The Shockwave Rider 94
| The Shockwave Rider | |
| author | John Brunner |
| pages | 280 |
| publisher | USA: Ballentine Del Ray UK: Methuen (1975) |
| rating | 8.5 |
| reviewer | Duncan Lawie |
| ISBN | 0345324315 |
| summary | A near future dystopia centred on information technology where access to hidden data is the means to power |
John Brunner is one of the great names of science fiction with a writing career stretching from the 1950s to the 1990s. Whilst he wrote close to 70 novels, his near future dystopias of the 1960s and 1970s were his most successful - including Stand on Zanzibar, for which he won a Hugo award. It is ironic that much which he had warned of came to pass within his own lifetime, robbing him of an audience for his later works.
The Shockwave Rider is the culmination of Brunner's near future prescience. Written in the early seventies, he explicitly acknowledges Alvin Toffler's Future Shock - an influential discussion of the change brought on by technology - though Brunner had already published a number of novels on the catastrophic effects of humanity's approach to the world and each other. The difference with this work is the far closer focus on North America and the decision to drive the plot through a single central character. The book continues to use the cut-up style Brunner had developed, with a variety of techniques used to offer other viewpoints, but this is essentially the story of Nicky Haflinger, a brilliant individual attempting to transform the "plug-in society".
The social etiquette of American society in this book expects everyone to move from one job to another and across the country once or twice a year.The rapid, repeated changes result in disconnection from any sense of genuine community and a tendency to make belongings and relationships interchangeable - a plug-in society. The inability of the average person to cope with this rate of change and the resulting loss of loyalty, commitment and real relation is solved by the use of drugs - primarily prescription tranquillisers which ameliorate the continual shocks of life. A comprehensive communications network, which started as a corollary to this mobile society has become central to its continuance, storing vast detail of each individual in the databanks. Such use of and reliance on computer data leads to the central paranoia of this world - a fear of what the records might contain and what might be used to your detriment by someone who has better access to data. In a world where no one is more than the sum of their computer records, Haflinger's ability to re-engineer his persona through reprogramming the data banks allows him to escape the government agencies and sample lifestyles at many levels of society. However, much of the story is framed as an interrogation so it is clear that his capture is inevitable. The extant powers fear his skill and the potential it has to give him great power. Yet, Haflinger's journey is not a search for power but for wisdom.
The book is set about forty years after it was written, placing it little more than ten years in our own future. This kind of near future writing tends to date very badly but Brunner has done such an excellent job that The Shockwave Rider seems to be in the process of moving genres from science fiction to social realist or techno thriller. The plug-in society which he describes has much in common with modern life in the Western world whilst the technology is generally kept sufficiently vague that it fits in easily with a present-day mental picture. The terminology for the data net seems a little dated, but what Haflinger programs into the system sounds terribly familiar: Brunner describes worms which make their way through the system, reading and transforming data; and phages, more dangerous constructs, some of which are reputedly capable of comprehensively shutting down the whole network if activated. Haflinger has made a life for himself by perverting the data on which the continued functioning of North America relies. Almost a decade before Neuromancer, the "hacker" with a mission was already well defined.
The writing is occasionally rather indifferent, particularly early in the book, but there are also passages of incandescent writing. The author's passion shines through when describing the depths of despondency and paranoia descending from such a dehumanised system and when discussing the alternative possibilities. He is no Luddite - the solutions proposed require a similar technological baseline but result from placing the tools in the hands of the most capable, making them the means to a humane society. However, his agenda is rarely allowed to get in the way of the story, which develops rapidly, making the book seem much shorter than it is. In addition, his characters are as rounded and believable as the society they exist in. Brunner dedicated much of his best writing to warning of the dangerous direction our society is heading and developing ideas for a technologically literate future which still has room for people to be people. That he does this whilst writing accurately and entertainingly is a mark of true excellence - and The Shockwave Rider is a remarkable example.
Purchase this book at Fatbrain.
Damn not first, but here is a suggestion (Score:1)
Fsck, I wanted to write this review (Score:1)
Shockwave Rider rules, I've said it before, but Gibson and Sterling and Stephenson should be sending checks to Brunner's family.
The review didn't mention one of my favorite scenes, where Nickie Halflinger generates a new personality with a touch tone phone, nothing like keying in 40,000 characters on a touch tone phone without a mistake.
Stand on Zanzibar was cool too, I just finished it. It doesn't age as well as Shockwave Rider, IMHO.
George
Get it. (Score:1)
I bought Acts of the Apostles (Score:1)
I looked for a Linux programming bok based on a Slashdot review, but I didn't buy it, I couldn't spare the change.
George
Other Brunner? (Score:1)
(OT: A possible 1P?)
Data=Power? (Score:1)
Pardon me, but when hasn't this been the case? For most of modern times knowledge=power in a very real sense for most of humanity, especially in war time.
