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In a world drowning in data, a fugitive tries to outrun the forces that want to reprogram him, in this smart, edgy novel by a Hugo Award-winning author. Constantly shifting his identity among a population choking on information, innovation, and novelty, Nickie Haflinger is a most dangerous outlaw, yet he doesn't even appear to exist. As global society falls apart in all directions, with corporate power run amok and personal freedom surrendered to computers and bureaucrats, Haflinger is caught and about to be re-programmed. Now he has to try to escape once again, defy the government--and turn the tide of organizational destruction, in this visionary science fiction novel by the author of The Sheep Look Up and Stand on Zanzibar. "Brunner writes about the future as if he and the reader were already living in it." --The New York Times Book Review "When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write the book, I was fascinated--but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has, with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it as twitched at me ever since." --Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock "One of the most important science fiction authors. Brunner held a mirror up to reflect our foibles because he wanted to save us from ourselves." --SF Site… (more)
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The best reason to read "The Shockwave Rider," though, is that Brunner seems to be asking the right questions here, even if he seems to have gotten a few of the future's particulars wrong. He worries about the overstimulation that comes with modern life and the speeding-up that living in a highly computer-dependent society might entail. This hectic experience seems to unmoor many of his characters from their most basic thought processes and desires: in a way, this book is both a warning and a plea for sanity. I don't think that Brunner offers too many solutions here, per se: his off-the-grid solution seems a bit too much like a liberal-arts fantasy, but he makes a good argument that too much noise, too much change, too much speed, and too much data, too much anything, really, can be dangerous to the self. I can't call "The Shockwave Rider" a classic, but there's certainly enough here to make it worth your while.
This book is better.
It makes up for its lack of "retro flair" by not having many
The aspects of modern life depicted here range from the profound: the Internet (though it's not called that); the "disposable" lifestyle where everyone is seen more as a replaceable cog in a machine than as an individual, and neither employees nor employers have any loyalty to each other; and the break-down in mental health and relationships that these ever-increasing pressures cause; political corruption because the Powers That Be are bought off by corporations; also bioengineering in a smaller way than is true for us. Others are more minor: the "circuses" seem to have strong similarities to reality TV; the Wii is referenced, as is by implication the Tivo etc.; and the increasing pointlessness of advertising. Even vulture capitalists are implied.
This book is heading toward 40 years old. It is still very fresh. I'm glad I re-read it once again- it had been maybe 20 years for me, and it's even more appropriate now than I recall it being then!
I would call Precipice CA utopian. If you hate utopias, that might be a problem. However, the rest of the world just seems too close to NOW to be considered dystopian... though that's a really interesting question: are we living in a dystopia?
Highly recommended. (Not as funny as "Space Merchants"... but much more recommended.)
Nickie Halfinger had lived a score of lifetimes but didn't really exist. A fugutive from a secret government agency who had educated him he had broken his code and escaped. His education had prepared him to attack systems but what his controllers didn't realise that they had also created a weapon to destroy them, this is the story of them trying to chase him down to stop him before he forced society to change.
The book was first published in 1975, a good 15 years before there was even a glimmering of the Web, and yet he got so many things right about the internet revolution and its impact on changing the way people think and relate to technology.
In short, it is a tour de force following on from his also outstanding environmentalist books, Stand on Zanzibar (1968) exploring consequences of population explosion, and The Sheep Look Up (1972) exploring consequences of industrial pollution and global warming. Brunner was prescient in so many ways I wonder if he wasn't somehow or other a time traveller.
I think my favorite concept Brunner brings into this book is that of "Hearing Aid", a free number one can call to rant, rave, cuss, complain to with a promise that it is not recorded and no one but the person on the other end of the line can hear them. In these days, when our every keystroke is recorded and our phone conversations are easily dipped into, I sort of wish we had something like that available to us as a regular thing. Some stuff you don't even want to blog about.
By the end, the story just wrapped up too neatly. It was a happy ending all around (something, I'll admit, I haven't seen much these past 6 months). All the mutant dogs do their noble best. The revolutionaries pull one over on the government and manage to put out a powerful computer worm (this book is here the term comes from) that exposes all the secret data hidden from view, effectively bringing about a sort of socialist drive for freedom and love. But, see, I don't think that the average US citizen would actually care much who we've been torturing or why. I think we would find it interesting for ten minutes and then go back to their daily routine.
final thought: I'm too cynical for this novel, but it wasn't a half bad read. If you want true dystopian horrifics, though, go for The Sheep Look Up instead.
Ina said, "Me too! And I can't believe we're the only ones."
This book was written in the mid-1970s, and inspired by the concepts in Alvin Toffler's book "Future
Nickie Haflinger is not a likeable protagonist, however. He is extremely arrogant and excessively proud of his self-control, while actually being prone to showing off and getting himself noticed, which is the last thing he needs to happen.
