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The Wrong End of Time
Doubleday, 1971. Hardcover with dustjacket. FIRST EDITION, with $4.95 price on jacket flap. A politically divided future world faces a threat of destruction from an alien intelligence detected near Pluto.
185 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
10 people are currently reading
312 people want to read
About the author
John Brunner
572 books480 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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June 10, 2020DAW Collectors #61
Cover Artist: Chris Foss
Name: Brunner, John Kilian Houston, Birthplace: Preston Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, England, UK ( 24 September 1934 - 25 August 1995).
Alternate Names: , Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Ellis Quick,, Trevor Staines,, Keith Woodcott.
The Communists have taken over most of the world and other nations are more interested in maintaining contacts with Russia instead of the United States. The US has withdrawn into almost complete isolation behind a massive defense network — the oceans are lined with fences and bomb bunkers and the border with Canada is strewn with mines.
The Russians have discovered an alien spaceship near Pluto which has transmitted a series of images suggesting the imminent destruction of the human race. Sheklov, a Russian spy, is sent with rather nebulous (and nonsensical) orders to meet up with another spy in the United States, Turpin, to alert him to the aliens and find someone who might be able to sort out the pictures or a come up with a way dealing with the aliens.
Cover Artist: Chris Foss
Name: Brunner, John Kilian Houston, Birthplace: Preston Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, England, UK ( 24 September 1934 - 25 August 1995).
Alternate Names: , Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Ellis Quick,, Trevor Staines,, Keith Woodcott.
The Communists have taken over most of the world and other nations are more interested in maintaining contacts with Russia instead of the United States. The US has withdrawn into almost complete isolation behind a massive defense network — the oceans are lined with fences and bomb bunkers and the border with Canada is strewn with mines.
The Russians have discovered an alien spaceship near Pluto which has transmitted a series of images suggesting the imminent destruction of the human race. Sheklov, a Russian spy, is sent with rather nebulous (and nonsensical) orders to meet up with another spy in the United States, Turpin, to alert him to the aliens and find someone who might be able to sort out the pictures or a come up with a way dealing with the aliens.
January 3, 2023
[Barely 1½]
“As thinkers, Vassily, we are an amazingly lazy species. It’s a wonder we survive from one day to the next.” Even in the worst novels, there can be nuggets of truth and wit, particularly when those novels are written by authors who are ordinarily very good.
The Wrong End of Time is a poor novel by a very good author. As such, it contains reams of deeply acerbic commentary on what Brunner saw as the failing moral character of the United States at the onset of the 1970s, following the social turmoil of the ’60s counterculture and its abject failure to quell the might of the military-industrial complex Eisenhower had warned everyone about. This can often be an eyebrow-raising read, as are certain political observations that make Brunner seem startlingly prescient. In one passage, he even appears to predict Brexit and the deep-seated xenophobia that inspired it.
…Or, most graphically of all, consider the British: tricked into electing a right-wing government that forcibly deported black — but not white — immigrants; expelled in consequence from their own Commonwealth of Nations, which fell apart; denied entry to the “richman’s club” of Europe because of this incredible display of perfidy… and now moaning in squalor about the cruel way in which the world had treated them.
On the other hand, Brunner proved to be far less perspicacious (to put it generously) in his depiction of the Soviet Union as some bastion of social enlightenment and personal freedom. The Wrong End of Time amounts to a blip in an otherwise estimable career. Brunner doesn’t even seem interested in its featherweight SFnal premise: that humanity has been under observation by the usual ineffable godlike aliens who have found us wanting, and are planning our imminent destruction.
We open in a dystopian near (as of 1971) future. The United States has become as paranoid and hyper-isolationist as North Korea, closing off all its borders and monitoring every inch of seacoast with impregnable high-tech surveillance networks. (Continued...)
“As thinkers, Vassily, we are an amazingly lazy species. It’s a wonder we survive from one day to the next.” Even in the worst novels, there can be nuggets of truth and wit, particularly when those novels are written by authors who are ordinarily very good.
The Wrong End of Time is a poor novel by a very good author. As such, it contains reams of deeply acerbic commentary on what Brunner saw as the failing moral character of the United States at the onset of the 1970s, following the social turmoil of the ’60s counterculture and its abject failure to quell the might of the military-industrial complex Eisenhower had warned everyone about. This can often be an eyebrow-raising read, as are certain political observations that make Brunner seem startlingly prescient. In one passage, he even appears to predict Brexit and the deep-seated xenophobia that inspired it.
…Or, most graphically of all, consider the British: tricked into electing a right-wing government that forcibly deported black — but not white — immigrants; expelled in consequence from their own Commonwealth of Nations, which fell apart; denied entry to the “richman’s club” of Europe because of this incredible display of perfidy… and now moaning in squalor about the cruel way in which the world had treated them.
On the other hand, Brunner proved to be far less perspicacious (to put it generously) in his depiction of the Soviet Union as some bastion of social enlightenment and personal freedom. The Wrong End of Time amounts to a blip in an otherwise estimable career. Brunner doesn’t even seem interested in its featherweight SFnal premise: that humanity has been under observation by the usual ineffable godlike aliens who have found us wanting, and are planning our imminent destruction.
We open in a dystopian near (as of 1971) future. The United States has become as paranoid and hyper-isolationist as North Korea, closing off all its borders and monitoring every inch of seacoast with impregnable high-tech surveillance networks. (Continued...)