An excellent read (Score:1)
Information wants to be free
It has already begun (Score:2)
We do indeed see this beginning to happen today. Our personal data is rapidly being gathered into various databases and the ability to cross-check these repositories of information can yield amazing results. We've read of criminals who were caught when the police checked the shopping records of people using their discount card at the supermarket. When a person was found to have bought an unusually large number of items that would facilitate a crime, the police descended and caught the guy.
Think the insurance companies aren't interested in who is checking out cancer survivor discussion groups, or information about AIDS? Think the corporations aren't interested in knowing about which employees engage in 'dangerous' hobbies or habits?
Aspects of Shockwave Rider will absolutely come true, and are already beginning to happen.
________________
Re:Readership (Score:2)
Please. Don't make me laugh.
Bruce
Astute observations with hope for a solution: yay (Score:1)
Alienation in a modern society (Score:2)
Hmmm, another novel trying to capitalise on the feelings of social isolation and increased powerlessness that the modern world and the rapid changes in technology have bought us. If you've ever read any near-future books, you've probably read all of the themes already.
The fact is that we can all see how technology, the driving force behind modern culture, is alienating people... how many people here prefer to conduct their relationships online rather than in the real world? The net is not the cause of this problem, but it sure as hell facilitates it - it provides endless ways to avoid the necessity of having real life relationships.
The real start of this alienation was the concept of mass production, which changed workers from individuals to mere parts in a process. The metaphor of the assembly line pervades our society in many ways - the interchangability of relationships mentioned in the review, the sharply defined skill sets required by many jobs, and the increasing disconnection between different cultural groups leading to prejudice, rascism and eventually violence.
As for the future? It's still getting worse at the moment, and the net is giving people a whole new way to avoid the real world. Spirituality has become a dirty word, and in an increasingly secular society people have no reason to find joy in their lives. Maybe the net will eventually allow us to transcend this separation, but I think it's just as likely we'll all end up compartmentalised and alone.
Second Opinion (Score:1)
Hmm, do you want an opinion on the book, or the writing within the book? For if you start grading science fiction books on writing, a lot of science fiction books don't make the grade, including some of my favorites such as the Foundation trilogy, the Mars trilogy, most Arthur C. Clarke, most Niven, dang I might as well just list the writer's whose writing stands out, beyond the science fiction aspect of their books;
Harlan Ellison
Phillip K. Dick
John Campbell
William Gibson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Thomas Pynchon, only being considered as a science fiction writer due to being nominated for the Hugo and Nebula.
The book is great, the writing is good enough not to get in the way of the ideas.
I guess I like science fiction so much that I will cut a writer soem slack in the writing department if their ideas are good enough. soem slack though, I've recently read two of the most abysmal science fiction books ever written, Benford's Foundation prequel and the lamentable Dune House Atreides prequel thing. Prose even worse than Good News for Modern Man.
George
Re:Readership (Score:1)
specifically "Calculating God".
This book looks very interesting, I'll probably at least look for it if I don't buy it.
Re:I Agree (Score:1)
2-minute summary (Score:2)
There are two socio-political schemes which Bunner discusses in SR. The first is the concept of collective versus inidividual knowledge, and that people together know more than individuals separately. For those of you who read the book, this is "Delphi." Brunner thinks this is bad.
The second issue is the loss of human relationships encouraged by the misuse of technology. This is represented by the people who allow you to virtually murder someone, without the knowledge that it is virtual. The person finds out that it is vertual later.... The main characters in the novel think this is horrible, and (in my opinion) rightfully so. But in the SR society, this passes for perfectly normal. Human relationships are torn asunder.
By the same token, they also have a fantastically popular phone service where you can anonymously talk, and people just listen. This service is what prevents the society from becoming unglued.... as it is probably the only social connection many people in the SR world have.
Thats the two minute summary. If you have any more questions... read the book:)
Buy this book, early and often (Score:3)
I first read "The Shockwave Rider" on the suggestion of the head of Academic Computing at the college I attended. He loaned me his copy, and I was hooked. I think he wanted me to read it so that if I was destined to be a hacker, at least I might be an ethical one. I suppose it worked... <grin>
I spent the next 10 years hunting through used book stores looking for a copy (it was out of print at the time). Eventually I found a copy at a SF convention, and I was happy ... and then I found more copies and bought them too, just so I would have copies to give other people when the need arises. Now that it's back in print, that makes it easier ... but I still prefer the first edition cover.
Are you moderating this down because you disagree with it,
Access to data means power? (Score:1)
Re:Ripped off by silly TV series (Score:1)
Re:Ripped off by silly TV series (Score:1)
Read 'em all! (Score:2)
Re:Ripped off by silly TV series (Score:1)
A spot on review... (Score:1)
If you go read (or re-read, as the case may be) Neuromancer, or The Turing Option, you'll find they're ALREADY dated, and sound silly. It's like watching an old Star Trek episode, where the crew members have "communicators" bigger and clunkier than my cell phone. Reality has moved in a different direction, or already moved past there.