What kept me reading was his dystopian vision. His future America is one in which people have become fundamentally disconnected. They move constantly, “plugging into” new jobs and homes like appliances. They have no close relationships, not even with their children or lovers. The gap between rich and poor has widened to a chasm. This has created a fundamental discontent and anxiety that undercuts everything. It all sounds very familiar.
In an isolated California town populated by refugees of a devastating earthquake, Brunner proposes a utopian alternative, a return to a simpler life built on the ideals of community-based living. The Internet-fueled revolution he posits may come as too pat of an ending, though.
However, I was disappointed with this book on an ideational and literary level.
First, this book, like many near-future, cautionary dystopias is a creature of its time. Brunner seems to have a somewhat tennous idea of how computers and
Brunner, like so many writers, seems somewhat content to write nationalism off as a dead force in the future. Past years have only seen it grow stronger. He also postulates a future with home terminals but not home computers and all their individual, liberating (and criminal) possibilities. That dates the novel's premises quite a bit.
I have never read Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, so I can't comment on Brunner's use of Toffler's ideas, but it seemed he took the idea of future shock a bit too literally. I can't see "overload" (a general psychosis induced by rapid change in the novel) becoming a real mental problem.
Some of Brunner's concerns are interesting and valid and timely: data privacy and use; and the political and social (little emotional commitment) effects of a highly mobile population. In the last point, Brunner clearly guessed wrong. With faxes and personal computers and long distance staying in touch, maintaining ties is easier than ever.
I found the ending where mere access to data is shown as the solution rather silly -- especially since it overpowers brute force. (An ending somewhat like Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes). Brunner ignores the real consequences of personal privacy invasion glibly. He only mentions corporations and governments and the Mafia -- an odd concern reminescent of his The Jagged Orbit -- as invading privacy but what about malicious individuals? There is the implied ability to plant disinformation on the net.
The novel's end seemed too pat, too much a legacy of Brunner's years of writing space opera (nothing wrong with that inherently) and liberation sf a la John Campbell. One man kills the system, saves himself and others and finds true love along the way. Brunner obviously intended this book to be hyperbolic and somewhat didactic dystopia, but there is a tension in that combination which can get an author into trouble. Too much hyperbole and the reader refuses to take the warning seriously. A careful assessment of tone is needed.
From the perspective of 1975, The Shockwave Rider is not that exaggerated, but the tone still fails to support the warning. Lastly, I think my expectations may have been wrong for this book. I expected the novel to deal with a society changing too fast. On a literary level, I expected a more extreme use of the Dos Passos technique (which I like very much) a lá The Jagged Orbit but didn't get here. I liked the latter novel better.
As with most 20th-century science fiction, quite a bit has come to pass, although not in exactly the way Toffler and Brunner imagined.
The
The characters have more character than the older pulp fiction cardboard cutouts, and the personal crises and relationships are engaging.
The goal is Utopian, and the outcome overly optimistic, in the context of what actually happened in the world to date, but ya gotta have a dream.
But one of them escaped, and used his government codes to try to help undo the harm done.
Haven't you always wondered why people that are good at hacking computers don't turn to hacking computers for the good of the people?
Give them bread and circuses...
P.215:
"For the convenience of the lazy plebeians, the monthly distributions of corn were converted into a daily allowance of bread... And when the popular clamor accused the dearness and scarcity of wine... Rigid sobriety was insensibly relaxed; and although the generous design of Aurelian does not appear to have been executed in its full extent, the use of wine was allowed on very easy liberal terms... And the meanest Roman could purchase, with a small copper coin, the daily enjoyment of a scene of pomp and luxury which might excite the Envy of the kings of Asia... But the most Lively and Splendid amusement of the idle multitude depended on the frequent exhibition of public games and spectacles... The happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race."
P233
" 'Be assured they're typical. They've been systematically steered away from understanding of the single most important truth about mankind. It's as though you were to comb the continent for the kindest, most generous, most considerate individuals you could find, and then spend years persuading them that because such attitudes are rare, they must be abnormal and should be cured.' "
P.241
" 'Oh...' Posta took a deep breath. 'More or less this; the cost of staying out front--economically, in terms of Prestige, and so forth -- has been to invoke the counterpart of the athlete's "Second wind," which burns up muscle tissue, you can't keep that up forever. And what we've been burning is people who could have been useful, talented members of society if the pressure had been less intense. As it was, they turned to crime or suicide or went insane.' "
P.254
" 'Anybody here get nightmares because you know data exists you can't get at and other people can? Anybody suffering with chronic anxiety, insomnia, digestive trouble, general stress response syndrome? Turn any wet stone and you find victims. And as to the underlying cause... Any of you play at fencing? Yes? Then you know how frustrating it is to find that your opponent has claimed a point slam in the middle of your best potential triangle. All your cherished games go crash because he outsmarted you. Well, that's a game. When it's a matter of real life it's not fun anymore, is it? And up to now the data net has been consciously manipulated to prevent us finding out what we most need to know.