November 10, 2024
First two chapters were engaging and then my guess is that this was a fix up novel and subsequent chapters were actually added from different short stories. Thereafter the narrative became convoluted and idiotic. Not a great Brunner novel.
January 19, 2022
I read the whole book
*and I didn't get it!*
Damn.
*and I didn't get it!*
Damn.
August 25, 2013
review of
John Brunner's The Wrong End of Time
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 25, 2013
Having just recently read & reviewed Brunner's The Sheep Look Up (you can read my entire review here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3... ), wch is an astonishing 'masterpiece', reviewing his more 'minor' novels might seem like a let-down - but, no, gotta luv 'em all! Each one I read is inspired.
As w/ The Sheep Look Up, in The Wrong End of Time (published the yr before The Sheep .. in 1971) Brunner uses the USA as the archetype of the paranoid nation. & there're other similarities (w/o either bk being ultimately too derivative of each other): one being that the exploitation of consumers by capitalism is highlighted: "Everything about this silent limousine of Turpin's was ultra-modern, including its schedule of obsolescence. Approximately six months old, it was already as close to the scrapyard as to the factory." (p 19)
Pre-planned obsolescence, in itself, is a very important topic to me. I remember 1st encountering the subject in the early '70s, probably right around the time this bk came out. My impression at the time was that people were discussing this in disgust at the practices of the manufacturers. I even had some optimism that such pre-planned obsolescence wd be publicly shamed so much that it wd be phased out, somewhat nipped in the bud.
NOW, 42 yrs later, pre-planned obsolescence is much, MUCH more common than it was then - & it seems to me that computers have ushered in the era more than anything else. How many people buy a computer expecting it to be a still useful hand-me-down to their progeny? &, yet, is it SO ridiculous? I still use Adobe PageMill 2.0 for creating websites. Yes, the websites are 'primitive' - but they're good enuf for me, they carry the info I want them to & they're not that primitive - they have text & images & links.
According to Wikipedia: "Seneca Inc. developed the original PageMill and SiteMill products. During open beta testing, Adobe acquired the company and rebranded the product with their own logo.[citation needed] Adobe released PageMill 1.0 in late 1995. It was considered revolutionary at the time, as it was the first HTML editor that was considered user friendly, cited as the "PageMaker of the WWW". This first version, however, was also criticized for lacking items such as a spell-checker and support for creating HTML tables. Adobe acquired Seneca in 1996. / Adobe PageMill 2.0, which was introduced in early 1997, corrected these issues" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Pa... ] In other words, a perfectly good program can still be used 16 yrs later IF you can get it to work on Operating Systems available to you. I use a Mac w/ a pre-intel processor that still supports a simulation of OS 9 - obsolete by most standards - but using it is an uphill battle, or, as I prefer, close to being a salmon swimming upstream to spawn when the stream's been dammed.
& lest the reader think that Brunner was just another complaining Pinko (is that a variation on Red?) funded by the KGB, there's more than enuf criticism of the USSR to please someone like myself who distrusts ANY of the mega-blocs:
"["]Why else would they have called on you to cushion my arrival?"
"Turpin didn't answer, but pressed his lips together in a thin line. Sheklov could gloss that expression easily enough. Because you'd been told I was good, to bolster your own confidence; or because I'm to be eliminated and you're to replace me; or because you're expendable yourself, and meant to bring about our joint downfall; or because I'm suspect and you've been assigned to investigate me . . ." - p 20
That being between 2 Soviet secret agents in the USA - bringing in a slightly different paranoia than that of the isolationist US defense network in the novel.
& then there's "Prexy" ("for extra insurance I'll have you photographed with Prexy" - p 20), the president whose 1st appearance for me was in the later The Sheep .. about wch I've written: "As for the president of the USA, "Prexy", he's as good a foreshadowing of President George W. Bush as you can get. & how does such a president get into power? Well, if we conveniently ignore the likelihood of fixed elections & the like: "DOE: [..] For example, there's an ingrained distrust in our society of highly intelligent, highly trained, highly competent persons. One need only look at the last presidential election for proof of that. The public obviously wanted a figurehead who'd look good and make comforting noises—" (p 267)" This novel's version of Prexy isn't quite the same, not quite so fleshed-out as a figurehead - maybe more like Reagan than Dubya.
I've praised Philip K. Dick before b/c his novels usually reach a climax that most writers wish they cd dream up halfway into the bk & then go on to ending on something even better. Brunner's similar in the sense that he can pack very informative research & sensitive politics into a well-plotted thrilling SF 'classic' - making the whole so rich in ideas that it's astounding how well he pulls it off. Here's about as close as he ever seems to get to generic SF:
""They're far ahead of us," Sheklov said when Turpin's grey face had started back towards its normal colour. "We're afraid of them. So far we haven't managed to communicate anything to them, although we've been trying for more than three years. Somehow or other we must establish rapport, because if we can't convince them we're fit to get along with they're not only able but apparently willing to set us back a thousand years. In the way I suggested—by turning an American city into energy."" - p 24
But Brunner turns even that on its head eventually (but I won't spoil it for you).
