't think its a 5.

The message I take away is "give people information and let them make their own decisions".But, at the same time, the story tells us that it takes very exceptional people -- one virtually unique -- to make that happen.Which leaves me with the worry that if people were to start making the wrong choices -- as the bulk of society has in the story -- would the "enlightened elite" let them keep doing it? No easy answers.

Grand-daddy of all cyberpunk
I remember buying all Brunner novels I could find as he wrote them back in the 20th C. His were among the few science fiction novels that were in the book racks at the grocery, back in the late 70's and early 80's.I guess I was about 14 or so when I got my little paws on this one.I was enticed and excited, much as I was by other sci-fi novels back then, but it was only when I began reading Gibson and Walter John many years later that I began to recall ... dated, of course, and Brunner's characters are all very much 1950-70's type characters, very neurotic and uptight.(People are not so much like that any more, of course ;-).They are now just whacked, or stupid.)

And it is amusing to see Brunner's future world where everybody logs into a massive mainframe for the entire continent.It's amusing to think maybe we could have gone that route technologically; a central monolithic network instead of a zillion anarchistic distributed networks.Then perhaps Windows would be the "good guys" and Nix would be the "Evil Empire!"

In this techno-dystopian novel, it seems the wrong people have been given root privileges. And although the word "hacker" had not been invented yet, our protagonist is indeed an anti-social computer whiz/underachiever, who devises a virus that ... well, enough spoiling for today.Read teh book!

And if you enjoyed this, consider looking at the "Future Shock" trilogy by Alvin Toffler, a major inspiration to Brunner, both intellectually and stylistically, and Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up," his other greatest novel -- one of very many, as Brunner was very prolific. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

From the back cover
"John Hart's careful unraveling of the relationship between Barth and Brunner performs two invaluable scholarly functions.It explores the reasons for their break in careful detail, and, while doing so, gives real insight into the deep theological drives and concerns of two apparently similar, but actually very different, thinkers."(Colin Gunton, King's College, London)

"Barth's 'No!' to Emil Brunner is well known, but the roots of it are little understood.It emerged from a relationship of nearly twenty years, on Brunner's side anxious for affirmation, on Barth's more and more wary.Brunner's enthusiasm for Moral Rearmament proved the last straw.Mining hitherto unpublished archive material, John Hart provides a fascinating analysis of the relationship of these two theologians, from the war years to their final break in 1934.His study throws light on the theology of the whole period."(Timothy Gorringe, University of Exeter) ... Read more

Product Description
This is a collection of stories of the Traveller in Black. It is set in a world where chaos rules. One man - the man with many names, but one nature - is charged with creating order out of the warring forces of nature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A fantasy classic set in the morning of the world
Although I've read some of Brunner's SF, I had not heard of this book until I started playing the White Wolf RPG game Exalted. That book lists The Compleat Traveller in Black as an inspiration, and so, even though it is out of print, I was inspired to eventually find a copy of this book and read it.

It feels very much like some of Moorcock's Melnibonean work.The world is young, and still in many ways in the grip of the elder era of Chaos. The laws of science, logic and reason are still not in full evidence, with the laws of magic and chaos still trying to hold their ground.

Enter into this realm the Traveller in Black. The Compleat Traveller in Black collects a number of stories Brunner wrote about a mysterious figure who works for Order and reason.In Moorcock terms, he is a definite champion for Law.The traveler encounters forces of elemental chaos, and by actions both subtle and gross, by himself and through sometimes unwitting accomplices,works to impose reason on the world. He often does this by granting wishes. One to a customer, but the results are not often what the wisher expects. Sometimes, not even the Traveler himself is fully aware of the consequences of the wishes...

The stories have a unity of voice and vision even though they were written over a period of twenty years. The traveler is a character difficult to get to know, but we get an interesting portrait of him and the world he is helping fashion. We see through the stories how his actions shape the world around him, diminishing its magic, increasing its stability.And indeed, in the end, he creates a world that not only does not need him, but is positively opposed to his further existence.

I found this an interesting counterpoint to Vance's Dying Earth, set at the opposite end of time. I think the Dying Earth is a better realized milieu, overall, but certainly, many fantasy fans will enjoy this look at the morning of the world by Brunner.

Ending the age of magic
That's the job of the magical Traveller, to use his magic to end magic. That underlying paradox provides the premise of this connected set of short stories. He travels the world at intervals, surveying the realm of unreason on each trip, and taking satisfaction in watching it shrink. Where he can, he applies his subtle magic in support of Reason's expanding domain.

