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The Long Result
Fontana 1st 1979 edition paperback fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
John Brunner
567 books488 followersJohn 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"..
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"..
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
July 19, 2016
This was my first encounter with John Brunner's work and I must admit it was quite enjoyable. Even though many reviewers say this isn't one of his best novels, I liked it; it was an interesting point of view on how humankind will deal with different alien species and approach the challenges brought by a multi-planetary society.
August 5, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in January 2003.
Much early American pulp science fiction is extremely chauvinistic, having an attitude to alien races closely related to the worst racist propaganda; aliens are menacing, evil creatures seeking to take over the universe. (It is easy to get carried away by an exciting story, only to realise afterwards that it has an unpleasant hidden meaning of this sort.) Superhuman heroes battle inhuman hordes and win the love of beautiful women; women are kidnapped and rescued in the nick of time from tentacular fates worse than death.
John Brunner has always written novels which were for their time slightly apart from the science fiction mainstream, and in The Long Result he produced one in opposition to the clichés of the genre (even if they were already outmoded by 1965). The main menace in the novel comes from the crackpot Stars Are For Man League, dedicated to putting human beings in a superior position over the various alien races in this part of the galaxy, on the grounds that humanity invented the star drive which enabled them to discover the aliens rather than the other way round. (This is - not coincidentally - similar to nineteenth century arguments to justify colonialism.)
The narrator, Roald Vincent, is a senior official of the Bureau of Cultural Relations, which handles contacts not just with the aliens but also with human colony worlds. He has to handle a rapidly escalating crisis when a ship from Starhome, the first interstellar ship not to be built on Earth, announces when about to land that it carries a diplomatic mission from a newly discovered alien species. This makes them the focus of attacks by the League, and the crisis is also being used in political manoeuvring between Earth and Starhome, a colony beginning to press for independence.
The political ideas are unusually sophisticated for the science fiction of the time, and yet The Long Result is still primarily an adventure story which has a style owing a lot to John Wyndham. It is clearly a milestone on the path of development which led Brunner to Stand on Zanzibar and the dystopias which followed it; well worth reading.
Much early American pulp science fiction is extremely chauvinistic, having an attitude to alien races closely related to the worst racist propaganda; aliens are menacing, evil creatures seeking to take over the universe. (It is easy to get carried away by an exciting story, only to realise afterwards that it has an unpleasant hidden meaning of this sort.) Superhuman heroes battle inhuman hordes and win the love of beautiful women; women are kidnapped and rescued in the nick of time from tentacular fates worse than death.
John Brunner has always written novels which were for their time slightly apart from the science fiction mainstream, and in The Long Result he produced one in opposition to the clichés of the genre (even if they were already outmoded by 1965). The main menace in the novel comes from the crackpot Stars Are For Man League, dedicated to putting human beings in a superior position over the various alien races in this part of the galaxy, on the grounds that humanity invented the star drive which enabled them to discover the aliens rather than the other way round. (This is - not coincidentally - similar to nineteenth century arguments to justify colonialism.)
The narrator, Roald Vincent, is a senior official of the Bureau of Cultural Relations, which handles contacts not just with the aliens but also with human colony worlds. He has to handle a rapidly escalating crisis when a ship from Starhome, the first interstellar ship not to be built on Earth, announces when about to land that it carries a diplomatic mission from a newly discovered alien species. This makes them the focus of attacks by the League, and the crisis is also being used in political manoeuvring between Earth and Starhome, a colony beginning to press for independence.
The political ideas are unusually sophisticated for the science fiction of the time, and yet The Long Result is still primarily an adventure story which has a style owing a lot to John Wyndham. It is clearly a milestone on the path of development which led Brunner to Stand on Zanzibar and the dystopias which followed it; well worth reading.
March 15, 2025
After reading several new releases I was craving some old-school retro SF. I had some on my TBR but I thought I was a little overdue to read some John Brunner and decided to go with a shorter off-the-beaten-path title. Not considered one of his classics, The Long Result is considered a transitional novel between his more high-class masterpieces of the late sixties and early seventies. I don’t know his timeline like I do PKD, so I could be wrong. Squares of the City which was Hugo nominated and considered one of those border fine literature masterpieces was shopped around for four years in the SF marketplace before it was published the same year as the Long Result.
I suspect the LR was written after SOTC, and it was considered by Brunner to be a safer bet on getting published quicker. My Dickheads out there take note that this is a very Dickian novel that balances message, a little satire, and high concept. Much will be made of this novel being a statement on racism, and that is true, but it is also about Colonialism and how humanity will interface with a wider universe.
Roald Vincent is our primary point-of-view character, who I mentally cast as a Paul Giamatti type rather than a square-jawed Brad Pitt type. He is a low-level government official deep in the bureaucracy, a character you find more often in the SF of Barry Malzberg. That said there is much about the put-upon government work that reminded me of more tongue-in-cheek SF of PKD like The Man Who Japed. This is John Brunner, so you don’t have to worry about it lacking a message and a strong expression of various opinions.
The offices of the Bureau of Cultural Relations chapters early in the novel were some of my favorite parts and I wish Brunner had written more satire. I mean I like the blacker than black Brunner novels like The Sheep Look Up, but the tone here is refreshing. I wanted way more BCR office and government work. That faded a bit as the story went on.
The agency is tasked with helping Aliens who crashed on Earth from Tau Ceti, and many are not happy about these new aliens. The dynamic of this growing human civilization is that the Starhome, a colony world has started to advance well beyond the people who remain on Earth. Divides started to grow including activist groups like “The Stars Are For Man League” pushing human supremacy. Earth in this novel appears to have a liberal government for the whole planet, of course, in this context, we only get a very Western concept of Democracy. Asia and Africa are ignored, a mistake Brunner avoided in Stand on Zanzibar.
Brunner was born in 1934 in England and grew up as Britian had started the post-WWII imperial decline, although sentiments that fostered colonialism were still a part of life at that time. The racism that was common in Anglo-controlled foreign countries is clearly on Brunner’s mind here. All too familiar immigration fears get transplanted in science fictional stand-ins of less technologically advanced species. The humans appear past global war and conflicts but there is drama between conflicting political systems. Much like the inherited supremacist views of colonialist English, the two human colonies are organized on the principle that humans are superior to aliens.
“Cultural survey missions are the next big step. Got to be doubly sure what is and is not safe to trade with them. In the way of information, I mean, for instance, the Sagittarians are completely cooperative, as I’m sure you know. Their psychology doesn’t include the concept of the competition, let alone violence. So we gave them radiotracers without hesitation, and they found techniques immensely useful. They have this big thing in silicon-oxygen genetics and tailor living creatures to their own specifications.”
I don’t believe Brunner as the author wanted to convey the idea humans were superior, only their technology. But there is an interesting reversal as one of the colonies, the Starhome develops faster and solves many problems that we on Earth just assume are the price of living. Now Starhome (explained off-camera in this novel) has developed an anarchist utopia.
