Retro Review - The Jagged Orbit (1969) by John Brunner up at Fantastic Worlds
Introduction
A decadent computerized future civilization in which social tensions have torn nations apart and only a computer-savvy reporter, a psychiatrist, a mystic seer and an artificial intelligence stand between the world and overwhelming disaster.
Cyberpunk? Too early, but obviously one of cyberpunk's inspirations.
This is the basic premise of The Jagged Orbit (1969) by John Brunner, a book which I had somehow managed to avoid reading until a few days ago. I found the book fascinating, both in its prescience about particular possibilities and in the ways in which its social concerns were limited by the outlook of the late 1960's left. It had both many of the strengths of the cyberpunk of the 1980's and 1990's -- and also many of its weaknesses.
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read the whole review at
http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2012/06/retro-review-john-brunner-jagged-orbit.html
Comments welcome both here and especially on Fantastic Worlds.
A decadent computerized future civilization in which social tensions have torn nations apart and only a computer-savvy reporter, a psychiatrist, a mystic seer and an artificial intelligence stand between the world and overwhelming disaster.
Cyberpunk? Too early, but obviously one of cyberpunk's inspirations.
This is the basic premise of The Jagged Orbit (1969) by John Brunner, a book which I had somehow managed to avoid reading until a few days ago. I found the book fascinating, both in its prescience about particular possibilities and in the ways in which its social concerns were limited by the outlook of the late 1960's left. It had both many of the strengths of the cyberpunk of the 1980's and 1990's -- and also many of its weaknesses.
----
read the whole review at
http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2012/06/retro-review-john-brunner-jagged-orbit.html
Comments welcome both here and especially on Fantastic Worlds.