John Brunner

Mangara

Mangara

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Hello all.

Just thought I'd post a thread on the Author I'm currently reading and enjoying.

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24th Sept 1934-25th Aug 1995

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Stand on Zanzibar : A SF Masterwork, Hugo/BSFA award winner.

Norman Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically---it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm. But Hogan is a spy, and he's about to discover a breakthrough in genetic engineering that will change the world...and kill him. These two men's lives weave through one of science fiction's most praised novels. Written in a way that echoes John Dos Passos' U.S.A. Trilogy, "Stand on Zanzibar "is a cross-section of a world overpopulated by the billions. Where society is squeezed into hive-living madness by god-like mega computers, mass-marketed psychedelic drugs, and mundane uses of genetic engineering. Though written in 1968, it speaks of 2010, and is frighteningly prescient and intensely powerful.


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An enduring classic, this book offers a dramatic and prophetic look at the potential consequences of the escalating destruction of Earth. In this nightmare society, air pollution is so bad that gas masks are commonplace. Infant mortality is up, and everyone seems to suffer from some form of ailment. The water is polluted, and only the poor drink from the tap. The government is ineffectual, and corporate interests scramble to make a profit from water purifiers, gas masks, and organic foods. Environmentalist Austin Train is on the run. The Trainites, environmental activists and sometime terrorists, want him to lead their movement. The government wants him in jail, or preferably, executed. The media wants a circus. Everyone has a plan for Train, but Train has a plan of his own.

So has anyone read any of his work?

Anyone know of similar writers? I really enjoy his style, he intermingles his novels with newspaper reports, TV shows, poetry and various other forms of media.

Anyone read any of his other novels and have any to recommend?
 
I read The Jagged Orbit, The Long Result, something else that I can't remember the name of, and To Conquer Chaos. Of those, I only liked the last. It was the first that I read, so I found the others something of a disappointment, and eventually gave up. In all fairness to Brunner, however, I read those in high school when I was intensely into hard-core space opera and found his critiques of society a bit, well, boring. The two you list here are probably his most famous, and now that I'm 40 years older, and my tastes have changed, it might be time to give him another try. Odd, though, that 1984 and Brave New World are both critiques of society, and though I read them about the same time, I liked them immensely.
 
I read Stand on Zanzibar a couple of years ago (although I'm wondering now if I did finish it fully!) It is very relevant in today's terms and was more interesting to me as a result of this.
 
I have often said that Stand on Zanzibar is my favorite science fiction novel. (I think that "favorite" might be more accurate than "best;" a judgement I choose not to make.) It really made me feel like I was experiencing the future. I don't think he ever quite reached that level again, although The Sheep Look Up comes pretty close. Some of Brunner's other stuff is quite interesting (The Whole Man and The Squares of the City in particular) if less ambitious. I also quite liked Web of Everywhere and many of his shorter works. Even his lesser works are well-written, entertaining, often elegant potboilers. A fine writer.
 
Love those two books, and his "Traveller In Black" too. Been a LONG time since I read them (back in my teens) so all 3 are due a re-read.
 
The Traveller in Black is the only Brunner book I've read, and I think it's great. I first read it at the age of about 12, and whilst I enjoyed it greatly I was astonished that something so crazy could get into print. Re-reading it, I'm very impressed by Brunner's sheer imagination. It's properly fantastical, in that it really makes very little sense. It reminds me of Hieronymous Boch's paintings and makes me realise how dull so much fantasy has become. I ought to read some more of his stuff.
 
I'd say his imagination is his strongest point, the sheep look up for instance would have taken a mammoth of an idea!
 
Can't remember who it was, but some critic or another said that no book ever captured the year 2006 as well as Stand on Zanzibar. A funny quote, but it underscores Brunner's eery prescience.

It's a fantastic novel, though the Chad Mulligan chapters grate a bit.
 
I have come to the conclusion that his writing is just not for me. I have read "Stand on Zanzibar" a few years ago and now recently attempted "Jagged Orbit" but have to give up after only 40 pages or so. I just don't enjoy his writing, his fragmented narrative style and his sense of humour. I don't intend to read anything else by him.
 
Fried Egg said:
I have come to the conclusion that his writing is just not for me. I have read "Stand on Zanzibar" a few years ago and now recently attempted "Jagged Orbit" but have to give up after only 40 pages or so. I just don't enjoy his writing, his fragmented narrative style and his sense of humour. I don't intend to read anything else by him.
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We've commiserated before on Stand on Zanzibar and I'm still willing to give the copy of Shockwave Rider I picked up a try if I ever get around to it but he's just dug himself a deeper hole now that I've suffered through The Terrornauts (1967) which is his screenplay mutilation of a not-great-but-decent Leinster novel, The Wailing Asteroid (1960). (I've just yelled about that on the movie thread.) I recognize that, even in Londonwood, a script writer might not be entirely responsible for what ultimately comes out of the sausage factory but he left his name on it, so I'm holding it against him. If Shockwave isn't really really great, I'll give up, too.

(I don't recall humor one way or the other in SoZ but it was definitely fragmented (albeit by design) and the "humor" in The Terrornauts is pretty awful.)
 
I really admire John Brunner. The Jagged Orbit was brilliant. He was like a more socially aware PKD. Love it.
 
Does anyone know if Brunner's "Listen! The Stars!" novella is reprinted in a recent available anthology? I'd like to read it, but all my searches direct me only to old out of print editions.
 
Unfortunately, I've only read The Avengers of Carrig. A charming and slightly old-fashioned fantasy about a planet inhabited by the descendants of humans who have descended into barbarism.
 
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