Stand on Zanzibar
by John Brunner
science fiction
copyright 1968
started reading in March 2016
not rated
A republished SF Masterwork ! Great ! Let's see what won science fiction book prizes back in 1968 !
I lasted through two and a bit chapters.
I read for enjoyment. If I learn something -- if I start to think new thoughts -- that's a bonus. If I want to spend many hours gleaning a thread of a new idea from hundreds of almost incomprehensible paragraphs -- I'll repeat my doctoral studies.
I put the book down. Realise I've forgotten to bookmark where I was at. Take that as a less than subtle Freudian slip: I do not want to read any more.
I prefer to review a book before I read other people's views. This time, I want to know if it is worth reading further. So...
One opinion is, that this is a great book. Another opinion is not clear: it's a good book but written with an eye on winning the prize. I take that to mean, it's a bad book but satisfies the requirements for a science fiction book prize. Which says nothing good about the science fiction book prize.
Please, read Wikipedia and other reviews, and form your own opinion ! Read the book, even ! Here's my opinion, based on 15 of the 650 pages:
No clear story. No main characters. Lots of words devoted to world description. (Other authors can do that without distracting from the plot. Admittedly, Brunner does not seem to have a plot from which the reader could be distracted.) In 15 pages, nothing that makes me want to read more... but plenty that makes me want to stop reading.
Forget it.
Honesty prevents me from rating a book based on just 15 pages. Based only on those fifteen pages I would rate it as three out of ten. So bad it's embarrassing.
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