On the other hand, if you go a read (or re-read) Brunner, you'll start getting scared. How did he know? Or even, Why didn't we listen? Oh, and before I forget, apart from Shockwave Rider and Stand on Zanzibar, I'd also recommend The Sheep Look Up. And if you a fan of that sort of science fiction, Stanislaw Lem is somewhat similar, in my opinion. Much more whimsical (almost fable-like, some of it), and less apocalytical (well, some of it), but somewhat simialar in style, and even better in quality.
Prescient (Score:1)
Jarod the -pretender- (Score:1)
Not such a bad one, but they tend to stick too much to a crappy format: every episode is centered around bringing justice to innocent people, the larger tone is about constantly searching for long lost familly and avoiding paranoiac threats for overpowerfull "center" (well, playing cat and mouse really, because he is "so" smart :)
While bruner's hero is a genius lost in a constantly changing society without identity, he is actually without identity himself, just a poor soul really. He gets better when meeting this not very pretty girl with a strong personality (who is going to play that if the studios want to make it into a new bland movie?).
When getting to the end they actually move out of the big corporate world, into some sort of village made by refugees from a big catastroph (california's big one I think). Looks nice and very human, although its architecture seems much too organised to my taste (in the long term there is no such thing as chaos). I could do with one of their (genetically modified?) smart dogs nonetheless.
The original hacker-cyberpunk novel .... (Score:2)
Yet another? (Score:2)
Not really - did you look at the date of publication? It was among the FIRST of these. It's a great book (and BTW the book that coined the word "worm")
Re:Other Brunner? (Score:2)
It's a fast, fun GOOD read. I re-read it about once a year or so.
Me? I _WANT_ to move to Precipice
Suidac! (Score:2)
Can somebody check the spelling?
And what happened to Alvin Toffler? "War and anti-war" was not as earth-shattering as previous works. While he was right in many parts about this future we live in, I don't seem to find a web presence for him.
I'd like a Slashdot interview with Toffler
__
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:1)
Whereas I think the European way in films is more intelligent and truthful. I think not eveything in life is simple enough to have an obvious solution. And guns are not the answer for virtually anything.
Still why be challenged when you're sitting on your fat ass in a multiplex stuffing your face with latest GM modified junk food.
I have only read Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner but I think it is one of the classics of SF up there with Dune, Foundation and Ring World.
Read this one a long time ago (Score:1)
Aynway, I think it's a very nice book and considering the fact that it was written 25 years ago it's defineatly worth a look (this man really had a gift in looking into what will become of us and the future.
In my opinion there's no one better to deal with cyberpunk than Gibson, that's true. But Brunner is defineatly one of the greater sci-fi writers I've ever read something of.
Dialogue and dialogue (Score:2)
Anyway I liked it.
__
rtm's favorite book, & more (Score:2)
It's worth noting that this was Robert Morris Jr.'s favorite book. (He was author of the great worm, of course, based partially on the ideas of this book.
<LITCRIT>
A number of people have commented that this book, or other Brunner books, haven't aged well. If you're looking primarily at the details of everyday life, that's obviously true. If you're looking at the larger social patterns, this may or may not be the case.
Brunner's talent lay in his ability to take someone else's projections about the future (in this case Toffler, in The Sheep Look Up Rachel Carson, in other books other prognosticators) and turn them into a story.
His Achilles' Heel lay in the fact that the story he told was almost always the same: they're all retellings of the story of Jesus, or the coming of the Messiah. (It's a hell of a story, mind you, but he always tells the same story.) All of the plots are essentially there's a society falling apart, but this one individual has the power to make things all better. However, he's in exile or a criminal or just disappeared. Towards the end of the book, though, he shows up and saves the day.
This is true of Stand On Zanzibar (which is about overpopulation and his effects. It's his best novel, IMHO.), The Sheep Look Up, and The Shockwave Rider, among others. The difference in The Shockwave Rider is that you hear the story more-or-less from the point of view of the Messiah. Children of the Thunder (I may have gotten the title wrong, but it's pretty close anyways) is one of his later books, but in that case it's inverted: it's the story of the Antichrist instead.
There's nothing wrong with these stories; they're fabulous stories whether or not you believe they're true, and they're definitely embedded deep within the psyche of Western Culture. But it's not an original idea, nor are the ideas behind each of his books particularly original, so it's frustrating in some way to read more than one of his books. Do, however, read Stand on Zanzibar. In both form and content it's one of the best SF novels of all time.
</LITCRIT>
That said, it's great fun to read Brunner. The Compleat Traveler In Black is a blast. I wonder if it's still in print, my mom tossed my copy out probably a decade ago...
Good old days (Score:1)
From this post and some of your earlier ones it would seem you are scared of the directions society is taking. And you think the trend has beeng going on for 200 years.
