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scheu's review against another edition
4.0
Sits alongside The Road and In the Country of Last Things as one of the most grim books I've ever read. Interestingly much of the story takes place in the Denver area, and involves diseases, it's really quite topical. And now I'm going to enjoy something happy.
justthisguy's review
5.0
I don't think I've read a more poignant book about the future written in the past. It's amazing how much of this book is relevant now considering it was written four decades ago.
It did take me a little while to get into this book because of the episodic nature of the writing. Once those episodes began to connect with one another I was hooked however.
It did take me a little while to get into this book because of the episodic nature of the writing. Once those episodes began to connect with one another I was hooked however.
timtellsstories's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn’t get into this one. The vignette style was intriguing, but it meant I couldn’t invest in the emotions of the narrative, and I didn’t feel Brunner ever cared about that. Often, the prose was difficult to decipher, ruminating around abstract ideas and paying little focus to what was actually happening in the story. I found it frustratingly inaccessible, and worse, I didn’t care to work for the challenge. The finest point of the novel seems to be Brunner’s extrapolation, fairly well predicting the last fifty years. I’m not much for historical accuracy in classic and modern science fiction (nonfiction does a better job of telling me what factually happened), but if that’s your jam, you might find that element compelling.
ianl1963's review
3.0
Audiobook which added to the strangeness.
Stefan Rudnicki should not attempt accents!
Disjointed nature of book detracted from some good ideas and extrapolation if not prescience of the worlds end; well maybe beginning of the end!
Stefan Rudnicki should not attempt accents!
Disjointed nature of book detracted from some good ideas and extrapolation if not prescience of the worlds end; well maybe beginning of the end!
hanklyhank's review
4.0
This is a classic dying-environment near-future novel from the early 70s. The Mediterranean Sea is deader than the Great Salt Lake, most of Africa is defoliated. What few crops that still grow, despite insane levels of pollution from wars and corporate greed, are being eaten at the root by insecticide-resistant pests. Filter masks are the only thing standing between Americans and miserable lung diseases. Dose after dose of antibiotics are necessary to cure minor infections and rampant STDs. All children born in the US have something wrong with them, from minor asthma to terrible deformity. You can't drink the water. You can't eat the food. Hundreds of years of not giving a fuck is coming back around to bite the us in our collective asses.
We're not there yet. Our water's actually doing a little better than it was in 1972. But you want personal air filters? Smell it. You want antibiotic resistant pathogens? Howdy, Mr. Staph Infection. Government brutality, corporate sins, Brunner knew what he was talking about, and it scares the crap out of me.
But without a story, it's all just Future Shock. And damned if he didn't tell the story brilliantly. He used a cut and paste style, short chunks of a dozen people's lives, moving across the world to show the damage and our response to it. The Trainites (predating and foretelling the coming of the Earth Liberation Front) riot and smash in the name of the environment. The rich ignore the damage they cause, even to their own sons and daughters. The middle class just try to stay afloat with water filters and dreams. Starving Africans are poisoned into madness by the food sent from the US to keep them alive. Brunner wasn't afraid to kill off his main characters, either. Nobody's safe when you've got too many rats and not enough maze.
"Leading" the USA is a president known only as Prexy. I hear he was modeled after then-Gov Reagan, but the media quotes from him sprinkled throughout the text sure sound like another leader known for going by a nickname.
On foreign war orphans being adopted by Americans: "I guess if they can't break down the front door they have to sneak around the back."
On a scientific report showing rising IQs in third world countries and falling IQs in the US due to pollution and lack of nutrious foods in developed nations: "Well, if they're so smart why aren't they clever?"
On Hondorans fighting against American invasion: "If you bite the hand that feeds you, you're apt to get a mouthful of fist." And so on.
final thoughts: If you match Gibson's ideas about current and coming technology with Brunner's image of what corporate and national greed and overpopulation can do to the world itself, you've pretty much got my biggest nightmare. How likely is it? Too likely.
We're not there yet. Our water's actually doing a little better than it was in 1972. But you want personal air filters? Smell it. You want antibiotic resistant pathogens? Howdy, Mr. Staph Infection. Government brutality, corporate sins, Brunner knew what he was talking about, and it scares the crap out of me.
But without a story, it's all just Future Shock. And damned if he didn't tell the story brilliantly. He used a cut and paste style, short chunks of a dozen people's lives, moving across the world to show the damage and our response to it. The Trainites (predating and foretelling the coming of the Earth Liberation Front) riot and smash in the name of the environment. The rich ignore the damage they cause, even to their own sons and daughters. The middle class just try to stay afloat with water filters and dreams. Starving Africans are poisoned into madness by the food sent from the US to keep them alive. Brunner wasn't afraid to kill off his main characters, either. Nobody's safe when you've got too many rats and not enough maze.
"Leading" the USA is a president known only as Prexy. I hear he was modeled after then-Gov Reagan, but the media quotes from him sprinkled throughout the text sure sound like another leader known for going by a nickname.
On foreign war orphans being adopted by Americans: "I guess if they can't break down the front door they have to sneak around the back."
On a scientific report showing rising IQs in third world countries and falling IQs in the US due to pollution and lack of nutrious foods in developed nations: "Well, if they're so smart why aren't they clever?"
