TY - ABST T1 - "The Suicide of Man" Y1 - 1978 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

Future eutopia proves only a staging ground to an apparently higher existence.

JF - Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine VL - 2.4 N1 -

Rpt. in The Best of John Brunner (New York: Ballantine Books, 1984), 239-66.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - The Shockwave Rider Y1 - 1975 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

A complex dystopia that has an embedded eutopia opposed to the dystopia. The focus of the dystopia is on a program to identify geniuses, particularly among orphans and other children who can be taken without being noticed. They are then educated and trained (brainwashed and conditioned) to develop their particular bent so as to be most useful to the system. One man uses his talent with computer systems to escape, although much of the novel follows him as his memories are searched after he is captured. The eutopia, called Precipice, is a small town with advanced, ecologically sensitive architecture, a radically decentralized political system, and an egalitarian population. The man, who again escapes, uses his talents to save Precipice from attack by the government.

PB - Harper & Row CY - New York U5 -

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - The Stone That Never Came Down Y1 - 1973 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

Religious dystopia with very strict rules regarding behavior that is also racist. The novel focuses on the spread of a drug that radically improves sense impressions and raises awareness that undermines the dystopia and sets the stage for a better society.

PB - Doubleday CY - Garden City, NY U5 -

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - The Sheep Look Up Y1 - 1972 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

A pollution dystopia that presents a world of the near future in which it is necessary to always wear a filter mask whenever one is outside, most food has been contaminated by chemicals used in fertilizers, etc., the water is unsafe for drinking without boiling, etc. Added to this is the leaking of poison gas buried in mountains in Colorado into the water supply and into the food factory and the effects on those who eat the food. Widespread disease, unemployment, and starvation. The corrupt U.S. government is attempting to control the world economy for the benefit of U.S. corporations, and those trying to change the government are under attack. No man between sixteen and sixty can get a visa to leave the country unless they have served in the military or have a medical exemption. The main opposition group lives in an intentional community in Colorado. At the end of the year covered by the book, revolts are occurring throughout the U.S. and many cities are on fire.

PB - Harper & Row CY - New York N1 -

Rpt. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2003, with a brief "Introduction" by David Brin (xiii-xiv) and an "Afterword" by James John Bell (369-88) on the books environmental message; and Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009. 300 copy ed. illus. Dan J. O’Driscoll and with an “Introduction” by Kim Stanley Robinson (7-11), “John Brunner A Short Autobiography” (409-35) by Brunner, “John Brunner Interviewed by Ian Covell” (437-55), and “Noise Level” (457-59) by Brunner reprinted from Science Fiction Review, no. 29 (January-February 1979): 15-16. 

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - Stand on Zanzibar Y1 - 1968 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

A complex novel that takes place in a future overpopulation and corporate dystopia.

PB - Doubleday CY - Garden City, NY N1 -

Rpt. New York: Orb, 2011 with a new “Foreword The Happening World” (vii-xiv) by Bruce Sterling; as the Collector's Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1987 illus. Vincent DiFate and with an “Introduction” (unpaged) by David Brin; as 300 copy ed. illus. Jacob McMurray and with an “Introduction” by Kim Stanley Robinson” (9-13 misnumbered 7 in the Table of Contents) and “Viewpoint. Childless Couples and Delinquent Children” (549-56 misnumbered 543 in the Table of Contents) by Brunner rpt. from Science and Public Policy 12.3 (June 1985): 149-52. Lakewood, CO: Centipede Press, 2009; and as New York: Tor Essentials, 2021, with the foreword “The Happening World” by Bruce Sterling from the Orb 2011 ed. (v-xii). Extracts were published in New Worlds Science Fiction 51.177 (November 1967): 34-49.

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ER - TY - ABST T1 - The Squares of the City Y1 - 1965 A1 - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) KW - English author KW - Male author AB -

Authoritarian dystopia set in a newly built, intended to be ideal, city in a South American dictatorship. The novel is modeled on a game of chess and deals with a power struggle between the dictator and his main opponent.

PB - Ballantine Books CY - New York U5 -

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