Sorry to disrupt your pessimism, but since the eden garden, it doesn't look like there have been many golden eras as there is now... Trash me saying the (cyber)world is bad and full of heresy (lol) and dirt and violence and obscenity, but there probably has never been a period with as many people and as long longevity (particularly in our part of the world, I know...)
Don't forget one of our greatest achievement: freedom (well, some at least). You can choose your lifestyle, disseminate your ideas all you want, but if you can't live with the compromises other individuals want from you, simply don't hang around them. Don't ask an exterior force to apply your "moral" to others, just live the way you want, and mayber try to convince others to do the same.
Re:Suidac! (Score:1)
I very much enjoyed The Shockwave Rider, and I thoroughly recommend The Jagged Orbit too. One of the interesting things that went on in it was media manipulation, to the point where one could use a graphics workstation to create photo-realistic news-footage, and therefore make up the news for your own ends. I was reminded of this when there was that thing about one TV company altering the feed from another company to change or remove the advertising in a large sporting event last year. Also, looking at the current screenshots for the forthcoming PS2 game 'The Getaway', it looks like entertainment software is beginning to push the technology to the point where this is almost doable.
Re:Data=Power? (Score:1)
It depends on the speed and pervasiveness of communications and data -- on how integrated systems are. Brunner postulates a truly, utterly, wired world in which data is everything. Identities control access and power; almost all communications are monitored and even confession booths under real-time eavesdropping. Information on every aspect of life is digitized for consumption by Shalmaneser, to customize your TV, or simply to archive.
In such a world, you are a number; thus, the ability to change that number, or those of others, is power. In the end, his tapeworm achieves what it can solely because the information was all networked and thus accessible to his particular skills. Once the dirty BIG secrets of the corporations and governments are revealed, those in power find they have greater problems than merely a confidential counseling line (Hearing Aid, IIRC) or a single hacker -- they're dealing with an enraged people who apparently can absorb such information far more rapidly than a population which today gets much of its "info" from local news programs...
In the current world, such sensitive information is substantially harder to get or propagate, since a large portion of the population is still off-line or only infrequent, light users...
Happy endings... (Score:1)
If you want non-happy endings, try Brunner's The Sheep Look Up. I don't want to give away the ending, but the last scene of the book is set in the U.K. (I think - I haven' read it for a couple years now), where two characters are commenting on the smell of smoke drifting over the Atlantic from America...
Of course, there are some people who would find that a happy ending... I'm not sure, but I might be one of those...
________________________
Re:Suidac! (Score:1)
Didn't Stand on Zanzibar have a word describing white people that rooted in the word pale?
I was there first! (Score:2)
He has clearly infringed the "look and feel" of my Slashdot nickname.
As I was born BEFORE 1975, I think you will agree I have god/right/idiocy on my side.
Re:Second Opinion (Score:1)
Re:Other Brunner? (Score:1)
Gotta love those short reviews. Thanks, I'll be checking it out soon.
Re:Prescient (Score:1)
Timely review? (Score:1)
Re:Suidac! (Score:1)
Re:Readership (Score:1)
Re:Second Opinion (Score:1)
Never, never, never read an author attempting to rip off the style of a past good author. I almost got suckered into buying both of the above books as they both have the original authors in prominent letters and then in little tiny barely readable letters ('s as interpreted by blah) or something along those lines. They really don't want you to think about who is actually writing the story.
Once an author is done with a series, or he/she passes away, his or her worlds should be laid to rest. No one can truly know what they were thinking. No other person can have so much insight into the author's mind that they will know the details of parts of the worlds left un-explored by the author themselves. I know, I write fiction (not very good, but I write). Not even my wife, whom I've discussed many things that have yet to be written with, would really be able to give the details that I haven't explored life. It's not a lack of trust, it's a lack of vision. No matter who attempts to capitolize on another's vision, they will not get it right.
Let the great ones lie. It's too bad modern society is so stuck on making money. We will never see a good series end (I fear the day that Dan Simmons dies and other people are allowed to write more Hyperion books.). It's really too bad. Some questions, some details, are best left undisturbed. Better that, then the story is filled out improperly.
It's current (Score:1)
Re:Other Brunner? (Score:2)
I read it in two sittings. It was always interesting, even when it got into tedious exposition mode (which, as someone has already pointed out, tended to occur in long dialogues, as if in a bad sequel or idealogical propoganda). It is an excusable sin, as the setting is fairly complex. It was really interesting to see the same fears of a corporate-government dystopia existing thirty years ago, and how it was portrayed then, compared to how it was portrayed in the height of cyberpunk movement, and to how it is portrayed now. Some people have called _The Shockwave Rider_ the first cyberpunk novel, which makes it worth reading just for historical interest (and why I sought it out in a used bookstore).
Brunner predicts an Internet-like network, which I think was quite an accomplishment, even if he didn't see the microcomputer revolution coming. The only difference is, instead of a PC on every desk, there is a terminal or phone connected to a mainframe somewhere, which is in turn linked to the worldwide data network.