Prexy's holding forth at a party about Canada, wch has disassociated itself somewhat from the USA: "And for you and your compatriots [Canadians], Don, the same thing holds. One's aware that there have been differences, one's aware that relations between our countries are not as happy as they have been right now, but bonds of honest trade still forge links between our lands, and where business binds, friendship follows, sooner or later—"" (p 51)
Does hostility between Canada & the USA seem far-fetched? I just finished listening to a 5 record set published by Radio Canada International's "Transcription" series. It's a "Massey Lecture" from 1983 by Canadian economist Eric Kierans. In these lectures, "Kierans argues that the Williamsburg agreement was designed to restore a fading United States to a position of dominance in the western world. America, he says, is using the nuclear threat as a lever to pry recalcitrant allies into line. If the allies comply, the result will be the creation of a western superbloc that mirrors the Soviet bloc. This would do little to increase global security, but much to undermine democracy and national sovereignty." [from the liner notes to LP E-1307] Brunner, as always, anticipates this brilliantly.
The Williamsburg Economic Summit at wch the agreement was confirmed was "[t]he 9th G7 Summit [&] was held at Williamsburg, Virginia, United States during the 28th to 30 May 1983. The venue for the summit meetings was Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
"The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States,Canada (since 1976) and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).
[..]
"The Williamsburg Economic Summit was the only international meeting chaired by President Reagan. In retrospect it appears to have been the key turning point for not only ending the Cold War, but for inducing a period of economic prosperity based on free market policies." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_G7_s... ]
Do you always trust Wikipedia? I don't. For one thing I've been banned from there just about any time I've ever posted about any subject that I'm actually expert on. 'No doubt' there's a 'good' bureaucratic reason for doing so (NOT). The point is that any encyclopedia is going to have a subtext supporting a particular POV that's kept hidden in the interest of a pretense at 'objectivity'. I take the last sentence of the above quote as a case-in-point: "In retrospect it appears to have been the key turning point for not only ending the Cold War, but for inducing a period of economic prosperity based on free market policies." In retrospect to who?! In retrospect it was one of the beginnings to when the Reagan-Bush hegemony started forcing a one-world government down the throats of the peoples of the world, the "New World Order" (let's not forget that Adolf Hitler wrote another bk than "Mein Kampf" called "My New Order").
Kierans warns about the destruction of the Nation-State thru its being subsumed by what he calls "Globalism". While I totally disagree w/ his positive emphasis on the nation-state, I totally agree w/ his criticism of what's now known as Globalization. Back to the Wikipedia entry: who exactly becomes prosperous under "free market policies"?! The Mexican laborers forced to work at less-than-subsistence wages? The kidnapped Russian girls forced into sex slavery in Bosnia under the human traffickers put there as members of the International Police Task Force? How deep will we have to look before we find sex slavery in Iraq & Afghanistan imposed by 'democratic' forces? How much profit is Halliburton making off of destabilized political situations? Halliburton has a business section called the "Energy Services Group". The main business in The Wrong End of Time is called "Energetics General". Brunner is as prescient as always.
Brunner sees thru what's now called by some "corporate welfare" - the bailing out of debt of greedy & squandering corporations thru 'free-trade' & tax-payer monies:
"By then, the ten biggest corporations in the country were being sustained on tax-payers' money—aircraft, chemicals, computers, transportation services, virtually all the key industries were being regularly transfused with government funds. Naturally, because any other form of federal investment was castigated as "creeping socialism," it had to be via the Defense Department that the money passed. A generation of ingenious public-relations work had convinced the public that this aspect of government activity was sacrosanct, never to be questioned by a loyal citizen."!! - p 71
This is still sadly true to this day. If you're interested, I comade a movie w/ Cell Media satirizing the mass media's anti-protester PR work in connection w/ the G20 in 2009 in Pittsburgh. It's called "TV 'News' Commits Suicide" & can be witnessed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-_aL... .
Like his fellow SF novelist Keith Laumer (see my review of Laumer's Nine by Laumer here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63... ) Brunner criticizes TV:
"He sat up in bed, sipping coffee that she had also brought, and used the remote-control to turn down the TV. She had switched it on, without asking him, as she went out. He'd already noticed that these extraordinary people didn't seem to feel that a room was habitable unless either bland music or a TV image were included in the décor." - p 60
Yep, "Freedom isn't Free": "But far be it from ME to lose confidence in the wisdom of those who have laid down the precepts by which we live, the experts whose love of freedom has defined the degree to which we, the laymen, and our families, must sacrifice liberty to preserve it." (p 130) &, unfortunately, many of the people whose 'job' it is to keep 'freedom free', are doing exactly the opposite, unwittingly or otherwise.
John Brunner's The Wrong End of Time
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 25, 2013
Having just recently read & reviewed Brunner's The Sheep Look Up (you can read my entire review here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3... ), wch is an astonishing 'masterpiece', reviewing his more 'minor' novels might seem like a let-down - but, no, gotta luv 'em all! Each one I read is inspired.
As w/ The Sheep Look Up, in The Wrong End of Time (published the yr before The Sheep .. in 1971) Brunner uses the USA as the archetype of the paranoid nation. & there're other similarities (w/o either bk being ultimately too derivative of each other): one being that the exploitation of consumers by capitalism is highlighted: "Everything about this silent limousine of Turpin's was ultra-modern, including its schedule of obsolescence. Approximately six months old, it was already as close to the scrapyard as to the factory." (p 19)
Pre-planned obsolescence, in itself, is a very important topic to me. I remember 1st encountering the subject in the early '70s, probably right around the time this bk came out. My impression at the time was that people were discussing this in disgust at the practices of the manufacturers. I even had some optimism that such pre-planned obsolescence wd be publicly shamed so much that it wd be phased out, somewhat nipped in the bud.
