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.

Written in Brunner's characteristic style, the book is witty, sarcastic and really really bitter.
If you're into dark humor and pessimistic bitter views of reality (as I am) this is the book to read.

One of the (undeservedly) forgotten great classics of SF.

Stylistically, this book is a mosaic, a patchwork of cross-cutting images, scenes, advertisements, headlines, interviews, scientific paper excerpts, startlingly different from almost everything else published up till then. It takes a little bit to get used to this style, to let the world picture build into something coherent in your mind. But once you do, it lends a verisimilitude and a sense of frenetic pace that is perfectly suited to this dystopian vision of a world staggering under severe over-population pressure, driven by mega-corporations and military influence, forced genetic regulation, socialism and severe pressure to conform. From the Mr. and Mrs. Everyman that has become a daily part of everyone’s daily video viewing to the ‘muckers’ so prophetically envisioned (just see today’s headlines), this is an expose of just what happens when there really are too many people crowded onto too small a planet.

Some portions of this are a little dated, mainly in those areas where Brunner used straight-line extrapolations of trends that were present at the time of writing, such as the liquid-nitrogen cooled mega-computer (rather than any vision of today’s internet) or the portrayed ‘integration’ of blacks in the society. But these items do not seriously detract from the power and depth of the themes that tackled here. Characterization is a little thin. Other than Norman and Donald Hogan, most of the characters are pretty flimsy, or they are an obvious preaching board for Brunner’s thematic comments (Chad Mulligan). But as this is an idea book, not a book of character or strong action, this is a minor fault.

This book was probably the archetype for today’s cyberpunk sub-genre, written with power and conceptual brilliance, one of Brunner’s best, standing alongside his The Whole Man, The Sheep Look Up, and The Jagged Orbit as prime examples of just what science fiction is all about. A dark vision of which all too much is still very relevant in today’s world.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)