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Web of Everywhere

John Brunner

3.30 · Rating details · 158 ratings · 22 reviews

In a society revolutionised by a device that lets you walk through a door and be anywhere in the world - instantly...
At a time when unauthorised travel has caused millions to die violent deaths...
In a world where invasion of privacy is the ultimate crime...
He is 'The Visitor'

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Paperback, 148 pages

Published June 1974 by Bantam (first published 1974)

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Apr 23, 2015 Claudia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, dys-u-topia

In a post-apocalyptic Earth, following three nuclear wars, teleportation is the main travelling system. There are the public gates, with codes known by everybody and there are the lost ones, private, whose codes are sold well on the black market and travelling through them is a major crime. Hans Dykstra is one of those who takes the risks and he'll eventually get "lost" because of his schemes.

A disturbing dystopian novel which leaves one wondering...

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Mar 01, 2018 Ubik 2.0 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando

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Jun 16, 2012 Isabel (kittiwake) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Next he came to a small study, with an open bureau bearing a Halda typewriter, documents in pigeon-holes, a pile of dusty correspondence papers which he blew at gently until the name and address were legible. From it he learned that the house's owners had been called Eriksson, that they were indeed in Sweden, near a place called Umeå, which he would have to look up on a map when he got home, and something else which struck him as simply incredible!
Their skelter code was printed on the Next he came to a small study, with an open bureau bearing a Halda typewriter, documents in pigeon-holes, a pile of dusty correspondence papers which he blew at gently until the name and address were legible. From it he learned that the house's owners had been called Eriksson, that they were indeed in Sweden, near a place called Umeå, which he would have to look up on a map when he got home, and something else which struck him as simply incredible!
Their skelter code was printed on the letterhead!

The skelter is a transportation device that lets you walk through its door and out of any other skelter on the planet, as long as you know its code. There are even skelters that open straight into to the heart of an incinerator, although their codes are strictly controlled to stop people making use of them to dispose of dead bodies and other evidence of criminal activity, rather than just rubbish.

Supposedly the invention of the skelter caused worldwide devastation, as there was originally no way of preventing access to anyone who knew the code. As well as facilitating robbery and crimes of violence, it also allowed terrorists and saboteurs easy access to plant bombs and make a quick getaway to the other side of the world, and allowed diseases to spread with impunity. The human race has been decimated by the skelter, and a disease called contagious puerperal fever has led to a gender imbalance, with 5 men to 3 women (and not many of them are fertile, since any woman not immune to CPF is sterilised for their own safety). Now that a device called the privateer has been invented that allows you to screen incomers to your skelter, and deny them access, the elite, skelter using population tend to live on islands, although there are some people who are 'stuck', unable to bring themselves to walk through the door of a skelter, for fear of what might happen, and there are also skelter-hating populations living at a lower technological level. Stealing skelter codes or using them to invade someone's privacy is punishable by being forced to wear a bracelet that prevents access to the skelter system.

I can't see that anyone would actually want to have such an insecure device providing access to their homes. In reality, the rich might have private skelters (although I am sure that they would be placed just outside their well-guarded perimeter defences), but I am sure that everyone else would just use public skelters. ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Norv rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, read-2012

When I picked up this book, I had no idea it will be another kind of "what if"... A very powerfully written "what if".
What if we do invent instant travel? You know, a cheap device, something the average person can afford to buy, and to place in their house, public parks, anything, anywhere; get in, get out on the other side of the world.
Come on, we all heard, or imagined, or read, (or have hopes! :)), about instant travel, so hey, what if?

I have read this novel a day after finishing Poul ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Kent rated it liked it

I really liked the concept of this book, but I think it should have been developed much further and had more of a plot line. This deals with a planet after a blowup of disease, war, and crime with the invention of the Skelter, which can take you anywhere in the world in seconds. The story involves Hans and Mustafa, two men who get illegal skelter codes to homes where they explore. The privateer had since been developed so that people could not go into people's homes without a secure code. The ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Robert Negut rated it liked it

Good enough for a short SF book. Shows that it was meant to be an even shorter story, as it says at the beginning, because it basically only follows a character, with a second added in a couple of places, and gives little detail about the world, but it does its job and sends some messages to those willing to listen. Also, all the little poems supposedly written by Mustapha placed at the beginning of each chapter can fall under "words of wisdom" anytime.

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Aug 09, 2010 Will rated it liked it · review of another edition

I like how much of the story is left implicit, and how everyone is a monster to everyone else while they are innocent and blameless. It is a very good parable about teleportation gone wrong, and even ends on a hopeful note. Brunner is bleak, but he has his moments.