“True, we have a very stable society, and for the past two centuries, it's been damned nearly perfect. Now one stars; No one lacks work if he wants it, no one's forced to work if he doesn't want to; We have negligible crime, so our police go unarmed and so on. Any society that's stable and not utterly perfect is capable of being surpassed from the beginning star home has been dedicated to maximum utilization of its human resources. We shy away from that we say totalitarianism and run a mile.”
This very progressive ideal is in a blink and you’ll miss dialogue scenes but it is one example of deeper asides in this novel. This is a utopia colony to a point, but as tightly organized as they are this freedom comes with sacrifices. It is enough to push Starhome past Earth in development. This is the most interesting idea in the novel, and it is a throwaway line that is hardly developed. Although it is interesting how Earth just accepts Starhome’s system as better. Could you imagine America just admitting that Europe has a better health care system, much the entire system of government? Our country wouldn’t so the idea of Earth accepting that the colonies are better run is something that I wish Brunner explored deeper.
The Long Result is largely dismissed as one of Brunner's lesser pulpy works, but it is peppered with moments of inventive Sci-fi and political ideas while not progressive by today’s standards are good points. It is a good Brunner novel but not in the top tier of his canon.
I am not sure I would consider a must-read for everyone, but John Brunner fans it is. For readers interested in the New Wave I would not put it high on the list. There are 5 or 6 Brunner titles I would give priority to. That said you could do worse.
I suspect the LR was written after SOTC, and it was considered by Brunner to be a safer bet on getting published quicker. My Dickheads out there take note that this is a very Dickian novel that balances message, a little satire, and high concept. Much will be made of this novel being a statement on racism, and that is true, but it is also about Colonialism and how humanity will interface with a wider universe.
Roald Vincent is our primary point-of-view character, who I mentally cast as a Paul Giamatti type rather than a square-jawed Brad Pitt type. He is a low-level government official deep in the bureaucracy, a character you find more often in the SF of Barry Malzberg. That said there is much about the put-upon government work that reminded me of more tongue-in-cheek SF of PKD like The Man Who Japed. This is John Brunner, so you don’t have to worry about it lacking a message and a strong expression of various opinions.
The offices of the Bureau of Cultural Relations chapters early in the novel were some of my favorite parts and I wish Brunner had written more satire. I mean I like the blacker than black Brunner novels like The Sheep Look Up, but the tone here is refreshing. I wanted way more BCR office and government work. That faded a bit as the story went on.
The agency is tasked with helping Aliens who crashed on Earth from Tau Ceti, and many are not happy about these new aliens. The dynamic of this growing human civilization is that the Starhome, a colony world has started to advance well beyond the people who remain on Earth. Divides started to grow including activist groups like “The Stars Are For Man League” pushing human supremacy. Earth in this novel appears to have a liberal government for the whole planet, of course, in this context, we only get a very Western concept of Democracy. Asia and Africa are ignored, a mistake Brunner avoided in Stand on Zanzibar.
Brunner was born in 1934 in England and grew up as Britian had started the post-WWII imperial decline, although sentiments that fostered colonialism were still a part of life at that time. The racism that was common in Anglo-controlled foreign countries is clearly on Brunner’s mind here. All too familiar immigration fears get transplanted in science fictional stand-ins of less technologically advanced species. The humans appear past global war and conflicts but there is drama between conflicting political systems. Much like the inherited supremacist views of colonialist English, the two human colonies are organized on the principle that humans are superior to aliens.
“Cultural survey missions are the next big step. Got to be doubly sure what is and is not safe to trade with them. In the way of information, I mean, for instance, the Sagittarians are completely cooperative, as I’m sure you know. Their psychology doesn’t include the concept of the competition, let alone violence. So we gave them radiotracers without hesitation, and they found techniques immensely useful. They have this big thing in silicon-oxygen genetics and tailor living creatures to their own specifications.”
I don’t believe Brunner as the author wanted to convey the idea humans were superior, only their technology. But there is an interesting reversal as one of the colonies, the Starhome develops faster and solves many problems that we on Earth just assume are the price of living. Now Starhome (explained off-camera in this novel) has developed an anarchist utopia.
“True, we have a very stable society, and for the past two centuries, it's been damned nearly perfect. Now one stars; No one lacks work if he wants it, no one's forced to work if he doesn't want to; We have negligible crime, so our police go unarmed and so on. Any society that's stable and not utterly perfect is capable of being surpassed from the beginning star home has been dedicated to maximum utilization of its human resources. We shy away from that we say totalitarianism and run a mile.”
This very progressive ideal is in a blink and you’ll miss dialogue scenes but it is one example of deeper asides in this novel. This is a utopia colony to a point, but as tightly organized as they are this freedom comes with sacrifices. It is enough to push Starhome past Earth in development. This is the most interesting idea in the novel, and it is a throwaway line that is hardly developed. Although it is interesting how Earth just accepts Starhome’s system as better. Could you imagine America just admitting that Europe has a better health care system, much the entire system of government? Our country wouldn’t so the idea of Earth accepting that the colonies are better run is something that I wish Brunner explored deeper.
The Long Result is largely dismissed as one of Brunner's lesser pulpy works, but it is peppered with moments of inventive Sci-fi and political ideas while not progressive by today’s standards are good points. It is a good Brunner novel but not in the top tier of his canon.
I am not sure I would consider a must-read for everyone, but John Brunner fans it is. For readers interested in the New Wave I would not put it high on the list. There are 5 or 6 Brunner titles I would give priority to. That said you could do worse.
September 17, 2019
The Long Result, published by Ballantine in 1965, is one of Brunner's first "serious" novels-- as opposed to the works Ace had published from the mid-1950's on, which were primarily works of adventure/entertainment. This one didn't strike me as a work of deep significance like his later works such as Stand on Zanzibar or The Sheep Look Up, but it's a nice social commentary exercise in the vein of Pohl and Kornbluth. It's a nice enough story, but not really memorable. This edition has a rather unfortunately odd cover that didn't strike me as like anything in the story.
August 6, 2008
A classic story of "meet the aliens". Earth's contact person with its colonies has to turn into a detective in order to figure out how and why alien guests are being attacked on Earth, and who's actually pulling the strings.
November 29, 2024
A rather peculiar novel, I would say. Why? Because, although it is an integral part of science fiction, it develops a new branch of this genre. Thus, the work of the British author Brunner is not limited solely to the scientific-fantastical aspect but adopts themes that stimulate the character. Therefore, "The Patience of Time" can be described as a sociological work, with subtle hints of a detective story and the gaining of independence of one of Earth's colony planets, Stellaris. What I find particularly admirable and a great surprise is that Brunner insisted on making one of the secondary characters (the head of the Bureau, the superior of the main character)... Romanian.
The work captures the social endeavor of our planet in alignment with other planets that have become colonies. The main idea creates a passage that helps the reader eliminate the hatred they may have for some of their peers (such as based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) in order to propel a different existence to the stars, honoring it with their own support. Imaginatively, the work is relatively light, fluid, not as heavy as hard science fiction, though the complexity of following the storyline and its social themes can be a bit challenging, especially since I’m used to much more complex themes. In any case, we could compare it to "Eden," the great Polish work by Stanislaw Lem, especially in terms of establishing connections with another cosmic civilization.