NOW, 42 yrs later, pre-planned obsolescence is much, MUCH more common than it was then - & it seems to me that computers have ushered in the era more than anything else. How many people buy a computer expecting it to be a still useful hand-me-down to their progeny? &, yet, is it SO ridiculous? I still use Adobe PageMill 2.0 for creating websites. Yes, the websites are 'primitive' - but they're good enuf for me, they carry the info I want them to & they're not that primitive - they have text & images & links.
According to Wikipedia: "Seneca Inc. developed the original PageMill and SiteMill products. During open beta testing, Adobe acquired the company and rebranded the product with their own logo.[citation needed] Adobe released PageMill 1.0 in late 1995. It was considered revolutionary at the time, as it was the first HTML editor that was considered user friendly, cited as the "PageMaker of the WWW". This first version, however, was also criticized for lacking items such as a spell-checker and support for creating HTML tables. Adobe acquired Seneca in 1996. / Adobe PageMill 2.0, which was introduced in early 1997, corrected these issues" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Pa... ] In other words, a perfectly good program can still be used 16 yrs later IF you can get it to work on Operating Systems available to you. I use a Mac w/ a pre-intel processor that still supports a simulation of OS 9 - obsolete by most standards - but using it is an uphill battle, or, as I prefer, close to being a salmon swimming upstream to spawn when the stream's been dammed.
& lest the reader think that Brunner was just another complaining Pinko (is that a variation on Red?) funded by the KGB, there's more than enuf criticism of the USSR to please someone like myself who distrusts ANY of the mega-blocs:
"["]Why else would they have called on you to cushion my arrival?"
"Turpin didn't answer, but pressed his lips together in a thin line. Sheklov could gloss that expression easily enough. Because you'd been told I was good, to bolster your own confidence; or because I'm to be eliminated and you're to replace me; or because you're expendable yourself, and meant to bring about our joint downfall; or because I'm suspect and you've been assigned to investigate me . . ." - p 20
That being between 2 Soviet secret agents in the USA - bringing in a slightly different paranoia than that of the isolationist US defense network in the novel.
& then there's "Prexy" ("for extra insurance I'll have you photographed with Prexy" - p 20), the president whose 1st appearance for me was in the later The Sheep .. about wch I've written: "As for the president of the USA, "Prexy", he's as good a foreshadowing of President George W. Bush as you can get. & how does such a president get into power? Well, if we conveniently ignore the likelihood of fixed elections & the like: "DOE: [..] For example, there's an ingrained distrust in our society of highly intelligent, highly trained, highly competent persons. One need only look at the last presidential election for proof of that. The public obviously wanted a figurehead who'd look good and make comforting noises—" (p 267)" This novel's version of Prexy isn't quite the same, not quite so fleshed-out as a figurehead - maybe more like Reagan than Dubya.
I've praised Philip K. Dick before b/c his novels usually reach a climax that most writers wish they cd dream up halfway into the bk & then go on to ending on something even better. Brunner's similar in the sense that he can pack very informative research & sensitive politics into a well-plotted thrilling SF 'classic' - making the whole so rich in ideas that it's astounding how well he pulls it off. Here's about as close as he ever seems to get to generic SF:
""They're far ahead of us," Sheklov said when Turpin's grey face had started back towards its normal colour. "We're afraid of them. So far we haven't managed to communicate anything to them, although we've been trying for more than three years. Somehow or other we must establish rapport, because if we can't convince them we're fit to get along with they're not only able but apparently willing to set us back a thousand years. In the way I suggested—by turning an American city into energy."" - p 24
But Brunner turns even that on its head eventually (but I won't spoil it for you).
Prexy's holding forth at a party about Canada, wch has disassociated itself somewhat from the USA: "And for you and your compatriots [Canadians], Don, the same thing holds. One's aware that there have been differences, one's aware that relations between our countries are not as happy as they have been right now, but bonds of honest trade still forge links between our lands, and where business binds, friendship follows, sooner or later—"" (p 51)
Does hostility between Canada & the USA seem far-fetched? I just finished listening to a 5 record set published by Radio Canada International's "Transcription" series. It's a "Massey Lecture" from 1983 by Canadian economist Eric Kierans. In these lectures, "Kierans argues that the Williamsburg agreement was designed to restore a fading United States to a position of dominance in the western world. America, he says, is using the nuclear threat as a lever to pry recalcitrant allies into line. If the allies comply, the result will be the creation of a western superbloc that mirrors the Soviet bloc. This would do little to increase global security, but much to undermine democracy and national sovereignty." [from the liner notes to LP E-1307] Brunner, as always, anticipates this brilliantly.
The Williamsburg Economic Summit at wch the agreement was confirmed was "[t]he 9th G7 Summit [&] was held at Williamsburg, Virginia, United States during the 28th to 30 May 1983. The venue for the summit meetings was Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
"The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States,Canada (since 1976) and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).
[..]
