1983 John BrunnerCurrently reading this one, should finish it in a couple days. It is really good. I love John Brunner's work, he is one of the (increasingly few) original sci-fi writers still out there. The book is actually a series of novellas that combined tell an overarching story of a race's evolution from primitives to spacefarers racing to escape their doomed planet. Epic!
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UPDATE - So a week later I have finished it. This novel is decidedly more space/alien sci-fi than Brunner's other works like The Shockwave Rider and Stand on Zanzibar which are by comparison more down to earth. My favorite feature of the book is how he takes a race of decidedly non-human creatures and makes them familiar to the reader through repeated jargon and context rather than outright exposition. Excellent writing style in this regard. Needless to say, highly recommended.
When you say 'one of the original sci-fi writers still out there' what do you mean? He died at the 1995 British Worldcon - keeping the tradition alive of major sf figures dying at or around British Worldcons (Robert Sheckley dying before going to the last one in 2005)
ReplyDeleteHey Elwhere good call - I noticed that too but was too lazy to go back and correct that. I think I was thinking of Ray Bradbury or someone else still drawing breath. I didn't know that about Robert Sheckley - interesting. Thanks for the comment!
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