Brunner explores Chaos's control and degradation of humankind in several of its ways. The first story tweaks mindless religion. It might even show how one can choose atheism, after encountering a god face to face and finding him unworthy of belief. Another of these gentle stories undermines magical thinking - again, not because it fails, but because its success is not worth having. And so with the faith in luck that makes Las Vegas the holy city of Chance, and so the unwarranted sense of entitlement that demands ever-richer result for ever-poorer effort at earning it, and so for blind pursuit of power irrespective of the cost or of who pays it. Since these stories are built around layers of paradox, Brunner's mechanism is itself a paradox, the smallest of magics to achieve the largest of consequences.

Brunner was one of the best SF writers of the 70s and 80s, author of "Shockwave Rider" and other stories of chilling prescience. Among all of his writings, though, "Traveller in Black" may be his finest and most under-stated, under-rated achievements. These stories have held up well over the thirty years since they were written; since they pass in a distant place and age, there is little in them that can look dated. I recommend these stories to any thinking reader.

//wiredweird

An all-time favorite.
Very sadly long out of print, it's well worth it to track a copy down... An overlooked classic.

The existential classic...
If you know John Brunner's other work, well, this isn't like that. Traveller in Black is a collection of several mid-length stories that fit together in a progression. The nameless eponymous traveller, an agent of order, goes about imprisoning various chaotic entities and granting certain wishes. This works on several levels to give you allegories for the unexamined life, as well as a gripping adventure yarn.

In some ways, this book is a bookend to Larry Niven's "The Magic Goes Away" (and various sequels, etc.). The flavor and style is similar, although this book is very different. In any event, this is one of those touchstone books of fantasy: you'll see where other writers (including Niven's works cited above!) have "borrowed" some of the dazzling images in Brunner's classic. This gem is a great read and I recommend it highly.

This is the true essence of mysticism
The book was extemely intresting in everyway.I think I would recommendit to anyone who wishes to "think" more about the world aroundthem. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on George Berkeley's concept of whether a tree falls if nobody hears it, John Brunner's story explores whether a scientific discovery happens if nobody learns of it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Cumulative alien hypotheses; humanity endures
Though this may be my ninth Brunner novel to date, the author still manages to surprise me with his unending repertoire of imagination, science and, most surprisingly, humanity. A science fiction novel with the title `Total Eclipse' doesn't exactly ring a novelty bell of sorts, but beyond the so-so peel hides a surprisingly rich fruit.

`Sigma Draconis, nineteen light-years from Earth, had once harbored a world with a high civilization. But that world had died and only certain mysterious artifacts remained - wonderful creations but just one of each kind. By the year 2028, humanity was facing its own final crisis. And the starship STELLARIS was sent to find out the cause of that neighboring race's extinction. If they could discover why, it might mean saving our own world from a similar disaster.'

The only habitable planet within reach of Earth happens to also be home to a myriad scattering of similar structures and cloned crystal memory devices. With a deluge of possible hypotheses of the de-evolution of the mollusk-like species or of the fatal flaw of the same peoples, the thirty-some team of experts try to understand the undoing of an entire species. Each solution is ingenious, each explanation is conceivable.

Just when the plot becomes to feel rather tedious with the unrelenting speculative answers, Brunner takes it up a notch a pulls in a rather ominous mood thereby changing the characters' outlook and even the ominous conclusion to the novel. The eleventh-hour plot is wrenched with emotional onuses which is unlike many of Brunner novels which tend to have a straight forward conclusion.

Total Eclipse has nothing to do with a solar eclipse at all, but the reader must read into the plot unreeling and discover what the title means to the novel and to humanity in general.

Survival on an alien planet
What a great story.These scientist are left to solve the mystery of a dead civilization and in the end they do, but for what.They are stranded and no one knows what they learned along with what lesson they learned about greed.They try and establish a life for themselves on this world but fate has another plan.And in the end their attempt at a new civilization on this planet is thwarted by, perhaps, the greed of man on their own home world.

greed is the universal killer
This novel was well written, in the style usually favored by Mr. Brunner. There is almost no description of the surroundings or the background of the characters, except Ian, so that is why the novel is about 200 pages.
The most interesting precept in this book is that an human could get to think like an alien under the right circumstances. This passage is very well done.
They finally understand how a civilization was wiped out and you will see that this future could happen to us if we are not vigilant toward the biogeneticians.
Greed is a part of our nature, so we must put every effort in our reasonning.

A Haunting Tale
John Brunner weaves a haunting tale of how thirty people attack the nearly insuperable very good copy of this rare booktask of unriddling the mysteries of a long-buried culture. Was it a fatal virus, an internecine war, a religion of lunatic brutality, or a deleterious mutation that destroyed an entire civilization? And when the riddle is finally unravelled will it provide a solution to human problems? Will the answer reach Earth in time?

In the year 2020, an international space team, exploring Sigma Draconis, nineteen light years from earth, discovers the remains of a highly advanced society that has left behind as its most spectacular artifact the largest telescope imaginable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Average Collection
John Brunner has got the imagination, I'll grant him that much.What he doesn't have is the writing skill."Foreign Constellations" collects eight of his best-known stories from the 70's, published in various magazines but not previously appearing in book form.His subjects range from the near future to the far far future, and from mass famine to wacky conspiracy theories to child raising.But while he sees intriguing possibilities, he rarely pursues them far enough.