"The Williamsburg Economic Summit was the only international meeting chaired by President Reagan. In retrospect it appears to have been the key turning point for not only ending the Cold War, but for inducing a period of economic prosperity based on free market policies." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_G7_s... ]
Do you always trust Wikipedia? I don't. For one thing I've been banned from there just about any time I've ever posted about any subject that I'm actually expert on. 'No doubt' there's a 'good' bureaucratic reason for doing so (NOT). The point is that any encyclopedia is going to have a subtext supporting a particular POV that's kept hidden in the interest of a pretense at 'objectivity'. I take the last sentence of the above quote as a case-in-point: "In retrospect it appears to have been the key turning point for not only ending the Cold War, but for inducing a period of economic prosperity based on free market policies." In retrospect to who?! In retrospect it was one of the beginnings to when the Reagan-Bush hegemony started forcing a one-world government down the throats of the peoples of the world, the "New World Order" (let's not forget that Adolf Hitler wrote another bk than "Mein Kampf" called "My New Order").
Kierans warns about the destruction of the Nation-State thru its being subsumed by what he calls "Globalism". While I totally disagree w/ his positive emphasis on the nation-state, I totally agree w/ his criticism of what's now known as Globalization. Back to the Wikipedia entry: who exactly becomes prosperous under "free market policies"?! The Mexican laborers forced to work at less-than-subsistence wages? The kidnapped Russian girls forced into sex slavery in Bosnia under the human traffickers put there as members of the International Police Task Force? How deep will we have to look before we find sex slavery in Iraq & Afghanistan imposed by 'democratic' forces? How much profit is Halliburton making off of destabilized political situations? Halliburton has a business section called the "Energy Services Group". The main business in The Wrong End of Time is called "Energetics General". Brunner is as prescient as always.
Brunner sees thru what's now called by some "corporate welfare" - the bailing out of debt of greedy & squandering corporations thru 'free-trade' & tax-payer monies:
"By then, the ten biggest corporations in the country were being sustained on tax-payers' money—aircraft, chemicals, computers, transportation services, virtually all the key industries were being regularly transfused with government funds. Naturally, because any other form of federal investment was castigated as "creeping socialism," it had to be via the Defense Department that the money passed. A generation of ingenious public-relations work had convinced the public that this aspect of government activity was sacrosanct, never to be questioned by a loyal citizen."!! - p 71
This is still sadly true to this day. If you're interested, I comade a movie w/ Cell Media satirizing the mass media's anti-protester PR work in connection w/ the G20 in 2009 in Pittsburgh. It's called "TV 'News' Commits Suicide" & can be witnessed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-_aL... .
Like his fellow SF novelist Keith Laumer (see my review of Laumer's Nine by Laumer here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63... ) Brunner criticizes TV:
"He sat up in bed, sipping coffee that she had also brought, and used the remote-control to turn down the TV. She had switched it on, without asking him, as she went out. He'd already noticed that these extraordinary people didn't seem to feel that a room was habitable unless either bland music or a TV image were included in the décor." - p 60
Yep, "Freedom isn't Free": "But far be it from ME to lose confidence in the wisdom of those who have laid down the precepts by which we live, the experts whose love of freedom has defined the degree to which we, the laymen, and our families, must sacrifice liberty to preserve it." (p 130) &, unfortunately, many of the people whose 'job' it is to keep 'freedom free', are doing exactly the opposite, unwittingly or otherwise.
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September 2, 2015Got sixty pages into this discursive, disjointed mess and gave up on it. The book makes simply no sense.
April 4, 2017
I have somewhat mixed emotions about The Wrong End of Time by John Brunner. I didn't dislike it, but at the same time, can't say it wowed me in any particular way. I liked the premise; the US has isolated itself from the rest of the world and basically closed its borders. The Russians perceive a threat from outer space and send an agent into the US (yes, even with closed borders, there are still ways to get in and out.. :)), to try and contact the powers that be so that the world won't be destroyed.
Interesting plot and also in ways, an interesting story too. The Russian scientist is picked up by a Russian mole who occupies a high position within the corporation that is responsible for the defence systems that enclose the borders. A young man, with powers that allow him to divine important events and who wants to help them along, knows about this arrival and tries to follow the scientist. The US is maintained under the thumb of security organizations; original thought is dissuaded and stopped if deemed a threat.
There are lots of things to like about the story, but overall, it just left me feeling... mehhhhh.. Some aspects of the situation in the US at the moment seemed to be described by this book. America, isolated from the rest of the world by fear. This quote resonated with me, describing the situation that the book finds the US in... "There hasn't been anything genuinely new in the States for years and years, just changes rung on what we already had. But of course we were afraid of being overtaken. So we drifted into this mess we're in right now, where we care more about our own selfishness and greed than we do about anyone else or anything else." At times I kept thinking is this where the current administration will lead the US? I hope not.. (sorry for getting political)
Anyway, wish I'd enjoyed the story a bit more or if it had grabbed me a bit more.. Oh, an interesting ending by the way. An easy read and if you like Science Fiction and want to try John Brunner, probably still worth a read. (2.5 stars)
Interesting plot and also in ways, an interesting story too. The Russian scientist is picked up by a Russian mole who occupies a high position within the corporation that is responsible for the defence systems that enclose the borders. A young man, with powers that allow him to divine important events and who wants to help them along, knows about this arrival and tries to follow the scientist. The US is maintained under the thumb of security organizations; original thought is dissuaded and stopped if deemed a threat.