" 'We know, we feel in our guts, that decisions are constantly being made which are going to wreck our ambitions, our dreams, our personal relationships. But the people making those decisions are keeping them secret, because if they don't they'll lose the leverage they have over their subordinates. It's a Marvel we're not all gibbering with terror. A good few of us do wind up gibbering, don't they? Others manage to keep afloat by denying -- repressing -- awareness of the risks that it's all going to go smash. Other still drive themselves into null passivity, what's been called "the new conformity.". . Which is sick. Is the purpose of creating the largest information- transmission system in history to present mankind with a brand-new reason for paranoia?' "
If you ever watched Paul Verhoeven's SF movies then these multiple story paths play the role of Vehoeven's commercial "breaks" but in a much more aggressive manner.
So first part is crazy, its like watching a movie with 100 actors and having about 1-1.5 minute dedicated to each of them. No way you can remember all of this stuff or what is actually going on.
Story is very contemporary. Through our main protagonist, Nick, we are given a very dystopian picture of the future. Picture that unfortunately resonates with out present. It is world where data networks (what today we call Internet) rule everything, everything is run by them (whether that should be the case or not - again same as in our present) and people are considered by powers to be [that control these very networks] as nothing more than objects providing data to mainframe systems (now popularly called clouds, but you get the gist). Information is everything and humans are treated as simple data carriers - external disks or sensors.
Nick, being trained by elite corporation, uses all he knows to evade the now de-facto full control of life executed through the data network. Destined to become one of the soulless, almost robotic operatives that form think tanks for almost every political or social problem or issue, Nick manages to identify this process of eliminating empathy or anything that does not comply with the expected behavior. He proves to be quite an actor and capable to evade the tests and finally manages to escape with the goal of living off the grid. But as he tries to evade and as he lives through multiple identities spanning few years he finally gets caught by the corporation when he finally learns what love is and lowers his guard. And corporation is ruthless, they need to see what is it that turned Nick, their prize operative, against them. And they need to know how to stop it. So they use every means at their disposal.
I wont go into the details here because it would ruin the story but again I have to say story is frighteningly reminiscent of our present.
Constant bombardment of people with useless information - everything that can be useful is made difficult to find while TV shows, commercials, reality shows akin to gladiatorial fights and opinion polls [used more to push people towards certain options then to give actual options, sort of a sinister Schroedinger's cat lab] are everywhere. It is world where nothing is lacking but still life has no meaning, people are estranged from themselves, there is no family, and only constant is continuous movement, migration from one coast to other, of people for various reasons (change is always good being the most popular one) so they cannot grow their roots. Reason is simple, constantly on the move, constantly bombarded by rubbish people get more pliable and smaller problem for the government. And if in this constant movement every place is same as the other so people feel that actually nothing is changed so they remain compliant- then all the better because people will accept anything just to avoid rustling feathers of those who control them especially when they have a hint of what awaits them if they rebel.
As I said terrible, terrible view of the future that became in great part our present.
Author also shows one other part of our present that came up in last two years - how easy it is for vengeful government to foment negative opinions using various so called spin-doctors and rob people from the very means of life (asset freezing) or even their life (through mobbing and attacks via social media) in a matter of seconds. Something that would previously take court orders is now willingly done by banks and companies so they just can be spared of any pogroms by activists - as if reasoning that if people are innocent they will survive but basically leaving them in the open to die, figuratively and literally. How easy it is to erase the person .... And how easy is for the entire population to shrug their shoulders and decide to live under the mass bubble of only one source of information.
Author blames this to the links of organized crime with high levels of government and big corporations. This is only part I disagree - it is not organized crime as a third party (in terms of mafia or something like that) but those forces in government and business that always acted above the law and are now given the ultimate means of control. These are the greatest crime organizations in history of humankind.
Book has a happy ending of sorts, at least provides a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Reason is simple, actions of few can only start the change but people need to chose it and fight for it. And how many will decide to use the information provided in a way it was intended, for knowledge? Very few unfortunately, because it is easier to track celebrities and get on with the most popular political/social idea of the moment and deal with the heretics. Because understanding and attention is to be given only to those who in the end do not affect us directly - when we feel that somebody thinks differently, even by just asking questions - today, discussion is no longer an option, one must silence every difference. In day and age of so much talk about equality world has become aggressively intolerable. As author says people are no longer looked at as individuals but as some preconceived notion of human being together with all expected beliefs and thoughts. If one does not match the mold he is very soon send to recovery institutions.
I just hope there is more than one Precipice in the world. Otherwise ..... bad, bad, bad......
Very interesting book, highly recommended.
P.S.
One of the best parts of the book is the way people try to get meaning to their lives and activities - way marketing experts and other spin-doctors get treated is one of the best kicks from the book :)