In "The Easy Way Out", a spaceship crash on a distant planet leaves only two survivors, a doctor and a spoiled rich boy.One of them holds the titular piece of technology, a device which allows the user to escape into an ideal virtual reality world, but eventually kills them.Should they turn on the device and enjoy a few last hours of perfect living, or leave it off a hope for the small chance of rescue?An interesting dilemma to be sure, but the story arc doesn't really have much to say about it beyond the obvious.Brunner's writing could define the word utilitarian:

"His heart sank.Of all the people aboard, he would have chosen this man last to be his companion after the crash: Andrew Solichuk, who had never tired of informing anyone and everyone of how wealthy and influential his family was back on Earth and had complained endlessly about the food, the lack of comfort and amenities, the tase of the air, and the company he had to endure." (p. 31)It gets the point across, but it sure doesn't sparkle or make you want to sing the praises of Brunner's wordsmithing.

The later stories in this collection are the better ones.My favorite would have to be "What Friends Are For".A futuristic couple's child runs out of control due to bad parenting.The state strongarms them into hiring a bioengineered alien "Friend" to take over child-raising duties.But is the Friend really there to fix the kid or to fix the parents?Again the writing isn't great, but the concept at least is clever. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Far from classic
Two powerful interstellar magnates vie for control of human-controlled space in this early (1959) John Brunner novel.This is the only novel of Brunner's that I've read, but I have to assume that he improved considerably later since he produced two very highly regarded novels, "The Sheep Look Up" and "Stand on Zanzibar."This book is a bit of fluff that displays all of the worst traits of Golden Age science fiction--a naïve faith in the ability of extraordinary individuals (invariably scientists) to engineer the optimum human destiny, and a maddening tendency toward endless exposition delivered through interminable conversations.The hero, Counce, subjects people to horrendous fates, including starvation and torture, all in the name of a greater good--and they love him for it later.I don't think this novel has ever been reprinted (I came across it in a used book store), and I can understand why. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Hmmm???
I agree with all of the other reviewers main points. This book has an interesting concept, it is well written, and I found myself thoroughly involved with the character of the doctor. But the ending... I liked the twist, but the final events had the effect of ruining the tale for me. Overall this is an interesting earthly sci-fi tale that punishes you for caring about the characters.

Well worth reading - in spite of the final few pages
Brunner is an excellent writer - realistic settings, well described, believable characters, interesting ideas. In this novel, however, the plot does not work. As a reader, one has the impression that after 200-odd carefully written, comparatively slow moving pages, the author felt, for whatever reason, that he should come to an end. He abruptly did so, in a quite unconvincing way. Thus, forget about the final few pages. The rest of the novel is well worth reading.

Early Brunner - The framework for other stories
I just found an old copy of this book and being a Brunner fan I had to read it.The story itself is an interesting one, as a psycologist has to question everything he has learned, including his own sanity to work out the puzzle of a woman who does not fit anywhere.

The story rambles along, I found it a bit slow.What was interesting is that it is like a testing ground for other Brunner novels.I can see shades of _Times without a number_ and _Children of the Thunder_ in this book.I am not sure which books came first, but the other two carry their ideas across better.

Once again, Brunner is guilty of pulling the rabbit out of the hat with his endings. The ending is not so much of a twist but more a totally different road!

Not Brunner at his best, but a good one to get if you like Brunner's stories, similar to the early pencil sketches of a painter.

A dark, psychological work - utilizes Brunner's strengths.
Brunner has always tended to be the Jeremiah of the field, but (for whatever reason) often tempers his novels with an (often contrived) upbeat ending. Not here. _Quicksand_ evokes the tone of a Philip K. Dick work, but is driven home with the sharp focus that makes Brunner such a pleasure to read. It's a shame this one is hard to find - it exceeds _Stand on Zanzibar_ in many aspects. And no, you CAN"T have my copy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Scarily Predictive
I just picked up this book from the library; even though it was written in 1978, and is set in the early 1980s, it rings scarily true for 2010."Godheads" are right-wing religious zealots prohibiting homosexuality, amoral attitudes, and forward-thinking teachings.The governmental infrastructure has fallen into disrepair, food shortages are everywhere, WWIII threatens, and 2 million jobless roam England.What happens when a newly developed virus that gives man the ability to remember EVERYTHING and put it into a global perspective is released into the public?

"Stone" is a quick read but asks some pretty deep questions.The book is written in the form of vignettes about different characters; there are quite a few characters, so it's sort of hard to keep them all straight when the vignettes jump from one to another.All in all, a good read. ... Read more