Thus, Roald Vincent, an agent of the Bureau, is called for an emergency involving new extraterrestrial groups, a process in which the first signs of an assassination or crime emerge. Everything is created as a cover by another civilization, the stellarites, to gain their independence. Who gets caught in the middle? Mankind. People fall prey to either side through the most modern weapon of today: manipulation. Due to Roald’s critical sense and perseverance, his power shifts towards securing independence by accepting the position of director on Stellaris, making him an opponent to Tinescu (the Romanian mentioned earlier), though their relationship remains peaceful. The ultimate step is taken through the connection and coexistence between him and a female spy sent by the stellarites to destabilize Earth.
"The Patience of Time" reflects the calmness needed to overcome a tense situation, analyzing it calmly and adopting the finest solutions to reconcile both civilizations without armed conflict.
The work captures the social endeavor of our planet in alignment with other planets that have become colonies. The main idea creates a passage that helps the reader eliminate the hatred they may have for some of their peers (such as based on race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) in order to propel a different existence to the stars, honoring it with their own support. Imaginatively, the work is relatively light, fluid, not as heavy as hard science fiction, though the complexity of following the storyline and its social themes can be a bit challenging, especially since I’m used to much more complex themes. In any case, we could compare it to "Eden," the great Polish work by Stanislaw Lem, especially in terms of establishing connections with another cosmic civilization.
Thus, Roald Vincent, an agent of the Bureau, is called for an emergency involving new extraterrestrial groups, a process in which the first signs of an assassination or crime emerge. Everything is created as a cover by another civilization, the stellarites, to gain their independence. Who gets caught in the middle? Mankind. People fall prey to either side through the most modern weapon of today: manipulation. Due to Roald’s critical sense and perseverance, his power shifts towards securing independence by accepting the position of director on Stellaris, making him an opponent to Tinescu (the Romanian mentioned earlier), though their relationship remains peaceful. The ultimate step is taken through the connection and coexistence between him and a female spy sent by the stellarites to destabilize Earth.
"The Patience of Time" reflects the calmness needed to overcome a tense situation, analyzing it calmly and adopting the finest solutions to reconcile both civilizations without armed conflict.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2024
Clean speedy futurian fun.
July 28, 2015
Primul volum SF pe care l-am citit.Nu m-a impresionat foarte mult si nu este un must read dar nici nu m-am plictisit. Am inteles ca nu este cea mai reusita scriere a lui John Brunner insa cred ca voi mai incerca sa citesc carti SF, tot gasesc eu ceva interesant. Ceea ce la noi a fost tradus ca Rabdarea timpului, are de fapt titlul original The long result. Se aduce in prim plan vesnica tema a rasismului, nelipsit , pentru ca oamenii (nu toti desigur) niciodata nu sunt multumiti de ei insisi ce sa mai zic de alti semeni ai lor. In centrul actiunii il avem pe Roald Vincent, directorul adjunct al Biroului pentru Relatii Culturale de pe Pamant. Aflam ca sunt si alte colonii de oameni in spatiul extraterestru, Viridis, Stellaris, fiecare adoptand o strategie anume de dezvoltare, de cooperare, etc. Roald are misiunea de a se ocupa de studierea evolutiei culturale din cadrul coloniilor, el preferand linistita Viridis, unde oamenii traiesc arhaic daca pot spune asa si apartin unei civilizatii blande, agricole, fara intentia de a se dezvolta tehnologic. In schimb pe Stellaris, lucrurile au luat alta intorsatura, iar disciplina, ratiunea, ambitia,evolutia tehnologica au facut ca stellarienii sa isi doreasca sa nu mai depinda de Pamant, asadar sa fie independenti. Astfel apare Liga Stelele pentru Om, ce organizeaza atacuri violente asupra extraterestrilor, membrii acesteia sustinand ca doar oamenii au drepturi asupra stelelor, asupra zborurilor interstelare, asupra intregului univers. Dar stellarienii inca nu isi dau seama ca nu toti pamantenii sunt rasisti si totul ar putea fi rezolvat prin comunicare si intelegere. Roald care pana in acest moment se ocupase de civilizatia viridiana, se vede nevoit sa isi asume un rol mai important si sa elimine pericolul reprezentat de Liga. Va fi tradat de o persoana apropiata si va gasi consolare acolo unde nu se astepta. In tot acest haos, extraterestrii nu prezinta nici un pericol, dar superioritatea lor provine doar din faptul ca vor sa cunoasca omenirea cu adevarat, sa o inteleaga si in acelasi timp vor sa se lase cunoscuti. Iar omenirea va trebui sa inteleaga o data pentru totdeauna ca doar prin cooperare cu alte specii, prin pace, prin ratiune , va reusi sa ajunga la un inalt grad de cunoastere, de evolutie atat spirituala cat si tehnologica. Autorul aduce in prim plan rasismul, cat de periculos poate fi acesta, nu numai prin faptul ca presupune persecutarea si chiar uciderea altor specii, altor indivizi, considerati de unii diferiti, fie ei extraterestri sau oameni, ci si prin faptul ca implica pana la urma distrugerea propriei umanitati si a oricarei posibilitati de evolutie si cunoastere. In aceasta carte, l-am cunoscut si pe Anovel, un regulian , un extraterestru cu o structura fizica aparte, invulnerabil, care ii va arata lui Roald, ca evolutia trebuie sa aiba loc la timpul potrivit, si doar atunci cand oamenii vor fi evoluat in interiorul lor , in sufletul lor, doar atunci cand vor sti sa fie cu adevarat umani. Roald are calitatile si defectele lui, nimeni nu este perfect, dar intelege pana la urma ca nu e suficient sa gandesti ca faci o fapta buna, efectiv trebuie sa o faci, sa te implici , cu trup si suflet.
February 11, 2023
I don't generally review books unless they make an impression upon me - and The Long Result certainly has. At first I thought it was less a sci-fi than a political intrigue in a sci-fi setting, but upon finishing it became clear that it was true scientific conjecture in the best sense, but with focus upon anthropology, sociology, and psychology rather than mere physics. Novel, inventive, and surprising, The Long Result is well worth the read - especially given it's very brief length!
February 24, 2013
review of
John Brunner's The Long Result
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 24, 2013
I'm now a full-fledged Brunner enthusiast. I'm happy to finally be reading his work after having more or less ignored it for the, at least, 40 yrs I've known about it. I think I wasn't interested in him b/c I had the impression that he's a somewhat 'generic' SF writer. WCH, in a sense, he is. He doesn't have that obvious topical distinction that J. G. Ballard does, eg. Ballard pries open the festering subconscious of the culture of his (& my) time & serves it up like Burroughs' Naked Lunch. & Brunner's writing style remains prosaic, limited by both his writerly philosophy & the commercial constraints of his publishers.
W/ that sd, he's also a writer full of ideas, of inspiration, & I'm glad he was as prolific as he was since it means that he's left behind a substantial reservoir of pleasurable stimulation for me to while away w/. The Long Result is essentially an anti-racist novel extrapolated into a future where distinctions between humans are no longer the negative obsession of the bigot but, rather, distinctions between humans & extraterrestrials. & Brunner does an excellent job w/ the theme. I'm beginning to think that it'd be hard for me to dislike any SF writer but my enthusiasm for Brunner isn't really reflective of that.
