Product Description
Science Fiction. Built in the heart of the jungle, The City was an architect's masterpiece - and the scene of a flesh-and-blood game of chess where the unwitting pawns were real people! 319 pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Amazing Concept - what happened?
Imagine a universe where art has evolved to the point where it utilizes images, computers, mythology, drugs, history etc that a man can single handily bring about a monumental shift in a culture's society.Even occasionally bringing about a past "culture/realization of past" that had long since dissipated on a planet.All this, as one might imagine, for a gigantic price.

John Brunner (of Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, and The Jagged Orbit fame) weaves (or rather lumps together) a narrative of the arrival of Gregory Chart "who wished to stage the Golden Age of Yan".Unlike Chart's other monumental "art/culture changing" projects, this expedition is his first for an alien species.The Yanfolk are boring.Humans are interested in the Yanfolk because humans can have "special" relations with them (i.e. humans are only interested in compatible Yanish pleasure organs and Yanish drugs).Humans call them apes throughout the book.Even outwardly sympathetic humans call them apes.Even humans who translate their epics and claim to appreciate their culture call them apes.The Humans realize what Chart is up to while Yanfolk what Chart to stay to bring about their Golden Age.The problems with this novel are manifold and manifest.Too many viewpoints bog down any character development (unlike Stand On Zanzibar where Brunner is conscientiously making a non-novel).The Yanfolk are boring (the humans only like them because of the stated reason above).Oh, and I forgot, the humans don't need space ships any more.To travel from planet to planet they hop on special surf boards after being brainwashed with the planet coordinates and zip from place to place.

Read Brunner's masterpieces.Stay away from this drivel.The concept is fascinating but the flaws make this laughably bad.1.5/5

Not Free SF Reader
Big Art reaction time.


A leading and not exactly shy and retiring artiste decides that he would like to put on a show on the planet Yan.

This joint is notable for the structures there that are being studied, and that our artiste protagonist is interested in.

No-one thought to ask the locals, who up until now haven't minded the small presence on their planet.

... Read more

Product Description
First book publication of "The Altar on Asconel," which is the fourth book in Brunner's "Interstellar Empire" sequence. It was first serialized in the April and May 1965 issues of "Worlds of If," and later reprinted by DAW Books in an omnibus edition, "Interstellar Empire" (1976). "Android Avenger" is the first edition of White's second novel. ... Read more

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The ship's millenia-long mission was to preserve humanity. But humanity was becoming more alien, and the ship--impossibly--more human... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Viscous talent; impressive display
This is the eighth Brunner novel I've read and it's perhaps the most mature novel he has written. A Maze of Stars is an exhibition for Brunner's talent at developing extrasolar planets (see Bedlam Planet and Polymath) as well as creating distinctive cultures (see Crucible of Time and The Sheep Look Up). The maturity is revealed through his use of vocabulary with rarely read words such as `munificence,' `adumbrated,' `insalubrious,' and `fecundity' (two of which I had to look up myself).

Brunner impresses the reader by creating twenty (I counted) unique planets with twenty unique environments and cultures. Whether it is fauna, atmosphere mixtures, soil composition or living conditions, Brunner covers so many planetary circumstances that there is little else left to cover: de-evolved barbaric humans, spaceship-building humans and dwindling housebound humans are just some examples. Add to this a fluid cast of humans among the evolving putty-like intelligence of The Ship.

The Ship, as it is known in concurrent histories, visits each of the hundreds of seeded planets during a cyclic course. With these periodic sojourns, The Ship has the choice to retrieve a human or humans who are in peril, who may also ride with The Ship until another suitable planet has been selected. The Ship, intelligent and exploring human emotions, grows attached to the humans it has selected to come aboard and each visit enriching its human sentiment.

There's a lot packed into this 326 page novel, which reads much like a series of short stories glued together through the medium of The Ship. The reading is mostly dry with very little atmospheric inflections- short on humor but heavy on insight. The philosophy Brunner demonstrates in A Maze of Stars is isn't exactly thick but it is sporadic and intuitive. Regular readers of Brunner won't be disappointed nor will first time readers as this novel will leave a fatty yet flavorful residue of talent on your literate tongue.

Rewarding reading - one of Brunner's best novels
A Maze of Stars, published in 1991, was the next to last of the 53 science fiction novels written by John Brunner 1934-95. Having read most of his novels I can opine that it is one of his best space-exploration themed stories. The fact is that most of Brunner's novels utilize the subject matter of planetary exploration as a backdrop for his tales. Surprisingly after plowing the same field many times Brunner, near the end of his life and career, was able to invigorate this theme with a unique perspective, sympathetic characters and fascinating planetary societies. To be candid I sometimes found his earlier works unimagitive and generic of the type published by other authors. I was very gratified that he was able to infuse so much imaginative creativity into this novel.