Re:A spot on review... (Score:1)
- Chain of Chance
and- His Master's Voice
. Those two works are serious examinations of probability and the problems inherent in inquiry whether it be the search for extraterrestrial life or a criminal investigation. Lem has also whimsical side as you mentioned, almost like Lewis Carroll, full of insane wordplay that holds up remarkable well in translation. The- Futurological Congress
stands out as the best example. It's a bad acid trip through some possible and impossible futures. Check it out.Divided We Fall (Score:1)
It has been argued that technology is itself a religion. If this is indeed true, then , as this "movement" gains converts, the islands of people that used to make up the old mainstream cultures will become further separated by the ever-growing oceans of technologists that make up the new mainstream.
As old-school extremists, and not moderates, tend to constitue the majority of governments, does this mean that governments will become increasingly out of touch with their constituents and with each other? As the distances of perspective that separate governments widen, won't understanding in turn fail? Where does this leave our world as a whole?
Ironically, I began on a cultural premise and now find myself drawing a political conclusion. Politicians have a tendency for flamboyance in their outspokeness. Visionaries garner more attention than moderates -- safe isn't sexy. Perhaps the extremists, who grow ever more out of touch with their changing constituency should slowly be supplanted by a new type of politician that actually represents his constituency rather than the narrow focus of his/her party.
This book help form my now all to realist views (Score:1)
For any person trying to get a handle on society today (or just wanting to know who really started the cyberpunk movement), his 3 distopian novels are seminal, sublime, and just damn good reading.
Keep in mind they were written before the advent of the internet, personal computers, online banking, identity theft, the "cashless" society, and you will realize this dude was a visionary, if not a prophet of the new millenium.
If we are fortunate, perhaps some of his more hopeful ideas will come to be as well: First release the truth, then we fire all the lawyers and advertisers.
Going on means going far
a dollar short... (Score:2)
--
cyberpunk before cyberpunk was kewl... (Score:1)
All too much of what he's predicted is here or about to be: ubiquitous 'Net, jobhopping -> social isolation, massive data-sifting, pro wrestling as the new bread-and-circuses, and if policy-by-focus-group isn't already too close to Delphi for MY taste, there's always Regis asking "Ask the audience?"
I agree that Sterling, Stephenson &c need to be paying Brunner's estate; he did it first, and for all the extra chrome the others have added, in many respects he still did it best.
Died at WorldCon Glasgow; NO books in print. (Score:2)
IMHO Brunner was one of the most significant SF writers actually covering societal change. The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar are masterpieces, and far more relevent than most SF written since. Cyberpunk owes him a great deal. And yet, when Brunner died, at the WorldCon conventionin Glasgow, Scotland, I understand that not a single novel of his was in print. Shameful, especially when you consider some of the pap that gets pushed onto SF bookshelves these days.
Pax,
White Rabbit +++ Divide by Cucumber Error ++
Anybody notice "The Pretender" series? (Score:1)
Re:Timely review? (Score:1)
The best thing about this book... (Score:1)
Even more fun, this line of research lead directly to the Morris Internet Worm, so the book actually predicts an event that eventually occurred on the real Internet. Crazy.
Brunner alive and well? (Score:1)
Having been a fan for a long time, I am depressed that most, if not all, of his books are actually out of print and most easily gotten through second-hand book shops or the magnificient ABE Books [abebooks.com].
Brunner wrote a lot, but his books are hard to get. Shockwave Rider is probably the most available novel, followed by Stand On Zanzibar.
(Zanzibar and the wonderful The Sheep Look up are part of Brunner's Brunner's "American Trilogy", which ends with The Jagged Orbit. A friend of mine recommends The Whole Man, unread by me.)
It is a shame that Brunner, one of Britain's finest and most prolific writers, died recently with little publicity. Why is it that sf writers -- Dick, Zelazny, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Van Vogt, and that British bloke who died last year -- tend to fade away rather than burn out?
It's also annoying how the geniuses tend to die prematurely, while tired old hacks like Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Bear are still on this planet. :)
The Tofflers, Brunner and Stephenson (Score:1)
Next, the worm that Nick and Hearing Aid release to make all data accessable sound a little like Neil Stephenson's talk at CFP2000. I can't seem to find the transcript of his talk. GRRR...great video though.
tty
Farrell
Re:It has already begun (Score:2)
Not to question your integrity, but this I cannot believe. The use of shopping records by lawenforcement before a crime was commited? I could see how they would be able to subpoena them afterwards for use in the trial, but only if they had a suspect and wanted circumstantial evidence or prehaps to prove premeditation. Your example smells of -- oh I forget the term -- something infringing on privacy, presumed innocence.
Could you please provide a link or backup data?
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:1)
Or, it could be conversely argued, European films lack happy endings because they are so heavily subsidized that they don't really depend on audience reaction, and thus they aren't made for the public, but for the masturbatory, artiste clique of pseudo-intellectual friends of the director, whom consider any such things as happy endings way too populist.