As seems to be so often the case, I found myself focusing on details not necessarily central to the main plot when I took my notes for this review. This is partially b/c I figure discussions of the main plot will be out & about in the world in plenty already. EG:
"I decided I would probably like bin Ishmael more than our previous casual - purely social - encounters had already made me. Old-fashioned or not, I liked people who had private libraries, and even Patricia - who took the modern attitude that all you needed was access to a good computer memory - couldn't make me change my views." (p 42)
Now, THAT'S prescient! The copyright date on my copy of this is 1965. Such a distinction about computer use vs private libraries is very here-&-now of 2013. I participated in a 'Zine Fair back in the fall of 2011 & 2 guys told me that they'd had & liked some records of mine but'd gotten rid of all their records for CDs or some-such. The thing is, one of the records they mentioned is a RECORD, complete w/ things records have that CDs don't: parallel & lock grooves, etc.. THERE WILL NOT BE A CD TO REPLACE IT. Therefore, by getting rid of the record, they got rid of all its meta-content too. Not only do computers & the internet & e-bks, etc, NOT replace hard-copy publications, the powers-that-be can use the corporate control of servers to wink information out of accessibility. & let's not forget internet censorship, there's plenty of it. I had a movie removed from YouTube simply b/c someone complained about the accompanying notes. The movie was a critique of the Pavlovian 'believability' of mass media & the person who complained about it is an aspiring media studies professor. She complained b/c she's in the movie & in the notes I sd that the dog that's also in the movie was the most intelligent.
A bit more central to the plot is this:
""Well . . . Viridis was planted about a hundred and ten years ago by a group of neo-Roussellians who wanted to return to a pre-technological civilization. On Earth they'd become a laughing-stock, of course, but since the sociologists were pressing the government to aid the study of alternative solutions to the problem of organizing a mass society, their colony was approved and subsidized."
""They got on well?"
""Oh yes. About half of our modern music, drama and verse is Viridian in origin. Their society has a-" I fumbled for the right word. "A depth, a richness, which ours lacks."
""You prefer their society to the Starhomers'?"
""Well - yes. Starhome was founded to see how far a technologically oriented society could be driven. Of course in their own way the Starhomers have done exceedingly well: their level of mechanization is amazing. And, naturally, my department deals with the social consequences of this - well - experiment."" (p 54)
& Brunner's writing does get better & better: his descriptions get more & more subtly realistic, there's an attn to detail that I love:
""No, you're at least here - though what help that is I don't really know. I can't find your boss, I can't find the head of alien contact, the woman with the impossible to pronounce name -"
""Indowegiatuk," Jacky supplied. It meant something in an Eskimo dialect, they said; I'd never found out what." (p 73)
People are exasperated, people are frustrated by not being able to get in touch w/ someone, there're problems w/ pronouncing a person's name. Such details are ignored by hack writers in the interest of just moving ahead w/ the action.
&, as in The Whole Man, Brunner mentions a theremin in passing:
"The number of interests this room reflected was fantastic. A theremin stood under the main window, its flex coiled over an antique and fabulously valuable guitar. Rows of loose-leaf binders containing semantic and sociological notes were half-hidden behind reproductions of classical sculpture: a Rodin, a Henry Moore, the Venus of Milo, and Kasneky's Virtue." (p 90)
& then there're amusing touches such as the discovery & appreciation of science fiction as an obsolete antique. How many SF writers think about that?!
""Oh, I don't think I've shown you this," he said, switching subjects once more with the same disconcerting rapidity. He reached behind him and drew out a small, rather tattered volume. He held his hand over the top of it so all I could see was the picture on the front: a painting of Mars with a spaceship in the foreground.
""What about it?" I said.
""Well - what do you think it is?"
""It's a spaceship, obviously. One of our early pure-rocket models, I presume, though I'm no expert on that."
""Take a look at the date on it. Handle with care!"
"I took it gingerly. It was old, and made of woodpulp paper which had been coated with plastic to preserve it; even so it was brittle to the touch. I looked for the date Micky had mentioned, and found it on the spine. It was - 1959.
"I said, "But -"
"And stopped. It was one of the most violent double-takes I'd ever made.
""Correct," Micky said. "There weren't any spaceships flying to Mars in 1959." (p 93)
& Brunner isn't afraid to give credit where credit is due - even when it probably rubs somewhat against what're possibly his own personal political feelings:
""Starhome - as you damned well know - is a force-grown society. It's not exactly regimented, but it's sure as hell disciplined. It was planted by the spiritual descendants of the twentieth-century totalitarians. I know that's a dirty word, but it's an accurate description. Their supreme goal is efficiency. It's the most workable compromise ever achieved between the laxity of individual freedom and the rigidity of the corporate state. Most important, it's a far more efficient basic design than we have." (p 95)
Now I'm as anti-Fascist & as anti-Nazi as ever - but I wdn't mind having 'the trains run on time' - to use that reference to Mussolini metaphorically.
Brunner has revived my enthusiasm for science fiction like no other has for a while. C. M. Kornbluth & Frederik Pohl were his predecessors in this respect. & I'm grateful for it. Brunner's yet-another person I'd wish I'd gotten to know when he was alive. Our life-times overlapped by 42 yrs. Maybe I shd go to more SF conventions, eh?!
John Brunner's The Long Result
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 24, 2013
I'm now a full-fledged Brunner enthusiast. I'm happy to finally be reading his work after having more or less ignored it for the, at least, 40 yrs I've known about it. I think I wasn't interested in him b/c I had the impression that he's a somewhat 'generic' SF writer. WCH, in a sense, he is. He doesn't have that obvious topical distinction that J. G. Ballard does, eg. Ballard pries open the festering subconscious of the culture of his (& my) time & serves it up like Burroughs' Naked Lunch. & Brunner's writing style remains prosaic, limited by both his writerly philosophy & the commercial constraints of his publishers.
W/ that sd, he's also a writer full of ideas, of inspiration, & I'm glad he was as prolific as he was since it means that he's left behind a substantial reservoir of pleasurable stimulation for me to while away w/. The Long Result is essentially an anti-racist novel extrapolated into a future where distinctions between humans are no longer the negative obsession of the bigot but, rather, distinctions between humans & extraterrestrials. & Brunner does an excellent job w/ the theme. I'm beginning to think that it'd be hard for me to dislike any SF writer but my enthusiasm for Brunner isn't really reflective of that.