There are lots of things to like about the story, but overall, it just left me feeling... mehhhhh.. Some aspects of the situation in the US at the moment seemed to be described by this book. America, isolated from the rest of the world by fear. This quote resonated with me, describing the situation that the book finds the US in... "There hasn't been anything genuinely new in the States for years and years, just changes rung on what we already had. But of course we were afraid of being overtaken. So we drifted into this mess we're in right now, where we care more about our own selfishness and greed than we do about anyone else or anything else." At times I kept thinking is this where the current administration will lead the US? I hope not.. (sorry for getting political)
Anyway, wish I'd enjoyed the story a bit more or if it had grabbed me a bit more.. Oh, an interesting ending by the way. An easy read and if you like Science Fiction and want to try John Brunner, probably still worth a read. (2.5 stars)
January 29, 2017
Very entertaining sci-fi piece from 1971 that predicts the culture and politics of USA 2017 fairly well - including the recent Russian-influenced election.
"Look at us here in this country (USA). We're in the same sort of mess as the Romans were once, and the Spanish, and God knows who else. We've been the richest country in the work, we've been the most powerful, the most influential, and - same as always - we got used to it. We care more about our selfishness and greed than we do about anyone or anything else."
Speaking of how Russia will influence US elections: "There'll be so many factions we'll be able to feed in spies, saboteurs, subversives, anyone we choose. All we'll have to do is identify those of the competing parties that are prepared to sell out in order to do down with their rivals. Ten years of that and America will never be a menace to the world again."
"Look at us here in this country (USA). We're in the same sort of mess as the Romans were once, and the Spanish, and God knows who else. We've been the richest country in the work, we've been the most powerful, the most influential, and - same as always - we got used to it. We care more about our selfishness and greed than we do about anyone or anything else."
Speaking of how Russia will influence US elections: "There'll be so many factions we'll be able to feed in spies, saboteurs, subversives, anyone we choose. All we'll have to do is identify those of the competing parties that are prepared to sell out in order to do down with their rivals. Ten years of that and America will never be a menace to the world again."
October 14, 2017
I think John Brunner is a genius of storytelling. I have only ever read one other novel by him STAND ON ZANZIBAR, and that book just blew me away. This one...I am not sure what to think. I want to give it three stars or five stars, but...I don't know...it just felt like a light version of SoZ because of its brevity. Only 185 pages, and it only covers about two days of time in the universe he creates. We get to see some wonderfully crafted characters, so real yet so much creatures of the future. I just can't bring myself to rate this as high as SoZ, which is a masterpiece of complex yet compelling storytelling. I really enjoyed this because it felt like Brunner was doing his version of a Philip K. Dick novel. Yes, it's SF, but really it is social commentary, satire, and very smart satire at that.
If anyone does not like this it is likely because it does what SoZ does...breaks the traditional Freytag pyramid of plot. 90% of the book feels like a set up and when the end comes, it's a bit too easy. The point is that Brunner's point is not the plot. Like Philip K. Dick, he likes to set the table up with his wonderful ideas and see what it looks like. PKD had wacky ideas and character who I loved to read about, but in the end it was usually a big mess. I loved the mess. Brunner is a bit neater, tidier, in presenting his material. You can tell it's all part of a plan, but it is so intricate, it takes awhile to get the big picture, and then in the end it is as complex, nearly, as the real world.
Finishing this makes me want to read SoZ again and then the sort-of sequels he wrote to it.
If anyone does not like this it is likely because it does what SoZ does...breaks the traditional Freytag pyramid of plot. 90% of the book feels like a set up and when the end comes, it's a bit too easy. The point is that Brunner's point is not the plot. Like Philip K. Dick, he likes to set the table up with his wonderful ideas and see what it looks like. PKD had wacky ideas and character who I loved to read about, but in the end it was usually a big mess. I loved the mess. Brunner is a bit neater, tidier, in presenting his material. You can tell it's all part of a plan, but it is so intricate, it takes awhile to get the big picture, and then in the end it is as complex, nearly, as the real world.
Finishing this makes me want to read SoZ again and then the sort-of sequels he wrote to it.
April 20, 2023
A Russian spy emerges from a submarine and is followed covertly by Danty, a man with an unusual talent, he can foresee some events. The Russian, Sheklov, is ostensibly verifying some facts for Moscow by visiting a sleeper agent, a high-ranking executive for Energetics General, the front for the DoD defence systems, who has been passing secrets to the Eastern bloc for 25 years. The United States is a polluted and partly radioactive country, devoid of its peak power of the 1970s, and is highly surveilled. The President is a shill for the Army (at the moment) but the Navy are constantly vying for power. Danty has made a mistake when following Sheklov, in that he left the alarm system off when he left the beach after observing the spy’s landing, and this has triggered the Security Force to start an intensive investigation. The Russians have apparently encountered antimatter aliens near Pluto (contraterrene) and this has somehow caused the Eastern bloc enough consternation to break protocol and contact the sleeper agent, Turpin. John Brunner’s haphazard novel struggles to convey just what the hell it is actually about - antiwar? antitech? antiAmerican? Puzzling.
June 14, 2024
“The Wrong End of Time” by John Brunner (1971) First British Edition
Overall Rating 3/10 – Wrong Choice to Read
Plot
Uncertain – something on the lines of aliens from Pluto invading Earth with nuclear weapons (see Critique)
Writing Style
Very 1940s. Aged prose. Overly descriptive and distractingly so.