The main character is the Ship. So large it cannot land, the Ship was designed to travel the "Arm of Stars" (presumably an spiral arm of our galaxy) and seed humanity on planets likely to support life. When the story begins we are informed that six hundred planets have been seeded with human stock over a five hundred year voyage. The Ship, as part of its program, surreptitiously revisits the seeded planets to observe how the experiment is progressing.

Brunner employed a non-liner narrative method in this novel. Many short narratives describing the successes or failures of the humans "seeded" by the Ship take up the story line.The narratives are small gems in themselves. In a few pages Brunner details credible societies, emotions and ecological challenges and as sense of "otherworldliness'" that were lacking in many of his other full-length novels. The Ship cements theses story segments with observations and commentary while all along it is slowly questioning its ultimate goals. During the voyage the Ship rescues three different individuals for relocation to another world. As expected these folks dialog with the Ship and we learn some of the methodology used by the Ship to achieve its goals.

Brunner avoids subjecting us to the easy crutch employed by most science fiction authors: intelligent, sentential, aliens good, evil or indifferent. You wont find any in this book. Humanity is alone and must contend with alien microbes, chemistry, flora and fauna but no BEM's. (Bug eyed monsters)

I highly recommend this book because for this reader it rekindled the "sense of wonder and adventure" that is one of the private pleasures of reading.

Arm of Stars need an overseer, The Ship
A vast vessel, the Ship, is visiting inconspicuously in seemingly random order its 600 seeded colonies of human stock after 500 years from its initial voyage. On the odyssey, the Ship discerns people at risk of their lives and save them with their consent. It does not like to be alone. Consequently each human passenger evokes a processes that makes the Ship dig deep into its memory banks to reveal more about its mission; which keeps evading and being barred from closer study. The Ship's lack of control or knowledge over its course may be due to programming error or malfunction by space particle: it doesn't comprehend that for sure. At each planetary inspection stop the reader gets a peek at how humankind has adapted, merged or blent in with the organisms.

This is very thoughtful, considerative, musing book: a contemplative Ship who doesn't know its exact mission parameters no more, the human companions which help it to develop concepts of black humor, pity, terror and sadness and termination of existence, the death. This is an intellectual book to the point that the Ship's thinking is obscure and vague to keep the interest only for the first 30% of the pages. The momentum towards to the end is lacking because the stops and human rescues become predictable. There is no grand finale, but a more like a exhalation of a steady breath.

Three (3) stars. The idea of stops with self aware ship that learns human mannerism and the ending where the builders' complacent plans are exposed, is interesting. But not that interesting. The sensation is like being attended to a retrospective Sundance cinema festival. The book is like a independent showcase of wildflower that the mind remembers after years go by. Yet, recommended only for those that can hold sustained intellectual exertion in spite of thoughts of "I want to quit".

In Retrospect...
I read this book in 1991 and recently found myself hunting for it to re-read (yes, 17 years later). That's how compelling a story collection it is. It is in fact a collection, held together in a common framework by the Ship's journeys and at times somewhat ponderous ruminations. Yet there's a vividkaleidoscope of descriptions of what humankind might become, from the surprising timidity of the settlers of the outermost worlds to the many bizarre biological adaptations of humans in different local environments.

Those looking for an action-packed space western should look elsewhere. Those looking for something much more thoughtful would be advised to give this book a read or two.Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device

Disappointing
One of the last books written by the great SciFi master John Brunner but alas not a good one. According to the rule SciFi writers tend to ruminate when getting old, JB gets ideas across not in actions as he used to but in long debates. A lot of talks I ended up skipping. A confusing story encompassing too many themes with an unsatisfactory ending. ... Read more

Product Description
"Secret Agent of Terra" is the first book in Brunner's "Zarathustra Refugee Planets" series. The other books are "Castaways' World" (1963) and "The Repairmen of Cyclops" (1965). Brunner later reworked the story for his 1969 novel "The Avengers of Carrig." Chandler's "The Rim of Space" is the first novel in his 'Rim World" series. It was followed by five more titles. The book also features his character "John Grimes." ... Read more

Product Description
ACE DOUBLE BOOK TWO Science Fiction Fantasy books The Beasts of Kohl The return of Kohl and Rang to earth after many thousands of years of space travel. A Planet of Your Own Kynance Foy her travels from Earth to Planet Zygra to work as Planetary Supervisor a simple job that involved much more ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

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 ... Read more