Message-ID: <144@ISM780.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 01:56:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ISM780.144
Posted: Tue Mar  5 01:56:43 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 05:40:56 EST
Lines: 47
Nf-ID: #R:topaz:-79800:ISM780:32900003:000:2351
Nf-From: ISM780!patrick    Mar  4 01:32:00 1985

Hey - another Brunner freak, and at ISC too...

Stand on Zanzibar was (I believe) written before The Sheep Look Up, and
you're right, neither book is a sequel to the other.

SOZ is my favourite SF book of all time; I've read it a dozen times, and
owned several copies (I lend them to people saying "you must read this",
and never see them again).

For years now I've been haunting the bookstores looking for the latest
Brunner.  He seems to write two sorts of books - quickie pot-boilers of
no particular interest, and long thoughtful books which (until the latest
one) I loved.  In addition to the two mentioned above, try "The Jagged
Orbit" - a scary story about paranoia and the arms-manufacturers who
encourage and feed off it, and "The Shockwave Rider" - about computer
networks, and a guy who lives outside the law by manufacturing
"electronic personalities" for himself.  There's also an early book of
his called "The Squares of the City", which is the only SF book I know
about town/traffic planning (I used to hang out with a bunch of people in
this profession - the book is realistic), Latin America, and the game of
chess (!).

I must admit that there's a touch of formula-writing about these books;
there's always a super-smart super-unconventional sociologist-type who
knows all the answers to everything, but nevertheless, if you like your
SF sociological as opposed to high-tech or fantastic, then you'll enjoy
these books.  (One reason they appeal to me is that I used to be a
sociologist.)  Each book tends to take a social trend which currently
worries 'concerned individuals' (Stand on Zanzibar - population; Sheep
Look Up - pollution; Jagged Orbit - arms and 'security'; Shockwave Rider
- computerization) and extrapolates it into the near future.

BUT... recently he released his latest 'big book' (The Crucible of Time -
I've seen mention of it here before).  I snatched it up as soon as I saw
it, and still, several months later, haven't finished it.  It's a
complete change of style for him, and I'm sorry to say I found it very
boring.  I only hope that when the next one is published (the interval is
ususally about two years) he reverts to the 'social' as opposed to
'scientific' speculation I like so much.

Anyone else like this kind of stuff?

Patrick Curran

Interactive Systems Corp.

     ...ihnp4!ima!ism780!patrick