On Hondorans fighting against American invasion: "If you bite the hand that feeds you, you're apt to get a mouthful of fist." And so on.
final thoughts: If you match Gibson's ideas about current and coming technology with Brunner's image of what corporate and national greed and overpopulation can do to the world itself, you've pretty much got my biggest nightmare. How likely is it? Too likely.
sueodd's review
Can't get into this book at all, and since no one is forcing me to read it, I'm going to stop. Too dated. Given my education, I've already been exposed to a whole lot of environmental doom & gloom and I have already been introduced to the possibilities of a world where ecological disaster has struck.
justiceofkalr's review against another edition
5.0
Life sucks and then you die. This very much reminded me of [b:Make Room! Make Room!|473850|Make Room! Make Room!|Harry Harrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345057490s/473850.jpg|639744] in its depressing/hopeless vision of the future. Except better. My one minor irritation was that with all the jumping around among characters' brief segments I occasionally had trouble keeping track of certain characters and who they were. It also probably didn't help that I read part of this in bits on a long bus trip, so my concentration/memory wasn't at it's best. I got them all sorted out though in the end.
portlandcat's review
4.0
Prediction from 1972:
- Global ecological crisis
- Everyone will wear masks
- Republican autocrat in charge of U.S.
- Mass distrust of science and modern medicine
- Xenophobia used as a tool to distract from domestic issues
- Public anxiety/hysteria
- Food industrial complex knowingly uses additives & preservatives at the expense of public health
- Everyone in the world hates/mistrusts the U.S.
Good thing this is just science fiction, PHEW!
- Global ecological crisis
- Everyone will wear masks
- Republican autocrat in charge of U.S.
- Mass distrust of science and modern medicine
- Xenophobia used as a tool to distract from domestic issues
- Public anxiety/hysteria
- Food industrial complex knowingly uses additives & preservatives at the expense of public health
- Everyone in the world hates/mistrusts the U.S.
Good thing this is just science fiction, PHEW!
natsilene's review against another edition
4.0
Romanzo a dir poco terrificante. E mai come in questo caso mi si raggela il sangue a chiamarlo profetico. Un futuro neanche post-apocalittico, e neanche apocalittico, ma agonizzante, ai suoi ultimi giorni di prosperità, non ci sono grosse esplosioni hollywoodiane spettacolari ma guerra, fame e malattie, chi combatte ancora non è muscoloso e determinato come, è disperato, pallido, emaciato, non ha niente da perdere. L'intero continente africano a è stato talmente depredato di risorse che è ormai il teatro di una continua guerra fratricida e suicida,l'esportazione globale dell'"american way", la caccia alle streghe del comunismo hanno avuto esiti disastrosi in ogni dove. Il Mar Mediterraneo è una discarica, il Mar Baltico presto lo diventerà. Negli Stati Uniti, dove la storia si sviluppa nell'arco di dodici mesi, seguiamo l'inesorabile crollo della civiltà occidentale e ,quasi sicuramente, mondiale, è stato eletto un presidente perfetto per la propaganda televisica, di una stupidità rassicurante, incessante megafono di giudizi lapidari e pressapochisti, carburante incalcolabilmente prezioso per le elite della finanza più rapace, nonostante la maggioranza delle città abbia, a causa dello smog, un'aria ormai irrespirabile se non con una maschera antigas, nonostante il mare sia ormai talmente inquinato che nessuno frequenta più le spiagge, nonostante a causa dello smaltimento illecito e noncurante di rifiuti chimici o radioattivi i bambini nati privi di malformazioni nelle fasce più povere della popolazione siano una rarità, nonostante l'aspettativa di nascita alla vità in tutto il nordamerica sia precipitando per non parlare del colpo di frusta scaturito dalle varie guerre di prossimità in centro america, la macchina propagandistica procede nella sua assordante reiterazione ed apologia alla nazione più ricca del mondo, patria delle acque più pulite e dell'aria più pura anche in un'atmosfera letteralmente tossica ed assassina.
Questa è anche la storia dell'ultima disperata resistenza ad un capitalismo e produttivismo suicida, ad opera di un gruppo capeggiato da un certo Austin Train, l'ultimo, o forse il primo vero rivoluzionario della modernità. Il mondo è diventato tossico, i duecento milioni di individui più eccessivi e nocivi del pianeta hanno sottratto la possibiltà di un futuro vivibile a tutti, il gregge alza la testa, ma è troppo tardi.
Questa è anche la storia dell'ultima disperata resistenza ad un capitalismo e produttivismo suicida, ad opera di un gruppo capeggiato da un certo Austin Train, l'ultimo, o forse il primo vero rivoluzionario della modernità. Il mondo è diventato tossico, i duecento milioni di individui più eccessivi e nocivi del pianeta hanno sottratto la possibiltà di un futuro vivibile a tutti, il gregge alza la testa, ma è troppo tardi.
zifk's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An interesting look at an inevitable revolt against the climate catastrophe. Slow at times, fast at others, a great read. Luckily missed the mark on how polluted our everyday world is now, but still hits the nail on the head of general apathy towards change for the betterment of our world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Racial slurs, Violence, and War