I'm European, I used to live in the US, and I've worked in the film industry in both places, so I have heard all kinds of bullshit nationalist bias coming from both sides of the pond.Still, I'll concede the point that too many American films picture guns as the ultimate problem-solver...
Re:Read 'em all! (Score:1)
"Jagged Orbit," the first, is also the least. It's been out of print for some time.
It's now back in print in the UK; Gollancz have brought out a yellow jacket tp in their classic sf series.
(I agree with your assessment of the book, though - weaker br far than his other dystopias)
Re:Died at WorldCon Glasgow; NO books in print. (Score:1)
I'd kill for a hardback, tho'...
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:2)
Shockwave Rider sounds like an American book. Ever notice how all american movies have happy endings? I think it's because we all migrated here with hope for a better future. European stuff is pretty dreary in comparison. More real, but more dreary.
The Shockwave Rider is probably the most upbeat of Brunner's dystopian novels, and uncharacteristic as such. Stand on Zanzibar (recently reissued in the UK by Orion in their SF Masterworks series) takes a much more pessimistic view, and The Jagged Orbit (reissued in the UK by Gollancz in a yellow jacket tp) is scarcely any more cheerful.
In my opinion, the most downbeat - and the most thought-provoking - of Brunner's dystopias is The Sheep Look Up. The Sheep Look Up is an environmental dystopia, set in a US with perpetual smog, little drinkable fresh water, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, pesticide-resistant crop pests, chemical weapon residues entering the food chain, climate change - the whole works - and draws its inspiration from Silent Spring in much the same way that The Shockwave Rider was inspired by Toffler's Future Shock. It's a powerful novel that hasn't aged appreciably, and has become more relevant if anything. Much recommended.
Unfortunately, it's not in print at the moment, as is also the case for The Shift Key.
(I can remember where I was when I heard that John Brunner had died)
There's a cool game in that book (Score:1)
I never really finished (it was one of my first ever programs), but I wonder if anyone else has ever tried it? Or is willing to try it now! Probably easy to do in a single Java applet I would think.
--
Sweedack (Score:1)
Small problem (Score:1)
IMNHO, Brunner's overrated. This book is definately a must-read, but most of his other work is eminently skippable. Read "Children of the Thunder" and you'll understand why his work went out of print.
Re:It has already begun (Score:1)
Actually, you are quite right, and I mis-remembered the incident. I cannot provide a link, as I don't recall where I read it, though it was in the past couple of weeks. However, your comment jogged my memory that it was, in fact, after they had a suspect that they took the shopping records and found some suspicious purchases which they then presented to the jury.
My apologies for the fuzzy memory, but I was speaking off the top of my head to illustrate a point. In today's society, it can be hard to remember what has already happened, and what is merely possible if rights are abused.
Thanks for the correction.
________________
BRUNNER (Score:1)
Re:Alienation in a modern society (Score:1)
and the book fucking rocks.
-
kashani
I'm surprised... (Score:1)
See you later Acellerator [lanceradvanced.com]
Old News? but good... (Score:1)
Not that it's not a bood book, and well worth a read, but really, what's next? You gonna discover "Stand on Zanzibar" or "The Jagged Orbit"?
How about some reviews of NEW books?...
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:1)
As any American can tell you: if you think guns aren't the answer, then you're not asking the question properly!
Why Shockwave Rider was a stunning SF achievement (Score:2)
Anyone interested in speculative fiction, and the relationship between technology and human society, should read this book. It should be required reading for the legislators and politicians dealing with issues such as the DMCA, UCITA, Napster, and deCSS. It might help them understand, on a more concrete level, why you can't just legislate against everything that the old guard and uninformed happen to have a kneejerk reaction to.
Some of the "predictions" in Brunner's book have yet to come true, but I firmly believe that they will, and I look forward to it. However, it would be a plot spoiler to reveal exactly what those are. Hint: Napster is just the beginning!
Re:rtm's favorite book, & more (Score:1)
It gets() depressing.
I loved this book for many reasons (Score:2)
The characters in the book are black-and-white, it's true, but it's all the more fun because Brunner's palate of blacks and whites are somehow more intense than those of other writers. Nickie Halfinger is a great character, recreated several times throughout the book as he adopts and integrates different personas.
Thinking back on the book a few years after I read it, I notice parallels to events in my own life; and that made me wonder about those events. These are almost certainly coincidences...but -- all but fans of conspiracy theories can stop here.
When I was 12 (in 1972) the state of Maryland held a 'contest' where they took the top 2% of kids on the standardized tests of the day, and brought them to Johns Hopkins University to take the SATs. The top 2% of those were brought in for a huge battery of further tests, both academic and psychological. The top few percent of those kids were enrolled in something called the Study of Mathematically and Scientifically Prococious Youth [jhu.edu](SMSPY, later SMPY as they dropped the Scientifically part).