Point of View/Voice
Written in the first person/past tense (standard narration).
Critique
I was looking forward to this splash of Science-Fiction but, was unfortunately let down. In fact, I abandoned it after only 6 chapters because I just couldn’t get into it.
I couldn’t follow the plot, I couldn’t watch the film playing out in my head as I read the words and I couldn’t understand what was going on.
The style of writing was very aged. That, per se, I can adjust to (and is sometimes fun) but the read has to be interesting and understandable to make that adjustment. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Apart from telling you I had a pretty miserable time reading as far as I did (I really wanted it to “click”) I don’t have much to say. Sorry.
Overall Rating 3/10 – Wrong Choice to Read
Plot
Uncertain – something on the lines of aliens from Pluto invading Earth with nuclear weapons (see Critique)
Writing Style
Very 1940s. Aged prose. Overly descriptive and distractingly so.
Point of View/Voice
Written in the first person/past tense (standard narration).
Critique
I was looking forward to this splash of Science-Fiction but, was unfortunately let down. In fact, I abandoned it after only 6 chapters because I just couldn’t get into it.
I couldn’t follow the plot, I couldn’t watch the film playing out in my head as I read the words and I couldn’t understand what was going on.
The style of writing was very aged. That, per se, I can adjust to (and is sometimes fun) but the read has to be interesting and understandable to make that adjustment. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Apart from telling you I had a pretty miserable time reading as far as I did (I really wanted it to “click”) I don’t have much to say. Sorry.
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October 23, 2025In a near future where a paranoid America has sealed itself off from the rest of the world by a vast and complicated defense system, a young Russian scientist infiltrates all defenses to tell an almost unbelievable and truly terrifying story. At the outer reaches of the solar system, near Pluto, has been detected a superior form of intelligent life, far smarter than man and in possession of technology that makes it immune to attack from human weaponry and strong enough to easily destroy planet Earth. Can humans set aside their differences and mutual fears to work together and defeat a common enemy? For each generation, there is a writer meant to bend the rules of what we know. Hugo Award winner (Best Novel, Stand on Zanzibar) and British science fiction master John Brunner remains one of the most influential and respected authors of all time, and now many of his classic works are being reintroduced. For readers familiar with his vision, it is a chance to reexamine his thoughtful worlds and words, while for new readers, Brunner’s work proves itself the very definition of timeless.
January 18, 2024
It's hard to judge science fiction novels decades after they were written, and to be fair, Brunner's 'Wrong end of time' seems more politically & socially savvy than many - and interestingly does contain a reference to 'linked computers'. It shifts between various characters, though focuses more on a Russian spy called Sheklov, who is impersonating an American, and Danty, a rebel. This is a near future society, taking place in an isolated, decadent city, with the threat of war ever present. The problem is, it hardly ever seems clear what the characters are doing and why. There is talk of an alien ship discovered near Pluto, but it serves only an occasional mention. The society itself is thoroughly racist and bigoted, and the writing to me seemed to almost be exhibiting the very thing it was highlighting as a problem, though this may have been my interpretation. Brunner is clearly an intelligent writer, but this book failed to satisfy.
March 6, 2022
The story is rather disjointed, bordering on incoherent. Its fits and starts, as the characters’ backgrounds are presented, made it hard to care about any of them. The actual plot concerning the aliens seems to be an afterthought, and is actually quite pointless. A Russian scientist teams up with his host’s daughter, Lora, her African American lover, Danny, and Danty’s friend Magda to save the world. Turns out, they shouldn’t have bothered.
Making things worse in the writer’s try at future slang. It comes across as weird, not to say dated. Some of it was incomprehensible.
And then there’s the ending. It was finally getting a bit interesting when the story abruptly ends with a strange finish for, Danty, the story’s ostensible hero.
Making things worse in the writer’s try at future slang. It comes across as weird, not to say dated. Some of it was incomprehensible.
And then there’s the ending. It was finally getting a bit interesting when the story abruptly ends with a strange finish for, Danty, the story’s ostensible hero.
July 21, 2019
Once again Brunner takes you on a journey where you're thinking that the plot is so far away from what the descriptor says and is rather disjointed, but then it all comes together in the last 20 pages or so. This wasn't one of his best, but not one of the worst. It deals with the US having become totally isolated and run by a corporation and the police (a common theme in his books). A Russian agent comes to meet up with another agent already in place to tell him of an intelligence found out near Pluto that threatened to destroy the planet. A string of characters get mixed up together and are on the run from the authorities. Decent book, but not a must read of Bruner's catalog.
February 28, 2019
One of the problems with near-future science fiction is that it can be difficult to read in the near future. That is the case here. The novel was written in 1971 and looks something like 30 years into the future. Well, that future is now 20 years in the past and is jarringly different from reality. That is what
happened here. There are occasional passages that strike a chord, but mostly it's just wrong.
That being said, the book itself is still interesting, the characters good, and the picture the story paints is still occasionally chilling, a good but dated book.
happened here. There are occasional passages that strike a chord, but mostly it's just wrong.
That being said, the book itself is still interesting, the characters good, and the picture the story paints is still occasionally chilling, a good but dated book.
