Riding the Waves
There is nothing quite like accidentally setting your alarm for four in the morning. Or waking up the entire house at that hour, so that several hours later various family members ask you in patient, pained voices if you did, indeed, happen to set your alarm clock for 4am. Nothing at all.
I thought I’d make a book recommendation today. The book is “The Shockwave Rider,” by John Brunner. I don’t know if it’s in print, but it’s one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read. It was published in 1975 and is set in the first half of the 21st century. It’s astonishing how much of the vision of the future in this is accurate. True, the technology is somewhat more advanced than it is at present, and there are flashes of the ‘future that was’, alternate timeline kind of vibe that you often get in books published during the Cold War (it was, after all, a rather bleak time in many ways), but still, amazing.
How accurate is the vision of the future encapsulated? Well, one of the main character’s weapons is a computer worm, three years before one was ever implemented, and giving us a name for that type of program. The novel also borrows the psychological concept of future shock, the shortest definition of which is “too much change in too short a period of time.” Considering how many people suffer from anxiety disorders these days, it was a remarkable foresight. The story is tremendously engrossing, and builds up to a mind-blowing finish.
While in some ways this novel is typical of those published in the ‘golden age’ of sci-fi, in other ways it is quite different. The story is interesting, well-constructed, with good character development and a lot of detail. It’s also interesting to see the author’s view of a likely future, and exactly where he was accurate. Read it, man!
See wikipedia article for “The Shockwave Rider”
See wikipedia article for ‘computer worm’
See wikipedia article for “Future Shock”
See wikipedia article for the ‘golden age’ of science fiction
See wikipedia article about John Brunner
chrisfiore5 said,
October 4, 2006 @ 9:57 pm
just a random hit, purple dragon. I liked your site, looks like you’ve put a lot of thought into it. peace
Radioactive Jam said,
October 5, 2006 @ 10:53 am
I must have read something by Brunner at some point, his name seems really familiar. So now I’ll go find The Shockwave Rider…