Monday, August 31, 2009

The Crucible of Time

1983 John Brunner


Currently 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.

2 comments:

  1. 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)

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  2. Hey 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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