March 10, 2025
Nope. Not one of Brunner’s best. I have a feeling that Brunner had just been binge reading PKD and absorbed some of that incoherence. The entire premise of the story is strange: what if (during the cold war) Russia was the good guy and America was a paranoid walled-off society like North Korea? Then throw in a little paranormal pre-cognition, add some cringe-worthy inner-city black slang, and keep the reader guessing as to what is going on. Yep, that sums it up. Maybe I’m just cynical, but it seems like Brunner needed a quick paycheck and churned this out as fast as possible.
December 7, 2018
"Sheklov looked out at the morning as it spread across the vast net of the superway. A web spun by an inconceivable spider, a mesh of concrete offering the illusion of freedom to go, yet turning you back whenever you approached the limits you must not exceed . . ."
November 25, 2019
I'm giving it two stars instead of one because I liked the concepts of the last chapter. Didn't age well imo. Flat characters, tedious pacing, a story with a lot of promise (espionage, alien contact, psychic abilities) that went pretty much nowhere.
July 28, 2020
I love stories where the ending was already there, very early on, and if you'd twisted your mind in just the right way you could have ...
this was nearly like that, I felt I almost had it long before the actual climax.
this was nearly like that, I felt I almost had it long before the actual climax.
November 30, 2023
I was disappointed by this story. I found the story disjointed and difficult to follow at times. I also thought the conclusion made the story largely pointless. I think the author's imagining of the future was depressing.
February 17, 2024
What a magnificent tale! In 160 pp, and back in 1971, Brunner creates a vision of his and our future which seems remarkably prescient, if a tad optimistic in the conclusion. Some great characters and a smooth, well developed plot!
December 29, 2024
Interesting view of the future state of the US written long ago, maybe hitting a bit too close to home. Also feels a bit racist at times, but I think that was probably for the sake of the story and not the views of the author.
June 25, 2020
Not your typical sci-fi read. More a moral tale about the human animal and its potential. Average.
July 19, 2020
Isolated behind a protective shield, an isolationist America learns of a pending alien invasion. A Science Fiction Book Club selection.
June 19, 2022
The real aliens are the Americans.
June 1, 2023
Bleh. It stumbled along trying to be cute and not telling much of a story for about 50 pages before I called it quits. I can't even remember how it started. DNF
June 2, 2020
awful. waste of time.
February 7, 2017
Danty has a knack of being in the right place at the right time, or is just driven to do those things to ease the nagging pain in the back of his head. Magda says he was born at the wrong end of time. This is not a time travel novel.
America has become totalitarian, isolated, armed and barricaded. The Russians have discovered an alien presence near the orbit of Pluto. The communication they've received from the aliens is threatening, but they can't see a solution. Sheklov, a quick thinking Russian, is chosen to go into America and find something that will avert the threat. Sheklov poses as a Canadian timber salesman. He is met by Turpin, a Russian spy, who after twenty-five years has risen to become one of the leading executives in Energetics General. Turpin's daughter, Lora, feels suffocated in her home and goes looking for action in a dangerous part of town. Danty driven by his knack is in the right place to scare away the muggers. She invites him to a party they're having the next day.
As the story progresses we learn more about America, how the people are intimidated into conformity and submission, but at a cost of art and creativity. With lukewarm praise "One of the better science fiction novels of the year," on the cover you might think this book is a dud. No so, it is exciting, easy to read, humorous and the characters--Danty, Sheklov, Lora and Magda--really grow on us. Fantastic story, I didn't even care that the aliens were only mentioned again in the last ten pages.
America has become totalitarian, isolated, armed and barricaded. The Russians have discovered an alien presence near the orbit of Pluto. The communication they've received from the aliens is threatening, but they can't see a solution. Sheklov, a quick thinking Russian, is chosen to go into America and find something that will avert the threat. Sheklov poses as a Canadian timber salesman. He is met by Turpin, a Russian spy, who after twenty-five years has risen to become one of the leading executives in Energetics General. Turpin's daughter, Lora, feels suffocated in her home and goes looking for action in a dangerous part of town. Danty driven by his knack is in the right place to scare away the muggers. She invites him to a party they're having the next day.
As the story progresses we learn more about America, how the people are intimidated into conformity and submission, but at a cost of art and creativity. With lukewarm praise "One of the better science fiction novels of the year," on the cover you might think this book is a dud. No so, it is exciting, easy to read, humorous and the characters--Danty, Sheklov, Lora and Magda--really grow on us. Fantastic story, I didn't even care that the aliens were only mentioned again in the last ten pages.
August 26, 2013
Difficult for me to decide whether I liked the book or not. Firstly, it is very dated feeling, written in 1970s with all the fears of that time magnified and beaten over your head. It covers isolationism, ecology, nuclear war, racism, vapid social existence and corpocracy with such a heavy hand that from today it beats the drum a little out of tune. Ironic really, because many of the same issues are here and talked about today. Also, I am not sure if Brunner is saying that the Soviet system was a good thing(?). With that bit said, the plot is interesting, but the end is a little flat. Danty Ward and Vassily Sheklov are bound together by a cryptic message sent from aliens out by Pluto and by Danty's strange ability which gives the book its title. The conclusion was unsatisfying for me because I was too focused on finding out who and what the aliens were, but the real story concerns Danty's compulsion (and perhaps the Soviet's own compulsion - book was unclear on this). I have read two Brunner books now, this and "Total Eclipse", both I have rated 3 stars for pretty much the same reason, he tends to preach at you, but both have a core of hard science fiction that made them worthwhile.
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