Stand on Zanzibar

John Brunner

1968 • 672 pages

Ratings33

Average rating3.7

"Originally published in 1968, Stand on Zanzibar was a breakthrough in science fiction storytelling technique, and a prophetic look at a dystopian 2010 that remains compelling today. Corporations have usurped democracy, ubiquitous information technology mediates human relationships, mass-marketed psychosomatic drugs keep billions docile, and genetic engineering is routine. Universal in reach, the world-system is out of control, and we are all its victims...and its creator"--Cover p. [4].

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

David

I really wanted to like this novel. It's hailed as a classic of the genre and it is indeed bursting with ideas, enough to fill several other novels. But I struggled with it.

The pace is funereally slow. The slang terms used date the novel badly. It's like a late 60's writer's idea of what the language would become. Which is exactly what it is.

So, not for me, but I'm sure others have and will enjoy it.

November 14, 2012

Nick Tankard

9/10

June 8, 2022

Montgomery Webster

Story: 3 / 10
Characters: 5
Setting: 6
Prose: 2

Tags: Overpopulation, drugs, Afram, religion, colonialism

March 23, 2018

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