As seems to be so often the case, I found myself focusing on details not necessarily central to the main plot when I took my notes for this review. This is partially b/c I figure discussions of the main plot will be out & about in the world in plenty already. EG:
"I decided I would probably like bin Ishmael more than our previous casual - purely social - encounters had already made me. Old-fashioned or not, I liked people who had private libraries, and even Patricia - who took the modern attitude that all you needed was access to a good computer memory - couldn't make me change my views." (p 42)
Now, THAT'S prescient! The copyright date on my copy of this is 1965. Such a distinction about computer use vs private libraries is very here-&-now of 2013. I participated in a 'Zine Fair back in the fall of 2011 & 2 guys told me that they'd had & liked some records of mine but'd gotten rid of all their records for CDs or some-such. The thing is, one of the records they mentioned is a RECORD, complete w/ things records have that CDs don't: parallel & lock grooves, etc.. THERE WILL NOT BE A CD TO REPLACE IT. Therefore, by getting rid of the record, they got rid of all its meta-content too. Not only do computers & the internet & e-bks, etc, NOT replace hard-copy publications, the powers-that-be can use the corporate control of servers to wink information out of accessibility. & let's not forget internet censorship, there's plenty of it. I had a movie removed from YouTube simply b/c someone complained about the accompanying notes. The movie was a critique of the Pavlovian 'believability' of mass media & the person who complained about it is an aspiring media studies professor. She complained b/c she's in the movie & in the notes I sd that the dog that's also in the movie was the most intelligent.
A bit more central to the plot is this:
""Well . . . Viridis was planted about a hundred and ten years ago by a group of neo-Roussellians who wanted to return to a pre-technological civilization. On Earth they'd become a laughing-stock, of course, but since the sociologists were pressing the government to aid the study of alternative solutions to the problem of organizing a mass society, their colony was approved and subsidized."
""They got on well?"
""Oh yes. About half of our modern music, drama and verse is Viridian in origin. Their society has a-" I fumbled for the right word. "A depth, a richness, which ours lacks."
""You prefer their society to the Starhomers'?"
""Well - yes. Starhome was founded to see how far a technologically oriented society could be driven. Of course in their own way the Starhomers have done exceedingly well: their level of mechanization is amazing. And, naturally, my department deals with the social consequences of this - well - experiment."" (p 54)
& Brunner's writing does get better & better: his descriptions get more & more subtly realistic, there's an attn to detail that I love:
""No, you're at least here - though what help that is I don't really know. I can't find your boss, I can't find the head of alien contact, the woman with the impossible to pronounce name -"
""Indowegiatuk," Jacky supplied. It meant something in an Eskimo dialect, they said; I'd never found out what." (p 73)
People are exasperated, people are frustrated by not being able to get in touch w/ someone, there're problems w/ pronouncing a person's name. Such details are ignored by hack writers in the interest of just moving ahead w/ the action.
&, as in The Whole Man, Brunner mentions a theremin in passing:
"The number of interests this room reflected was fantastic. A theremin stood under the main window, its flex coiled over an antique and fabulously valuable guitar. Rows of loose-leaf binders containing semantic and sociological notes were half-hidden behind reproductions of classical sculpture: a Rodin, a Henry Moore, the Venus of Milo, and Kasneky's Virtue." (p 90)
& then there're amusing touches such as the discovery & appreciation of science fiction as an obsolete antique. How many SF writers think about that?!
""Oh, I don't think I've shown you this," he said, switching subjects once more with the same disconcerting rapidity. He reached behind him and drew out a small, rather tattered volume. He held his hand over the top of it so all I could see was the picture on the front: a painting of Mars with a spaceship in the foreground.
""What about it?" I said.
""Well - what do you think it is?"
""It's a spaceship, obviously. One of our early pure-rocket models, I presume, though I'm no expert on that."
""Take a look at the date on it. Handle with care!"
"I took it gingerly. It was old, and made of woodpulp paper which had been coated with plastic to preserve it; even so it was brittle to the touch. I looked for the date Micky had mentioned, and found it on the spine. It was - 1959.
"I said, "But -"
"And stopped. It was one of the most violent double-takes I'd ever made.
""Correct," Micky said. "There weren't any spaceships flying to Mars in 1959." (p 93)
& Brunner isn't afraid to give credit where credit is due - even when it probably rubs somewhat against what're possibly his own personal political feelings:
""Starhome - as you damned well know - is a force-grown society. It's not exactly regimented, but it's sure as hell disciplined. It was planted by the spiritual descendants of the twentieth-century totalitarians. I know that's a dirty word, but it's an accurate description. Their supreme goal is efficiency. It's the most workable compromise ever achieved between the laxity of individual freedom and the rigidity of the corporate state. Most important, it's a far more efficient basic design than we have." (p 95)
Now I'm as anti-Fascist & as anti-Nazi as ever - but I wdn't mind having 'the trains run on time' - to use that reference to Mussolini metaphorically.
Brunner has revived my enthusiasm for science fiction like no other has for a while. C. M. Kornbluth & Frederik Pohl were his predecessors in this respect. & I'm grateful for it. Brunner's yet-another person I'd wish I'd gotten to know when he was alive. Our life-times overlapped by 42 yrs. Maybe I shd go to more SF conventions, eh?!
November 21, 2019
This is a short little book that works on so many dimensions. Like most good science fiction, it is placed in a futuristic context, but has a great deal to say about our world of today. The cover leads the reader to believe that this is a book about racism. It is, but it is far more than that. It touches upon what we now know as the Thucydides Trap (how a declining power can peacefully accommodate a rising power). It touches upon how technology underpins economic power. It also touches upon how society may change in the face of ever extending life times. All of that in a short book.
I was most taken by the account of the Thucydides Trap, written decades before that trap came to prominence. If we take the Starhomers as China and Earth as the US, we have a very similar position to today. How should a declining power accommodate a rising one? In the book, the people of Earth help ease the Starhomers into their new role. There are those - the 'Stars Are For Man League' - who wish to resist this trend. I see the very much as our current populists, whose main concern is to return us back to the 1950s. In the book, the traditionalists fail. I imagine that the populists will do likewise.
The development of Starhome as an economic entity is based upon a technological lead over Earth in the area of space propulsion. I am sketchy on the detail here, but suffice it to say that the Starhomers have a lasting technological edge over Earth. It's a bit like the internet in our time. What is interesting is the response of earth to the Starhomers advances. There are some who talk of the theft of trade secrets. There are some who talk of unfair trade advantages. There are some who talk simply banning the technology. As was reading the book, the controversy about Huawei was in the news. This gave such a contemporary edge to the novel.
Although I am not a transhumanist, I do recognise that life expectancy has increased over the past few decades. What I found interesting was the way in which the book examined the impact of longevity on personal relationships. I was particularly interested in how longevity would impact marriage. I hadn't given that much thought before, but what does a lifetime commitment mean if we can expect to live beyond 125 years? The author deals with this by making marriage renewable. I find that such an interesting idea that I might ponder that a bit more.
This is a well written book. It contains elements of a thriller. There is a romantic dimension. And we rather like the heroes and dislike the villains. The plot flows along and we don't become bogged down at all. I took it as a nice bedtime book and I would recommend it as just that.
I was most taken by the account of the Thucydides Trap, written decades before that trap came to prominence. If we take the Starhomers as China and Earth as the US, we have a very similar position to today. How should a declining power accommodate a rising one? In the book, the people of Earth help ease the Starhomers into their new role. There are those - the 'Stars Are For Man League' - who wish to resist this trend. I see the very much as our current populists, whose main concern is to return us back to the 1950s. In the book, the traditionalists fail. I imagine that the populists will do likewise.
