THE GREAT STEAMBOAT RACE was a major effort and a darned good read, although I doubt if it would have made the best-seller lists. His publisher demanded that Brunner’s next book in the series have a specific plot that he (the publisher) thought would be great the plot the published wanted had alr4eady been used in an earlier book in the series - the publisher had never even read the books! The final Max Curfew, HONKY IN THE WOODPILE, was never published in the US. With the right promotion, the series could have become a best-selling money-machine for Brunner. The first three books (those I have read) were exciting reads.

Curfew was a Black spy with a distrust of Whites he lasted through four books. Max Curfew was Brunner’s foray into series characters. It remains unpublished, although a brief except was published in THE BOOK OF JOHN BRUNNER (1976). Due to a number of screwups on the part of the publisher, the book kept getting delayed until, finally, it’s subject matter was no longer topical. His big “breakout” book should have been MANALIVE, a topical novelwritten in the mid 1960s which many felt would do for Brunner what LUCKY JIM did for Kingsley Amis. Post navigation ← FORGOTTEN MUSIC #34: SO By Peter Gabriel (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition–3 CD Box Set) BOB’S RED MILL LOW-CARB BAKING MIX & DA VINCI SUGAR-FREE PANCAKE SYRUP →Īs with many other authors, the industry did not treat Brunner kindly. This entry was posted in Uncategorized on Februby george. If they’re as good as Jad Smith’s John Brunner I’ll be buying them all.

Dick, Greg Egan, William Gibson, Joe Haldeman, China Miéville, and Connie Willis. University of Illinois Press plan forthcoming books on Gregory Benford, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Lois McMaster Bujold, Arthur C. If haven’t read any of John Brunner’s works, Jad Smith gives you a nice guide to where to start. My favorite John Brunner novel is The Jagged Orbit (1969) where urban life deteriorates because of unlimited guns (sound familiar?) and increasing violence. Brunner borrowed narrative techniques from John Dos Passos to communicate the scope of his story. Then, Smith turns to Brunner’s more ambitious, challenging and longer works like his Hugo-Award winning Stand on Zanzibar (1968) which deals with our planet’s population crisis. Smith discusses Brunner’s early, pulpish work (still readable to me!) and the works ACE Books published for a decade. Jad Smith’s John Brunner isn’t a Forgotten Book (it was just published), but it does explore the impact of an unjustly forgotten writer–John Brunner–and his forgotten oeuvre of great books.

John Brunner by Jad Smith