Stand on Zanzibar
Written: May 17 '01 (Updated Nov 24 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sometimes prophetic, this inventive novel of the "what if" variety is a complete alternate history
Cons: Lengthy; serious work by reader required to understand many premises used. Could use a glossary!
The Bottom Line: Will leave you with a complete other world in your mind, but some very demanding and not very happy reading is required to acquire it.
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| snpmurray's Full Review: Stand on Zanzibar. Books |
This book is clearly the product of a writer of uncommon imagination. Brunner presents us with his near-future-history of our own world, as told through a handful of major characters and their tribulations.
Brunner sets his tale against a backdrop of overcrowded, media-soaked humanity, milling around trying to find out where it should be going, and striving to understand itself.
Within this setting, a corporation works on the ultimate corporate take-over, becoming the puppet master for an actual sovereign nation. We observe the part played in this process by a number of characters, who are well drawn; a mid-level executive in the company, with crisis concerning his racial identity, a professional academic who has sold his soul to the military for a life of academia without truly understanding his commitments, and an astute alcoholic sociologist whose observations and cynicism have made him into a rebel without a cause.
These characters, and a myriad of other minor characters succeed in painting for us a very complete and believeable "other earth". This is a novel of the "what if?" variety. The themes explored include the place of the media in the identity of a society, artificial minds, and most engagingly, how exactly the human spirit can buffer and conquer the urgent demands that a hectic world can press against it.
One of the most shining thing about this novel is the manner in which each of the principal characters comes to terms with their personal situations. Brunner demonstrates insight into the psyche, and character development is intelligently balanced. Realistically, each character has periods of thoughtful introspection, and periods of mundane thoughtless existence. Both of these contribute to the growth they experience. In this, Brunner hits the nail on the head with regard to the human experience, that even the most banal event can be a turning point in a life.
The novel has its moments of comic relief, but for the most part it is fairly dark. Drugs, violence and dubious sexual explorations form a part of its make-up, along with some depressing mind control scenes I could have happily lived without. I suppose this was the authors vision, but you should be warned these things are there. I could have lived without them.
This novel is fairly balanced overall. The depressing aspects of our own society are all here in one form or another; greed, ignorance, selfishness, sadness. But upon finishing the read, one has seen glimpses of hope, and some affirmation of the resilience of the human spirit.
The novel is long, and complicated. Brunner wishes to illustrate so much of his alternate world to us that he employs some fairly unconventional literary styles to get his points across. Some of them are definitely not easy reading. Particularly at the start of the book. I feel this is not a good point in the story to get so radical, much effort is required before one sees the fruit of ones' labor.
Some of my other science fiction book reviews:
Rama Revealed
Prelude to Space
Stand on Zanzibar
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Cat's Cradle
The Gods Themselves
Watchmen
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hammer of God
The Left Hand of Darkness
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of Light
Rendevous with Rama
The Tombs of Atuan
The Dispossessed
I am Legend
The Einstein Intersection
Earth Abides
Peace on Earth
The Farthest Shore
Methuselah's Children
A Call to Arms
To your Scattered Bodies Go
The Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Doomsday Book
Frankenstein Unbound
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Imperial Earth
A Case of Conscience
Solaris
The Sands of Mars
The Land of Laughs
Eden
His Masters Voice
Citizen of the Galaxy
King David's Spaceship
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Double Star
The Fabulous Riverboat
Songs of Distant Earth
Way Station
The Fountains of Paradise
The Long Tomorrow
Lincolns Dreams
Alas Babylon
More Than Human
1984
The Forever War
All the Myriad Ways
I Sing the Body Electric
Gateway
Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said
This Immortal
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Recommended:
Yes
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snpmurray
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Location: Sedona, Arizona
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