The Dreaming Earth

by John Brunner, John Schoenherr (Illustrator)

DREAM DRUG

In the early years of the 21st Century, the "population explosion" is a grim reality - world-wide shortages of food and essential supplies threaten the stability of civilization, and UN agencies work frantically against time to develop new sources of vital materials.

Rebelling against the harshness of their lives, hundreds of thousands turn to a strange new drug - "happy dreams" - which is suddenly and mysteriously available. Just one more problem for the overworked law-enforcement agencies...

...until the addicts start vanishing!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

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"..

Reviews

[Ubik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Semi-spoilers...

Definitely a product of the time it was written in. I was constantly reminded that it was written in the 60s with the antiquated dialogue, but really I have no complaints. I love the psycho-drug subgenre as well as the government conspiracy subgenre (PKD, anyone?) -- most definitely when one can actually see the good behind those intentions despite how inhuman they may be. Once I read through the end, I was *almost* sympathetic to the government's cause. I like playing devil's advocate in real life and in the literary world Im no different.

This novel also kinda reminds me of novels Ive read where entire societies are "jacked in" to VR spelling out the ultimate demise of the human race slowly but surely.

[Ruskoley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The worst part is that the resolution is exactly what any decent reader suspected all along. This is okay in the sense that it is tidy and the structure of the novel suits. However, now it feels like the whole thing was a bit of a waste and maybe could have just been a short story.

I like reading Brunner novels. I think he was a very good writer. This novel still has a lot of merit to it. However, its just such a fail in terms of reality, it almost feels like Brunner was hand-waving at things. Well, if you are only going to be dismissive of problems – do not attempt to tackle them and bring them in as the major elements of your story! I cannot understand what happened here, other than to give some credit to Brunner for the oddness of it all. Brunner fans only, OK?

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't quite agree with the Goodread's blurb on this book. It was a good read but also a book of its time. I'm not sure how it would hold up today. However, a good read for Brunner aficiondos.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book, by chance, in a used bookstore. I bought it soley off the cover (1970 Pyramid), the very brief summary, and the fact that it was a John Brunner book. I have not read anything from John Brunner yet but from what I've heard about his bigger books, Stand on Zanzibar and Shockwave Rider, I was eager to get into him. The Dreaming Earth is one of his earlier works and I felt it was a good way to get into his style. With little expectations going into this book I was pleasantly surprised with what I got out of it.

The Dreaming Earth was published in 1963 and I cannot stress how much it feels ahead of its time. This book feels more like it was written in 1973. At this point the psychedelic revolution still hadn't happened yet and aside from someone like PKD, most sci fi stories didn't seem this in depth. For being quite a short book (160 pages) it really packs alot into it.

In the future, the Earth's population has risen to 8 billion people. Resources are scarce, opportunities are limited, and starvation runs rampent. Most state goverments have surrendered their authority to the UN which is tasked with providing assistance to Earth's people in this state of distress. As a way to escape from this dismal world a new substance has reached the masses, Happy Dreams, a highly addictive psychedelic. I don't want to go too into spoliers; although the cover starts to give it away.

In some ways this book has some of the dated tropes of any old sci fi book. I actually enjoy the datedness of books like this as they have a unique charm to them. Even still, this book continues to be really forward thinking for it's time, it views addiction as a disease as opposed to a crime; something that is still debated in 2022. While the fear of overpopulation doesn't affect us in 2022 the same way it would in 1963 I think a lot of these points and senarios can relate to how we view the decimation of the Earth today.

While we don't worry about overcrowding (at least here in the US) we do worry about what a larger population's consumption habits mean to the health of our planet. The fear that we may run out of resources or have to limit our actions so that we all have a chance to live at least a barebones existance is a real concern that could take place in the decades to come. Who knows if it will come to the severity of what is described in the book but these ideas have grown as concern that has been voiced in public discource. There is also a theme of expressing "if only we had taken action earlier we'd be in a better place" that is something we are all too familar with hearing today.

Many of the reviews calling this book "dated" or a "product of it's time" are from about a decade ago and while these problems certainly existed back then they weren't as much in the forefront of our minds as they are today. I'd say a lot of these ideas and themes have come back around to being relavent again since the 1960s.

I am excited to read more Brunner. I found that the prose here, while not spectacular, were definitely above par for a 50+ year old sci fi book. I will say my overwhelming enjoyment of this book may be skewed by this being my first Brunner book. I'm sure if I came to this after reading some of his more acclaimed works I wouldn't feel as blown away. It also helps that I've been reading a lot of subpar to average sci fi as of late and this is the first thing to go beyond. I also really enjoy these social commentary sci fi books, especially from the 60s-70s as well as sci fi about conspiracy and psychedelics; which this book perfectly fits that genre. Any book that is as inspired by Brave New World as this is usually one I can enjoy.

[Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Brunner is, I feel, not given sufficient recognition today. Of course, as with any author that was as prolific as he was, not every work is gold, but some (e.g. Shockwave Rider, The Sheep Look Up, Stand On Zanzibar) are quite brilliant.
The Dreaming Earth is definitely among his more enjoyable works. Set in a near future of resource constraints and high population, it centers around a drug, Happy Dreams, that makes life bearable for increasingly large numbers of people. Highly addictive, after around 100 doses, users of the drug seemingly drop out of sight. But where do they go? That part is unclear, and UN agent Nicholas Greville makes it his mission to find out.
The ending, with its inevitable twist, is not surprising. But it is satisfying.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and short sci-fi book from one of my faves in the genre. If you have read much of Brunner this will be of a similar vein as some of his other stories. The world is overcrowded. There is a new drug causing people to lose sight of reality and eventually disappear. It's a good and engaging story, though after reading it I remembered his story "The Stardroppers", and it is very similar. Here it is a drug instead of a radio device making people disappear.

[Susan Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a similar premise to "Listen! The Stars!" (aka "The Stardroppers"), with drug addicted young people mysteriously vanishing into thin air, but although it's entertaining it's not quite as convincing. The story has some parallels with Dick's "Now Wait For Last Year" and "Through a Scanner Darkly".

[Daniel Máscolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que alguien me explique cómo es posible que nadie conozca esta obra maestra!!! Una de las 10 mejores novelas de ciencia ficción que he leído!!!

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Mister, we just want you to know, that's all. You robbed us blind! You took the kicks out of life - no Coke, no candy, no cars any more. An' we just want you to know - we don't care."

Written in the 1960s, this book is set in the 21st Century when overpopulation has lead to the collapse of national governments. The UN are now in charge and distribute the earth's increasingly scarce resources, ensuring that everyone has just about enough, but no-one has luxuries. This doesn’t go down well in formerly rich countries like the USA, whose teenagers resent the fact that they don't have the same things their parents did when they were young.

Greville is a narcotics officer with the UN, who is investigating a new drug called happy dreams, which doesn't follow the pattern of other illegal drugs. The price is strangely stable, being $5 for your first hit and $2 thereafter, so addicts don’t need to steal to fund their habit. After a year or so on the drug addicts lose interest in life, spending most of their time dozing, and rumour has it that eventually they just disappear, although the narcotics squad believes that they just lose contact with their family and friends.

Interesting, but slightly spoilt for me by the grumpy bad-tempered protagonist.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting and thought provoking Science Fiction novel, yet not fully realized. The story-line is set in a not too distant future, and the central character is a United Nations agent working in the narcotics division. There is a new drug sweeping the planet called, 'happy dreams', and his agency cannot find the source or the distribution network for the operation. All natural resources on Earth are scarce, and the only surplus seems to be the exploding population rate, and this new drug is rendering a significant portion of the population listless and apathetic. The ending offers a startling explanation, and this would have been a terrific premise, but the novel isn't long enough, and the style is too lackluster.

The mode and format of THE DREAMING EARTH is rather unimaginative and straightforward, and probably would have worked better if Brunner had chosen a more provocative presentation. The writing style of his wonderful novel, STAND ON ZANZIBAR is innovative, and matches that novel's challenging and stimulating themes.

However, since the book is just over one hundred and fifty pages, you haven't invested too much of your time to enjoy the rather incredible solution to a world's rapidly diminishing natural resources.

[Robert Negut · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still like Brunner's ideas... At least what I know so far, being only the second book by him that I read.
The problem here is that he didn't get into the interesting part! I'd have been much more interested in a story told by a character addicted to "happy dreams", to see the progression. As it was, I only got glimpses of its effects, the start and the end, nothing in between. Also, it seems like it's just the beginning of a story... Is there a follow-up or he really stopped just where it was getting interesting?

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an early version of the style Brunner perfected later on -- the "If this goes on" theme. In this case, the world is overpopulated, under-resourced and is under the supervision of a UN world government, which is overwhelmed by all of the problems. It's a good read and we quickly learn that one of the ways to escape this way of life is through a drug which offers a kind of escapism, but whose long term side effects are not understood. The book has many twists and turns and is well written.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

More science fiction with a sociological bent by John Brunner, usually a safe bet in the genre.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade B-.

[j. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my review on my blog at http://koala-infestation.com/?p=386!