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Apr 09, 2018 Radu Harabula rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: john-brunner, necomentate-inca

Hans Dykstra e un tip special de recuperator. Se întâmplă în post apocaliptic, după trei războaie mai mult sau mai puțin nucleare, mai mult sau mai puțin mondiale, când lovituri nucleare au fost lansate asupra orașelor/zonelor importante, ceea ce facă ca o mare parte din Pământ sa devina radioactiva sau infestata.
Boli, epidemii, probleme demografice, numărul bărbaților e mult mai mare decât al femeilor, deci căsătoria legala era semn de statut social înalt.
Hans recuperează obiecte din locuri ...more

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Jun 06, 2019 Marcus Wilson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Imagine living in a world which has been revolutionised by a transportation device that lets you travel to anywhere in the world instantly, just by walking through a door. Sounds pretty cool right? Well this is a John Brunner novel, and as I get more and more familiar with his work you realise that each fantastic technological progress that mankind makes does come with a heavy downside. In this case the transportation device called a Skelter, has led to the destruction of civilization as we know ...more

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Apr 03, 2018 Kay Hawkins rated it liked it · review of another edition

Low star rating because for the most part I didn't enjoy the execution of this novel. Interesting and clever concept but there is way to much going on for a 160ish page. There is at least 5 storylines going on. I liked how they were all connected but they were separate. The ending does redeem the story quite well. If someone where to make a dark science fiction short movie on this it would be worth watching. It's very simular to the invisible man but with a transporter. I think the story would ...more

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Dec 01, 2019 Rita rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A post-apocalyptic fiction about a much-reduced population, due to an epidemic that caused women to be outnumbered by men. The result is, even more unhappy marriages than the norm of reality, as having a wife, any wife,is a status symbol. Moreover, one can travel instantly to almost any part of the world via a "skelter," a shelter that sends you on your way instantly, if you possess the correct code. Humans are still causing the same problems as ever--there are the ones with power who use it to ...more

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May 19, 2017 Florin Constantinescu rated it liked it · review of another edition

Decent, readable and short enough on-Earth semi-post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel.
Won't blow you away with a cool character or terribly original idea, but it's a nice read.
I certainly liked it more than Zanzibar.

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Oct 30, 2013 tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE rated it liked it

Shelves: sf

review of
John Brunner's Web of Everywhere
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 30, 2013

1st off, this is "A Frederik Pohl Selection" as the front cover announces. That's immediately promising for me insofar as Pohl is one of the better politically minded SF writers in the US (IMO). As the inside proclaims:

"Frederik Pohl, four-time Hugo Award winner, editor of some thirty science fiction anthologies and author of more than forty books [Web of Everywhere having been published in 1974, the ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Gettree rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow! In most sci fi books where they veer slightly off the main idea I dislike them but this was written so perfectly. I loved it, don't know why it has such a low rating

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Nov 26, 2016 Pat Cummings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed

The societal consequence of instantaneous matter transportation is a recurring science-fiction theme. No one has ever done it better than Alfred Bester in The Stars My Destination, though many have tried. (Or have not tried, as with the inconsequential matter transmitters of Star Trek.)

John Brunner came closest to out-Foyling* Bester with this little-noticed novel. Unlike Brunner’s The Infinitive of Go, published six years later, WoE concentrates on the social and political implications of a ...more

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Sep 29, 2013 Alfaniel Aldavan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

What if we invent a teleportation device?

Be careful what you wish for.

This is a lesser known book of John Brunner, which is strange to me, because it's one of the most inspiring science fiction books I've read. The plot is relentlessly paced, the twists catchy, and the fulfillment of the what if is making a lot of sense.
An unexpected sense.

The writing pushes the limits of a novel, breaking one of the common expectations for the main character, with amazing success. (and I didn't see it coming!)

...more

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Jul 18, 2015 Jim rated it liked it · review of another edition

What if we could teleport anywhere, where would we go? A distopian novel, wouldn't it be great if we could go anywhere? The problem is that criminals and terrorists could also go anywhere and wreak their havoc.

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Jul 31, 2009 Shane rated it liked it · review of another edition

I liked this book a lot more at the beginning. Not that it really got worse as it went on, just less likeable. Probably correlates pretty directly with how the likeability of the main character decreases.

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Mar 12, 2011 John rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Grade D-

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Sep 21, 2012 Peter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not bad. Classic Brunner - another dystopian world.

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Mar 06, 2013 Stephanie added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fant-scifi, pb

My paperback is "Web of everywhere "

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Mitrache Marius rated it it was ok
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About John Brunner

John Brunner

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John Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie John Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958

At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.

"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.

Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.

Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]

Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there

aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott

Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist".. ...more