Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

20 All Time Classic Sci Fi Novels - Stand On Zanzibar

Reviews
 

This was a serendipity purchase in that I had read the book 40 years ago and I took the risk that it would be worth investing my time and money in a second read. No problems on either count - and I think everyone should be made to read this book because it is as relevant to today's world as it was in the 60s.

The book arrived with quite a few loose pages and Amazon were brilliant in sending me a second copy within a day and making it easy for me to return the original (faulty) copy.

Well done Amazon!

David Wood
David R. Wood

---

What more can one say about this novel? Science Fiction at it's finest and not to be missed.
Mr. Stephen Parkin

---

I've known of this book for years and have been meaning to read it for as long. And I really wanted to rave about it. It's a classic, after all, so it ought to be good. Well, it is and it isn't. I have no doubt that when it was first published, back in 1968, it would have seemed impressive. This book has big ambitions, and that's always to be lauded. It would have fallen into the `experimental' bracket in its day, and it's mainly for this reason that it suffers now. Although the scope of the book is admirable, and some of Brunner's broad visions of the present day are fairly close to the mark, there's some downright awful predicted slang in here and the experimentation with the novel's structure feels contrived, laboured, and pointless much of the time. A sizeable portion of the 600+ pages read more like a sociopolitical discussion than a novel. Not much happens here and to be honest I found some sizeable chunks rather tedious. Perhaps I was expecting too much, having waited so long to read this book. Maybe I wanted something else, having assumed, for no good reason, during those years of expectation, that this was a different kind of work. Whatever the reason I was left feeling flat by this book, but that might be more my fault than John Brunner's.
sft

---

The thing with fortune tellers, is that people tend to remember the things they get right and forget what they get wrong. So it is with this book. Brunner certainly gets very near the mark with many of his predictions but is very wide of the mark with others.

However, don't read this book as a work of prediction. Take it for what it is - a story which is set some 30 years from when it was written and you'll probably find it a more worthwhile read.

I have to confess that it took me quite a while to get past the first few pages of this book. The style, which consists of straight prose interspersed with various snapshots into people's lives, newsflashes, glossary style definitions, snippets of conversations and the sociological observations of Chad C. Mulligan can make for a hard slog. Also, while many novels set in the future make use of "futurespeak" I, perhaps unfairly, found Brunner's particular brand of future jargon quite irritating, all "hipcrimes", "muckers", "shiggies" and the like. Also, the use of faux-swearing; "dreck" this and "sheeting" that I found quite purile and, again, an irritant.

However, these are minor points, probably saying more about me, and overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
C. A. Gallagher

---

Stand on Zanzibar is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves knowledgeable and interested in published science fiction. Over 650 pages, John Brunner has created a masterpiece which through its unique style delivers a quite dangerous and relevant message. I am proud that I have read this and I am proud it sits on my bookshelf.

What makes the book so different is its meandering between a straight, plot-driven novel and snippets of ‘articles’ of either news events or a sociologist’s book on contemporary society. We have big, corporate-driven advertising; snippets of random crimes being planned and committed; and even a few glossaries describing this future dystopia. What this means is that whilst it can be quite confusing sometimes (especially the whole chapters of random paragraphs of random people’s conversations) I felt slightly more interested in these non-novel parts than the actual story. This is certainly true of the first half which is more about setting the scene leaving the second half to deal with a more dynamic and exciting plot.

There are also quite large political undertones running throughout the book. Brunner is thoroughly anti-war and anti-colonialism but presents this in such a humourous and subtle way that it never becomes preachy or manipulative. Certainly he has an affliction for Africa as there are so many references to it but he never overflows into full-blown “I-am-sorry-for-what-my-country-did-in-the-past-and-what-we-did-to-you-and-your-country” mode. It was a measured and rewarding way of putting across his point.

Much has been made of his future predictions. I don’t think that this matters at all as it’s a story not some Club of Rome doomsday book. He does get things like the overpopulation of the developed world massively wrong but I think if people were to read this in 100 years it would be more life-like yet still readable. I did however enjoy the super-computer Shalmaneser owned by a mega-corporation that is so powerful it can run an entire country. Again Brunner might be off in his predictions but it was 1969 after all.

The book features quite a few minor characters but they feel fully fleshed out and distinctive because Brunner makes them so interesting. It could get quite tricky sometimes though, when you return to one of these people after 300 pages and by the time you’ve realized who they are their chapter is over (the book does have very short chapters). It is quite tough sometimes to read but if you get through it and understand it you realise that this is a gem of a book that deserves much more recognition.
A. Morley

---