The development of Starhome as an economic entity is based upon a technological lead over Earth in the area of space propulsion. I am sketchy on the detail here, but suffice it to say that the Starhomers have a lasting technological edge over Earth. It's a bit like the internet in our time. What is interesting is the response of earth to the Starhomers advances. There are some who talk of the theft of trade secrets. There are some who talk of unfair trade advantages. There are some who talk simply banning the technology. As was reading the book, the controversy about Huawei was in the news. This gave such a contemporary edge to the novel.
Although I am not a transhumanist, I do recognise that life expectancy has increased over the past few decades. What I found interesting was the way in which the book examined the impact of longevity on personal relationships. I was particularly interested in how longevity would impact marriage. I hadn't given that much thought before, but what does a lifetime commitment mean if we can expect to live beyond 125 years? The author deals with this by making marriage renewable. I find that such an interesting idea that I might ponder that a bit more.
This is a well written book. It contains elements of a thriller. There is a romantic dimension. And we rather like the heroes and dislike the villains. The plot flows along and we don't become bogged down at all. I took it as a nice bedtime book and I would recommend it as just that.
January 20, 2022
A gifted government worker on an idealized future Earth finds himself suddenly involved with the deadly efforts of a speciest anti-alien organization that involves him more than he anticipates.
The Earth society depicted here is one of apparent post-race, post-sexism, and ethnic blending, all shown without making a huge deal over it. It's also an Earth of total leisure, where people live 100+ years, are all beautiful, and crime is pretty much eliminated. There are also two space societies: Starhome, a disciplined culture working towards tech advancement, and Virdis, an old-fashioned one interested in the arts. Starhome is surpassing the Earth and Terrans are going to have to come to terms with being a second class planet.
That's mostly what this book deals with, a group of government Terrans trying to find a way to make the transition into second class smoothly, for the betterment of humanity. There are a few attempted murders and things to spice it up, and the big reveal of who's doing The Bad Things is visible from a mile away, but it's a bit low on action. The story seems to exist only for the purpose of the discussion of colonialism, racism, and nationalism, but also never manages to be too preachy or heavy. There's some nice philosophical stuff, particularly in the form of the alien that dominates the cover of my edition, who is superior to humans in every way and is pretty nonchalant about it. He's also the most compelling character and the only one I was completely invested in.
What this at first appears to be about is racial tensions--a fitting topic for its publication time of the 60s--but what it's really about is a country at the top of the food chain finally falling behind another power, and how that transition is dealt with, either through acts of sabotage, violence, and fear, or with an understanding that this is the way of things and to seek the best options for humanity as a whole.
I don't know if I'd go so as to recommend it, but it's an okay enough book for me to continue on with Brunner, and that's good because I've got a decent-sized stack of his works.
The Earth society depicted here is one of apparent post-race, post-sexism, and ethnic blending, all shown without making a huge deal over it. It's also an Earth of total leisure, where people live 100+ years, are all beautiful, and crime is pretty much eliminated. There are also two space societies: Starhome, a disciplined culture working towards tech advancement, and Virdis, an old-fashioned one interested in the arts. Starhome is surpassing the Earth and Terrans are going to have to come to terms with being a second class planet.
That's mostly what this book deals with, a group of government Terrans trying to find a way to make the transition into second class smoothly, for the betterment of humanity. There are a few attempted murders and things to spice it up, and the big reveal of who's doing The Bad Things is visible from a mile away, but it's a bit low on action. The story seems to exist only for the purpose of the discussion of colonialism, racism, and nationalism, but also never manages to be too preachy or heavy. There's some nice philosophical stuff, particularly in the form of the alien that dominates the cover of my edition, who is superior to humans in every way and is pretty nonchalant about it. He's also the most compelling character and the only one I was completely invested in.
What this at first appears to be about is racial tensions--a fitting topic for its publication time of the 60s--but what it's really about is a country at the top of the food chain finally falling behind another power, and how that transition is dealt with, either through acts of sabotage, violence, and fear, or with an understanding that this is the way of things and to seek the best options for humanity as a whole.
I don't know if I'd go so as to recommend it, but it's an okay enough book for me to continue on with Brunner, and that's good because I've got a decent-sized stack of his works.
February 9, 2026
Raoul Vincent is a comfortable bureaucrat in the government agency responsible for dealing with Earth's extra-solar colonies. Besides colonies Earth is also involved with several alien worlds and has friendly relations with all of them. That's a different department. Vincent's routine is interrupted when one of the colony worlds sends a ship they aren't supposed to have to Earth and announces that they have been in contact with a new alien species from Tau Ceti. Oh, by the way, the Tau Cetian delegation is on board the ship right now. Vincent gets the job of dealing with them dumped in his lap.
Things start off bad as some xenophobic fringe group turns out to be suddenly and inexplicably effective, nearly killing the aliens. Vincent has to do damage control and help with the investigation to find out how these xenophobes got so powerful and what their plan is. It's a murder mystery with interplanetary implications.
Along with the mystery part of the story is Vincent's development as a human being. He finds that instead of being happy with his functionary job and predictable future he has instead been wasting his talent and his life do to personal inertia. The arrival of the Tau Cetians give him a kick in the pants and jump-starts his whole life.
Things start off bad as some xenophobic fringe group turns out to be suddenly and inexplicably effective, nearly killing the aliens. Vincent has to do damage control and help with the investigation to find out how these xenophobes got so powerful and what their plan is. It's a murder mystery with interplanetary implications.
Along with the mystery part of the story is Vincent's development as a human being. He finds that instead of being happy with his functionary job and predictable future he has instead been wasting his talent and his life do to personal inertia. The arrival of the Tau Cetians give him a kick in the pants and jump-starts his whole life.
July 28, 2023
Mi-a plăcut.
Traducerea mi s-a părut slabă (și adesea enervantă prin folosirea pe tot parcursul ei a formei incorecte a verbelor de la persoana I plural - ex. „noi făcusem” în loc de „noi făcuserăm”).
Omenirea s-a avântat în spațiu, colonizând câteva planete și întâlnind specii extraterestre. În timp ce una dintre colonii încearcă să scape de sub tutela planetei-mamă, pe Pământ iau amploare acțiuni xenofobe împotriva speciilor nou-descoperite.
O carte nici prea-prea, nici foarte-foarte, tributară modului în care se scria SF-ul în perioada aceea, punând accent pe idee și mulțumindu-se doar să schițeze restul elementelor care dau consistență unei cărți. Mi s-a părut la fel cum am găsit-o la prima lectură, acum multe decenii.
Romanul se citește ușor, are și accente polițiste pe alocuri și niște idei drăguțe. Marele lui merit îl reprezintă, cred eu, accentul pus pe reacția omenirii în fața întâlnirii cu extratereștrii - o bună temă de reflecție.
Traducerea mi s-a părut slabă (și adesea enervantă prin folosirea pe tot parcursul ei a formei incorecte a verbelor de la persoana I plural - ex. „noi făcusem” în loc de „noi făcuserăm”).
