review of John Brunner's The Traveler in Black by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 20, 2014 I have a paper bag full of John Brunner bks on the floor of my bedroom, where I do most of my reading. When I need a break from whatever more challenging bks I'm reading (it's been William Gaddis's The R...
:: Stand on Zanzibar is one of my favorite novels :: a) Stand on Zanzibar is about overpopulation. if the entire world's population were to stand on Zanzibar, it would sink.b) Stand on Zanzibar is about information. how is it processed? what does it really mean?c) Stand on Zanzibar is about the ...
One man has made it his mission to liberate the mental prisoners. to restore their freedom in a world run mad. Nickie Halflinger, the only person to escape from Tarnover- where they raise hyper-intelligent children to maintain the political dominance of the USA in the 21st century – is on the ru...
I know I've read this before, but didn't remember a thing. It's a little slow to begin, it jumps about confusingly, and it definitely seems a little dated (not as much as you might think for a book published in 1972, though). I could live without the lectures on the dangers of specific toxins lik...
Apologies for the rambling gonzo review that is to follow - wanted to get my thoughts on this down in short order before the book faded from my immediate memory. I fully intend to edit this into something more sensical in due course. I wasn't actually going to write a review on this until I start...
The interstellar Bridge System was the greatest invention in the long history of cosmic humanity. Spread through dozens of planets, men and their societies had drifted apart in isolation until the Bridge came to link together humanity's multifold worlds and had affirmed once more that all men wer...
A savagely lacerating satire, this is an example of the sort of literature of ideas sf was before commercial formulae & interminable series took over. A lot of today's readers won't get it & may be pissed off by its unresolved ending. But it's a very good story—though perhaps not quite as good as...
Matthew Flamen, the last of the networks' spoolpigeons, is desperate for a big story. He needs it to keep his audience and his job. And there is no shortage of possibilities: the Gottschalk cartel is fomenting trouble among the knees in order to sell their latest armaments to the blanks; which ti...
Dans ce roman, John Brunner nous narre la lente et pernicieuse descente aux enfers d’un psychiatre qui souhaite, pour des raisons avouables (ou non), guérir une patiente. L’un des points fondamentaux de ce roman étant qu’à aucun moment le lecteur ou le personnage ne peuvent déterminer si cette pa...
Europe in the 21st Century is a stricken continent. Cities crumble with neglect. Governments topple to military coups. But one man may have the answer. It is a viral drug that drastically alters the human mind, a cure for depression, unemployment, war, madness, national hatreds, prejudice, crime ...
The ship's millenia-long mission was to preserve humanity. But humanity was becoming more alien, and the ship--impossibly--more human...
In a society revolutionised by a device that lets you walk through a door and be anywhere in the world - instantly...At a time when unauthorised travel has caused millions to die violent deaths...In a world where invasion of privacy is the ultimate crime...He is 'The Visitor'
Colonising a new planet requires much more than just settling on a newly discovered island of Old Earth. New planets were different in thousands of ways, different from Earth and from each other. Any of those differences could mean death and disaster to a human settlement. When a ship filled with...
A horror novel by John Brunner? A science-fiction shocker by the man who wrote the "Hugo" winning STAND ON ZANZIBAR? By the author of THE JAGGED ORBIT, CATCH A FALLING STAR, TIMES WITHOUT NUMBER? Of course! The Brunner talent is manifest in this edge-of-the-seat novel about what happened when t...
Cover Artist (both) and interior art: Jack Gaughan
Gerald Howson didn't look powerful. His body was deformed at birth, leaving him with a face so ugly people didn't want to look at him, and crippled legs that would never let him be as other men. But his mind was one in a billion - gifted with the ability to send and receive thoughts more powerful...
For instance, you seldom found that more than half the personnel of such a base really cared about the work they were doing—the rest were serving out their time, stacking up their future life ten years for one. Aboard a Patrol cruiser, people all cared about the work. They had to. If they didn’t,...
Vix leapt to his feet. “That must be the girl being brought!” he declared. “And we still haven’t heard from Tiorin!” “I don’t think so,” Spartak countered, and now voiced the thought which had occurred to him earlier: that the port authorities would certainly advise them of the girl’s arrival by ...
said maggie, coming from the kitchen to the bedroom with a tray loaded with breakfast. Her voice betrayed the slightest hint of tension, but Joe failed to notice, for he was fuzzy with sleep. He grinned, his head sunk deeply back into the plump white pillow. “You look terrific in that housecoat,”...
He dialed the police emergency code, and waited. Sometimes the phones in Valletta worked, and sometimes they didn’t. This time they worked. A voice said grumpily, ‘Yes, police.’ ‘Please send somebody here right away,’ Hans said, his voice shaking just a little. ‘It’s my wife. She’s dead.’ ‘What?’...
To my surprise they each shook my hand warmly, grinning in the light of Marijane’s flashlamp. But they said nothing—merely beckoned me to the open cover of the manhole down which I had hidden Pwill Jr. and the interfering guard. It was not until the cover had been lowered behind us and we stood i...
They were no less of a shock to everyone else in the room, and a babble of incredulous exclamations followed. I struggled to absorb the horrible fact bin Ishmael had hurled at me, but long before I’d recovered Jacky had seized command of the situation. With a fierce roar he made everybody else sh...
She had never seen such a savage look on anyone’s face in all her young life. It was as though a newly-hatched thing had taken human form. The shock had made her physically giddy. Little by little she forced herself back to a state of comparative calm. She grew aware that Grandfather’s irascible ...
He had slept very badly, and his eyes were stinging. He’d intended to try and doze for another hour, but it seemed like a waste of effort. “Yes?” he said to the phone, half expecting the caller to be Redvers. “Reception, Mr. Cross. A gentleman has left a package for you. It’s a Mr. Carlton, I thi...
He could not react to it—could only mechanically complete the motions he was going through, to dock his boat on the slipway Dan Sakky had carved from the rock. The drone of the engine peaked, to lift the craft on its hoverducts, then died as he shut off the power altogether. By that time, attract...
He might have succeeded but for the chorus of support that followed. Advancing down the left-hand aisle, Ella Kailet shouted, ‘I came all the way from London to find out what happened to me here! For pity’s sake, you can’t stop us talking about it! Something happened here that drove me mad!’ ‘And...
The sky was as clear as crystal, and every now and again Kazan found himself glancing up at it, noting that the stars were organized in groups, noting that they cycled slowly, diagonally towards the horizon, so that there were now different stars behind the fortress from those that had been showi...
President,” Barghin told the telephone. “We’ve brought down all the four missiles that have been launched from Jacksonville since that salvo yesterday, and Operation Mechanical Shovel was a pretty fair success.” He listened. “Yes, I still want UN permission to build that nuclear missile. The risk...
Wu, with a parting nod, more perhaps of commiseration than commendation, had turned his back and walked away across the plaza to his own office. At random, Anty cast around for a place to begin; he chose a hut which proved to be full of a babel of shouted calculations.“Anty!” someone cried as he ...
Gaffles grunted to him, pulling himself up into the high chair which had been placed so he could see between the hangings behind the stage and view the meeting’s progress. His first glance showed that the arrival on stage of the speakers had hardly disturbed the audience at all; half of them hadn...
Kyer! The name that had been signed to the letter he’d found among Cavelgrune’s belongings! He’d never expected to encounter him, or any other of Talibrand’s confederates, on this voyage—he’d assumed that when the letter, along with everything else he owned, fell into Talibrand’s hands emergency ...