3.0
The World Swappers
ByPublisher Description
While two very different men—Counce, who has strange powers and a formidable intellect, and Bassett, a master of money, finance, and business—are locked in a battle for supremacy over the inhabited worlds of the galaxy, an unknown threat to their power lurks in the shadows: secretive aliens who have a takeover plan of their own. John Brunner delivers fast action as a galaxy-size drama and cosmic surprises unfold one after another, leading to a heart-pounding climax.
For each generation, there is a writer meant to bend the rules of what we know. Hugo Award winner (Best Novel,
) 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.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe World Swappers Reviews
3.0
“John Brunner was one of my favourite authors back when I started. He wrote succinctly with amazing well-considered ideas. His books were generally short and with no need for over-characterisation. I am always on the lookout for ones I have not read.
This is a short book (only 153 pages) and can be read in an afternoon. Its shortness means that it only gets 4 stars but the ideas are wonderful if of their time.
If you have a couple of hours (maybe three) you could do a lot worse.”
“I don't know anything about the genesis of this book, but I have to assume that Brunner produced it fast, or early, or in some other way wasn't really paying attention. I admit that I'm not a big Brunner fan (no, not even https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41069.Stand_on_Zanzibar ), but I've like his other work much more than this.
Here, Brunner has barely the germ of an idea, and does very little with it. The beginning of the book is catchy, with one mysterious, powerful stranger intercepting a mysterious, intelligent merchant. But the book never takes off from there. There are eventually aliens, and there's a token effort at some sociology. But essentially, this is a series of minor obstacles that are solved (within hours) by technology in altogether incredible ways, with all sorts of collateral damage that's barely even recognized.
It might have been an acceptable story if written in the '20s or '30s. But for a book published in 1959, it's just not nearly good enough.”
About John Brunner
John Brunner started his career as a productive writer of Ace Double Science Fiction novels, sometimes writing both sides of the same double. He produced a wide variety of entertaining and well-conceived science fiction adventures before testing his ambitions with more and more complex and stylistically sophisticated novels. Among his triumphs are
(Hugo winner for Best Novel),
,
,
, and
. Although he wrote relatively little fantasy, he was widely acclaimed for a series of short stories collected as
. Brunner also wrote mysteries, thrillers, and several well-regarded historical novels.
Other books by John Brunner
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