Omenirea s-a avântat în spațiu, colonizând câteva planete și întâlnind specii extraterestre. În timp ce una dintre colonii încearcă să scape de sub tutela planetei-mamă, pe Pământ iau amploare acțiuni xenofobe împotriva speciilor nou-descoperite.
O carte nici prea-prea, nici foarte-foarte, tributară modului în care se scria SF-ul în perioada aceea, punând accent pe idee și mulțumindu-se doar să schițeze restul elementelor care dau consistență unei cărți. Mi s-a părut la fel cum am găsit-o la prima lectură, acum multe decenii.
Romanul se citește ușor, are și accente polițiste pe alocuri și niște idei drăguțe. Marele lui merit îl reprezintă, cred eu, accentul pus pe reacția omenirii în fața întâlnirii cu extratereștrii - o bună temă de reflecție.
December 10, 2017
I've owned this book most of my life; if I read it as a child, I definitely didn't understand it. Reading this now, 50+ years post-publication, I am struck by how clever, fresh, insightful, and positive it is. It strikes me as a model blend of the best SF of the 40s and 50s and the skillful breaking of the limiting mindset that insisted only engineering counted as science.
In all, however, this reading it struck me as a 5-star tale, with interesting characters, credible foibles, great thinking piece, enjoyable story...except. Except for the too-convenient ending, where we can't miss that two critical contributors to murder attempts are not held accountable for their parts, and instead are multiply rewarded because of it. This sours the story, making us think, "Really? It's okay if I sponsor murderers, as long as I get someone else to pull the trigger?"
Still, I'll read this book again after some time, and see what else I learn from it.
In all, however, this reading it struck me as a 5-star tale, with interesting characters, credible foibles, great thinking piece, enjoyable story...except. Except for the too-convenient ending, where we can't miss that two critical contributors to murder attempts are not held accountable for their parts, and instead are multiply rewarded because of it. This sours the story, making us think, "Really? It's okay if I sponsor murderers, as long as I get someone else to pull the trigger?"
Still, I'll read this book again after some time, and see what else I learn from it.
March 11, 2021
Eu sunt destul de darnic in privința notelor, poate e pe la un 4/5 cartea, dar mie mi-a plăcut mult.
Am invitat la o cina o prietena weekendul trecut și mi-a adus cartea asta. Sunt destul de reticent spre lecturile sf, dar asta a fost chiar bună. Poate nu la fel ca Minunata lume nouă (apropo, recomand miniseria de pe Netflix), dar bună.
Totul se petrece peste câteva sute de ani, pe Terra, când totul este perfect sau aproape perfect in societate. Ca și acum sau cu câteva zeci de ani in urma, avem și am tot avut parte de grupări extremiste, care cred ca ei sunt dumnezeii unor națiuni. Lucru care nu poate să ducă decât la mai multă ură. Despre rasism și despre cum oamenii sunt cele mai bune și de apreciat ființe din univers. Lucru care ar putea să nu fie chiar adevărat, dacă ar exista și alte ființe pe alte planete, ceva foarte plauzibil.
Am invitat la o cina o prietena weekendul trecut și mi-a adus cartea asta. Sunt destul de reticent spre lecturile sf, dar asta a fost chiar bună. Poate nu la fel ca Minunata lume nouă (apropo, recomand miniseria de pe Netflix), dar bună.
Totul se petrece peste câteva sute de ani, pe Terra, când totul este perfect sau aproape perfect in societate. Ca și acum sau cu câteva zeci de ani in urma, avem și am tot avut parte de grupări extremiste, care cred ca ei sunt dumnezeii unor națiuni. Lucru care nu poate să ducă decât la mai multă ură. Despre rasism și despre cum oamenii sunt cele mai bune și de apreciat ființe din univers. Lucru care ar putea să nu fie chiar adevărat, dacă ar exista și alte ființe pe alte planete, ceva foarte plauzibil.
March 10, 2017
I bought this book at a used store after reading the back cover, as it seemed a little too prescient for our current times. The plot described an Earth struggling with racism and protectionism at the hands of the "Stars Are For Man League", an organization that uses xenophobia and outright hatred to promote its goals, which are the subjugation of alien races and the promotion of human space colonization at their expense. (Sound familiar?)
The story is told through the lens of Roald Vincent, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Bureau of Culture (BuCult) who is responsible for managing Earth's relationships with the two colonies. There are a series of mysterious acts of terrorism that are linked back to the Stars Are For Man League, and Vincent has to work with other authorities to attempt to determine the various connections between people and events in what ultimately, in some respect, turns out to be a whodunit novel.
The ultimate revelation of the mystery is little mystery, though Brunner takes care to pepper in a number of red herrings along the way; he also ensures that there are a few turns and twists that are not nearly as predictable and that are ultimately satisfying whether the reader was able to guess at the resolution of the mystery or not.
The story is under 200 pages - always a welcome pace for these kinds of stories - but it still feels a bit bogged down at times because of the intellectual nature of Vincent, the narrator. His language is a little, well, bureaucratic at times, and although it makes sense for him to take the actions he does, it still feels as though it might have been better for Brunner to get to the point; John Wyndham faces the same issues with his narrators, these kinds of overly intellectual middle class sorts who feel the need to expound everything they are thinking.
Still, the bloat is not a huge issue, and the book does not suffer much for it. If you like John Wyndham or other similar authors, you will enjoy The Long Result. It takes a few great ideas, works them into a believable narrative, and presents some interesting philosophical discussions along the way. It's not a classic SF novel, but I enjoyed it and I think that others would too.
The story is told through the lens of Roald Vincent, a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Bureau of Culture (BuCult) who is responsible for managing Earth's relationships with the two colonies. There are a series of mysterious acts of terrorism that are linked back to the Stars Are For Man League, and Vincent has to work with other authorities to attempt to determine the various connections between people and events in what ultimately, in some respect, turns out to be a whodunit novel.
The ultimate revelation of the mystery is little mystery, though Brunner takes care to pepper in a number of red herrings along the way; he also ensures that there are a few turns and twists that are not nearly as predictable and that are ultimately satisfying whether the reader was able to guess at the resolution of the mystery or not.
The story is under 200 pages - always a welcome pace for these kinds of stories - but it still feels a bit bogged down at times because of the intellectual nature of Vincent, the narrator. His language is a little, well, bureaucratic at times, and although it makes sense for him to take the actions he does, it still feels as though it might have been better for Brunner to get to the point; John Wyndham faces the same issues with his narrators, these kinds of overly intellectual middle class sorts who feel the need to expound everything they are thinking.
Still, the bloat is not a huge issue, and the book does not suffer much for it. If you like John Wyndham or other similar authors, you will enjoy The Long Result. It takes a few great ideas, works them into a believable narrative, and presents some interesting philosophical discussions along the way. It's not a classic SF novel, but I enjoyed it and I think that others would too.