We were given special math courses on weekends in lieu of our middle- and high-school classes, basically to see how fast a bunch of kids could learn things. These classes were amazing; wonderfully taught by gifted instructors. We were encouraged to and given the opportunity to enroll in local community colleges for further math and science courses. Many of us then went to college at rediculously early ages (I was in the middle of the pack of SMPY kids at 15 when I started at JHU.)
All through this, we were monitored and profiled, but provided practically no guidance or counseling. Sadly, this was a disaster for many of us; we couldn't handle the pressure of Johns Hopkins (which was, and is, an incredibly competetive and cutthroat school.) I find this lack of guidance or even simple compassion unforgivable now.
The sinister part of this, though, is that a relatively large percentage of my SMPY-mates went on to work at the NSA, nearby in Fort Meade, MD. It just seems a little too convenient to me -- and reading Shockwave Rider a few years out of school (after getting kicked out myself, but fortuitously landing in the groundbreaking computer graphics facility of the day at NYIT [cmu.edu][whew!]) made the parallels of TSR's Tarnower to SMPY clear and disturbing.
Anyway -- I now return you to your regularly scheduled Slashdot.
thad
Re:2-minute summary (Score:1)
Re:Other Brunner? (Score:1)
Stand on Sansibar. "Morgenwelt"
german titles in quotes.
Well, wondering about a review of a book I read 15 years ago and which was then allready 10 years old.
Especially as lately one asked HERE if british and american SF is ever translated to german.
Well, it is. But I consider it to late translated and i'm going to read more english stuff now.
Greag Bears Queen of Angels is to good and the sequels and prequels are still not translated. ODD!
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Re:Happy endings... (Score:1)
nothing to comment on that.
Is moderated down as "redundant".
Brunner is an author who had a brilliant view of the future, which is happening exactly now. (+10 years)
His science fiction is more social fiction, happening in the future and thus called sciense fiction.
Lately I read about seed growing only if it is
handled with the right kind of chemicals just before planting. He saw this 20 years ago happening now.
And it happends.....
REad his books and think, or lough some are funny, too.
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:1)
I do not remember where I was, I remember how I feeled.
If I had moderator acces today, oops have I?, I would moderate you up!
This is the a real good posting, unfortunatly my english is not good enough to post like you.
You recommendations are soem of the best books I ever read!
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Re:Why Shockwave Rider was a stunning SF achieveme (Score:1)
Isn't this the dark side of Brunners book?
Or do I just missinterprete what you are saying?
For me Napster is the Dark Side of a free world at least (without talking about the good points of napster).
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Re:rtm's favorite book, & more (Score:1)
Do you think the none reader and none knowers of the Morris worm understand you?
BTW: I read the book at least 5 years before I know about the worm, while the worm allready had happend
For the readers here.
Brunner extrapollated the now known internet, his protagonist is THE WORM WRITING HACKER.
He got his education on government funds in a secret base. He escaped from there. His final worm rescued California from an nuclear attack of
its own federal goverment.
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Didn't like it the first time? Read it again! (Score:1)
Then I read it again a short while later and... WOW. The first reading gave me a good overview, the second let all the disconnected parts fall into place and I knew I had a great book. Sadly, my copy is rather banged up, so I guess I'll be looking for a new edition like so many other people.
So, if you were a bit disappointed with it the first time through, give it another chance. I'm sure you'll be impressed.
Re:It has already begun (Score:1)
The owners (2 older women) of a feed store in the Antelope Valley (Lancaster or Palmdale, I forget which) keep appearing on the TV news because they're being threatened with jail time for keeping incomplete records. Apparently iodine is also used for medicinal purposes on horses.
So here, the crime was keeping inadequate shopping records for law enforcement uses.
Brunner's politics (Score:1)
While no-one can fault his technological vision and predictions of future trends, too often his politics are straight-out 60s socialism, or worse, some sort of Platonic meritocracy. Unfortunately these Brunner-ite utopias are not explored in his books...
Disclaimer: I haven't read Shockwave Rider, I've never found a copy
Re:2-minute summary (Score:1)
Re:Why Shockwave Rider was a stunning SF achieveme (Score:2)
This is analogous to the situation with the government in Shockwave Rider, being forced to pay attention to its citizens, because of the ability of those citizens to communicate with each other and disseminate information via a ubiquitous network that is difficult to for any single entity to control.
Sure, there's a difference between Halflinger's actions, which essentially achieved the same end result as something like the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, and what's happening right now with Napster. But things aren't always as cut and dried as they often are in novels.
Saying that "Napster is the Dark Side of a free world" makes a lot of assumptions about the current state and direction of thinking regarding intellectual property. The thinking which leads to laws like the U.S. DMCA and Digital Signature Bill, which grants incredible power to corporations while removing it from customers, is wrong. And I don't only mean wrong in a moral sense, since certainly morals aren't absolute, but it is wrong in the sense that it cannot and will not survive. It will not survive because of the Internet - because of the ability for individuals to communicate with each other freely.