June 28, 2020
My first Brunner novel was chosen randomly. I wish I had chosen one of his better-known novels like Shockwave Rider or The Sheep Look Up. The Long Result is a middling novel that lacks suspense and a compelling central character. It is well-written (which is why I didn't give up) and has imaginative world-building in the background, but it's a spy-thriller without the thrill. The ending, however, is excellent. I wish Brunner had focused on the end plot more as the spy elements that constitute most of the novel are simply dull.
Brunner often complained that he had to rush his novels because of publisher demand. Unfortunately, The Long Result one of those novels I wish he had spent more time on.
Brunner often complained that he had to rush his novels because of publisher demand. Unfortunately, The Long Result one of those novels I wish he had spent more time on.
July 23, 2018
Not quite as good as I was hoping, but still a good political/mystery thriller type of book. Maybe not a thriller. It involves an anti-alien group who is attacking visiting alien representatives on Earth. Roald is the main character and works in the Bureau of Culture and is sent to accompany the newest group to Earth and gets involved far deeper than he would have expected. As usual, Brunner does very well at portraying human behavior on grounds of xenophobia and intolerance. I can only imagine this is how things would be in the future if we were to actually be in contact with life outside our own planet.
April 5, 2022
Apart from, to the best of my knowledge, ‘Stand on Zanzibar’ and ‘The Shockwave Rider’, Brunner’s works are all out of print. Which is damned shame because he was a fascinating ideas man, a more than competent storyteller and capable of sketching out entire demographics, universes and hierarchical structures with incredible economy. ‘The Long Result’ - with its three principle worlds, labyrinthine internal politics and hard-boiled plot involving sabotage, murder and a radicalised fringe group - is the kind of thing it would take, say, Peter F Hamilton 800 pages to deliver. Brunner does it in 186.
October 4, 2018
This is my first actual review as compared to just rating the book, so please be gentle. :)
At first I could barely wade thru this book. I kept wanting to give it up...it became tedious and remembering names, the twists and turns, who was who was a hassle.
But I stuck with it and I am glad that I did. About half-way thru the book it became a lot better, moved faster and became a lot clearer. It was as if it had two different authors.
So my advice, for what it is worth, if you find yourself ready to give up on the book, keep going... it will be worth it.
At first I could barely wade thru this book. I kept wanting to give it up...it became tedious and remembering names, the twists and turns, who was who was a hassle.
But I stuck with it and I am glad that I did. About half-way thru the book it became a lot better, moved faster and became a lot clearer. It was as if it had two different authors.
So my advice, for what it is worth, if you find yourself ready to give up on the book, keep going... it will be worth it.
April 21, 2024
For a book written in 1965, there is a contemporary feel about its themes of politics, terrorism, xenophobia, camera phones and even (briefly) artificial intelligence. It is however ultimately rendered quite lightweight due to its brevity and lack of any real character development. Brunner is an accomplished sci-fi writer and it is a shame he didn't expand this into a much longer book; but it's still definitely worth a read.
January 25, 2025
This was enjoyable enough, but parts didn't really make much sense to me. In particular, one of the great plot points of the book (which I won't reveal because of spoilers), had me shrugging my shoulders and thinking, "So what? Why would this be such a closely guarded revelation?" The protagonist is an interesting character, though, and it was a fun read.
August 16, 2018
John Brunner is a great story teller, this book started out a little stiffly but got better as it went along, with quite an imaginative ending. I have read several books by Brunner and look forward to re-reading them since a couple of decades has gone by.
February 18, 2026
FORMULAIC sci fi, with aliens, racial issues and politics. First published in 1965. - Even if it means brutal murder, The Stars Are For Man League is determined to shatter the harmony between Earth and civilizations on other planets - and to keep mankind supreme among the alien life forms.
March 28, 2026
Ohboy. Had I read this in the late “60s I wouldn’t have noticed so many social faux pas because… those were the times. I realize the author was being ahead of his times to some degree but it doesn’t age well. Interesting artifact though.
July 8, 2023
I must learn more about these Regulans.
June 23, 2017
This is a decent vintage sci-fi novel.
The plot is original enough (and short enough) and the writing style is clear enough to make you finish it in ~24 hours.
However, a while after finishing it, all you'll be able to remember is the fact that you had a good time reading it. Which in some cases is much more than you would with some other books.
The plot is original enough (and short enough) and the writing style is clear enough to make you finish it in ~24 hours.
However, a while after finishing it, all you'll be able to remember is the fact that you had a good time reading it. Which in some cases is much more than you would with some other books.
May 22, 2022
I thought it was a bit of a potboiler. A potentially interesting story about interstellar rivalry and xenophobia is spoiled by Brunner letting the cat out of the bag too early. However it does have one nicely-drawn alien character who is the key to the story's resolution.
December 23, 2025
THE LONG RESULT — John Brunner’s Warning Still Echoes
In The Long Result, John Brunner turns his keen eye to a future that looks uncomfortably familiar. Humanity has reached the stars, but its oldest sickness—prejudice—has followed close behind. In this advanced society, the targets of racism aren’t other humans but alien visitors, and Brunner uses that shift to expose the same fear, ignorance, and hatred that have always haunted us.
Starhome, a thriving space colony founded by Earth, has grown restless. What began as an outpost has become something bolder: a self-sufficient world eager to cut its ties and claim independence. To buy time for its quiet revolution, Starhome launches a political distraction—the Stars Are for Man League, a movement built to stir fear of alien influence and keep Earth mired in its own bigotry.
Brunner’s prose is deceptively calm, almost formal at times, but beneath it runs a current of unease—a steady hum of social tension, pride, and paranoia. He doesn’t lecture; he reveals, letting each page peel back another layer of what hatred costs both the victim and the perpetrator.
Written in 1965, some of the science may have aged, but the message has not. In fact, it feels sharper now than ever. The Long Result isn’t just science fiction—it’s a mirror held up to humanity, showing how progress means nothing if the heart remains unchanged.
Brunner’s storytelling grips you quietly, like gravity itself. The deeper you fall into his world, the more you realize he’s writing about ours.
In The Long Result, John Brunner turns his keen eye to a future that looks uncomfortably familiar. Humanity has reached the stars, but its oldest sickness—prejudice—has followed close behind. In this advanced society, the targets of racism aren’t other humans but alien visitors, and Brunner uses that shift to expose the same fear, ignorance, and hatred that have always haunted us.
Starhome, a thriving space colony founded by Earth, has grown restless. What began as an outpost has become something bolder: a self-sufficient world eager to cut its ties and claim independence. To buy time for its quiet revolution, Starhome launches a political distraction—the Stars Are for Man League, a movement built to stir fear of alien influence and keep Earth mired in its own bigotry.
Brunner’s prose is deceptively calm, almost formal at times, but beneath it runs a current of unease—a steady hum of social tension, pride, and paranoia. He doesn’t lecture; he reveals, letting each page peel back another layer of what hatred costs both the victim and the perpetrator.
Written in 1965, some of the science may have aged, but the message has not. In fact, it feels sharper now than ever. The Long Result isn’t just science fiction—it’s a mirror held up to humanity, showing how progress means nothing if the heart remains unchanged.
Brunner’s storytelling grips you quietly, like gravity itself. The deeper you fall into his world, the more you realize he’s writing about ours.
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