The cliche that "the Internet views censorship as damage and routes around it" is being extended to society as a whole, but it goes far beyond just censorship. I would restate that phrase in a more unwieldy form: "The Internet enables individuals to treat attempts at central control and exercise of excessive power as damage, and route around it."
I think Patricia Seybold [psgroup.com] puts it well in the September issue of Fast Company magazine:
"The music industry is now at the mercy of customers who are taking it upon themselves to do the kinds of things that used to be done by studios and publishers: marketing and disseminating songs that they like. Now, you could just say, "copyright violation", and be done with it. But think about what's really happening. End users - customers - are voting with their feet (well, their ears) and bringing into question the longstanding roles of the studio, the producer, and the the publisher."
If all you see is "copyright violation", you need to look deeper. Think about issues like what "intellectual property" really means, what open source software can teach us about the benefits of open information exchange, and the direction in which the prevailing legal and corporate attitudes towards intellectual property ownership seem to be leading us. Patents on hyperlinks and one-click shopping? Legally enforceable restrictions on intellectual property far more onerous than anything that was ever applied to physical property?
Sure, Napster is also about "free stuff". But it's simplistic and short-sighted to see it as only that. The "middle layer" of the recording industry will either have to transform itself or get out of the way. It sat on its hands for decades watching digital technology develop, and bitterly fought anything that might weaken its monopoly on stamping and distributing bits of plastic. It's no longer about bits of plastic, though. The noise being made is coming from a group of wealthy but obsolete businessmen who are doing their best to resist being disintermediated, instead of trying to find ways of actually serving both the customers and the artists that are supposed to be the core of their corporate mission.
The more foresighted artists agree: Courtney Love [salonmag.com], Chuck D, Limp Bizkit. Napster is a symptom of the rot at the core of the music industry. The only things that rot are things that are already dead.
I'll wrap up my rant with this great statement quoted in the Slashdot article Sony VP On Stopping Napster [slashdot.org], by Steve Heckler, senior VP of Sony Pictures Entertainment:
"The [music] industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams. It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what. [...] Sony is going to take aggressive steps to stop this. We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source -- we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [ISP]. We will firewall it at your PC."
I'm not sure if this attitude arises from an "honest" distrust of individual customers, or from fear, sheer greed, or simple small-mindedness. Whichever it is, it's sad. But John Brunner has already shown us how it's all going to end, and I share his optimism.
Jarod's name should be Legion (Score:1)
The Pretender isn't so much a Brunner-ism as it is a riff on Roger Zelazny's My Name Is Legion. The lead character in MNIL is part of the team that builds the world wide data bank, and chooses to take his boss up on the offer to destroy his personal punched card deck (OK, so it's a little dated!) and become a non-person. After that, he gets lots of jobs that can best be done by an invisible man.
Re:Other Brunner? (Score:1)
Brunner predicts an Internet-like network, which I think was quite an accomplishment, even if he didn't see the microcomputer revolution coming.
Huh? When Nicky first meets Kate, she's redoing her apartment, replacing the functional computer circuitry painted on the wall of her living room the previous year. How microcomputer revolution can you get?
The only difference is, instead of a PC on every desk, there is a terminal or phone connected to a mainframe somewhere, which is in turn linked to the worldwide data network.
Ah, so they're WAP phones!
Re:Read 'em all! (Score:1)
And don't forget The Stone That Never Came Down either. First published in 1973, it discusses a designer drug that effectively eliminates ignorance and self-delusion in favor, and either saves or ruins humanity in the process (your call depending on your politics).
Re:Astute observations with hope for a solution: y (Score:1)
Vita,
Rademir
Another American Willing to Listen
Re:Alienation in a modern society (Score:1)
This view takes the agency away from us and give it to our creations. I believe the reverse is also true, and that alienated people are building and using technology in alienating ways.
Personally, i do not believe that there is a point in time where our use of technology 'went bad.' (Walter Wink, _Ishmael_ et al say it was the agricultural revolution, others say industrial, etc.) Some technology has been designed and used for ill as long as it has existed. And people have different definitions for what counts as "ill" And many technologies have powerful unintended consequences. As a result, some people have felt threatened by technology, some quite reasonably.
I see our art/technology as part of the definition of being human or sentient, and as a part of our evolution to the Next Big Thing (if we do it right), in a Vingean Singularity kind of way.
I'm guessing from what you wrote that you would like novels to be written that *increase* social connection and people's (sense of and actual) own power. I imagine those being key goals of any Singularitarian technology.
ObTopic:
_Shockwave Rider_ rocks! I should read it again. _The Space Merchants_ is another oldie (50s?) that dates well (armed environmental terrorists!).
Love,
Rad
Re:It has already begun (Score:1)
Re:It has already begun (Score:1)
Thanks for the clarification.
Thank you (Score:1)
__