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Stand on Zanzibar Paperback – January 1, 1999

by John Brunner (Author)

4.3 799 ratings

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There are seven billion-plus humans crowding the surface of 21st century Earth. It is an age of intelligent computers, mass-market psychedelic drugs, politics conducted by assassination, scientists who burn incense to appease volcanoes ... all the hysteria of a dangerously overcrowded world, portrayed in a dazzlingly inventive style.

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Print length

650 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Gollancz
Publication date

January 1, 1999
Dimensions

5.12 x 1.57 x 7.8 inches
ISBN-10

1857988361
ISBN-13

978-1857988369
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

* #15 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written

* Winner of the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award and the Prix Apollo.

* 'It's time for a new generation to read it' Joe Haldeman

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gollancz; 47394th edition (January 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 650 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1857988361
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1857988369
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.12 x 1.57 x 7.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,622,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,669 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books)
- #43,028 in Spies & Political Thrillers
- #263,096 in Fantasy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 799 ratings

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4.3 out of 5

799 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2024

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Sometimes I wonder if these fiction writers of a dystopian future had a portal through time.
While there are many predictions that have not come to fruition, there’s enough accuracy about our present to determine our decline was always clear. The masses just couldn’t see it and the globalists exploited it.

Kindle Customer

Great ideas but

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2023

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This book has good ideas, but it's all over the place. It is a story with multiple view points, but only focused on a couple of characters. Most of the characters introduced only got one chapter and were only mentioned again just to end their story. These characters to me could've had interesting stories, but we're under utilized, and I felt the author did a better job with this similar style in "Sheep look up"; but it was incredible how much world building he did for this book. Also there was a ton of jargon you had to decipher to get a understanding of what is being said (I guess this cryptic language comes with every sci-fi novel), and the stream of consciousness sections of this story were maddening.
I would recommend this book to people who like stories with multiple perspectives, and don't mind a nihilistic plotlines. The novel has a very interesting dystopian vision of the future.

5 people found this helpful

Visionary, move fast and break stuff story telling! Visionary!

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2023

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I read this book when it was new 30-40 years ago. At that time it hinted at some weird future that was interesting and exotic but ...just impossible. NOW it reads like a checklist . This guy is a visionary! What a book!! Buy iit! You'll be blown away

5 people found this helpful

A New Wave Standard

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2018

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The writing style was a shock to most SF readers when the book was published. That is unless they had previously readJon Dos Pasos’s “Manhattan Transfer” first, in which case Brunner’s “avant-garde” stylistics were simply a rip-off. But if you didn’t know better it was impressive.

To me there are no sympathetic characters. Interesting characters, perhaps but no one I would want to identify with. Basically the idea is that the world is going to hell in a hand basket and there is nothing you can do about it. By half way through you don’t expect anyone to have a happy or even comfortable ending. I guess that pretty much mirrored how a lot of us who read back in the day felt about the real world which made the book seem profound.

The book also illustrates the hazards of writing SF set in the near future. That “future” has mostly come and gone by the early 21st century so reading it now make suspension of disbelief a considerable chore.

21 people found this helpful

One of the most important books you will read this year, or any year.

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2017

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What can you say about one of the most important books ever written in the science fiction genre.

I felt like I had gotten on a runaway train with William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Isaac Azimov, Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut, and the Merry Pranksters fighting to be the conductors.

It was one of the most prescient books I have ever read. While Brunner didn't get everything right, (this was written in 1967, I believe), and some things aren't even remotely true, what he DID get right was chillingly right.

There is nothing like this book. It has to be read to be believed. And, I urge everyone who has ever had an interest in this field to read it. It really is that important.

7 people found this helpful

A great and important read

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2014

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If the word prescient means anything to you fellow reader this is the book. Published in 1968 it was part of my teenage sci fi reading binge. The author magically [predicts almost all the major technological devices that are so ubiquitous in our daily lives. Computer processing cell phone tech video chat and the list goes on. This is a fine read. Quite fun with the style utilized by the author. Not exactly linear at all times. I guess even the style is akin to the way we get stories on television. This book will appeal to fans of the genre as well as readers that enjoy literature. Yes literature. This is an important book that grows in stature and greatness as the years continue. Buy this read this enjoy this and then live right.

22 people found this helpful

Powerful and timeless

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2014

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This Book is best read in the same staccato , spin the roulette wheel, Forgot my ADHD meds fashion in that it was written.
Please just make sure you have your AM radio on to a talk-news station for the white noise, your tv set with the sound off
Watching the history channel and some documentary and finally your favorite drink and maybe an e cig. Yeah that should
rip your senses apart enough to set the scene for its choppy blasts of info and background that are full of incredibly insightful
looks into todays dystopian leaning trendiness. Must read for students of Real history as well as Political sciences. Reading
a few full reveiws online will help you meld yourself into this world although it is worth the work.Of note is the missing of the
politcal correctness issue which could NEVER have been predicted in '68

7 people found this helpful

Jeffrey R. Myers

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2012

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This is one of the great works of environmental Science Fiction. It is full of profound insights and amazingly prophetic predictions. I especially like the way Brunner channels his righteous anger through the meta-fictional writer and social commentator Chad Mulligan. The form of the work as a whole (as can be seen even in the Table of Contents) is experimental without being just weird--it actually works. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi, this is a must read; if you are not a fan, this book might just make you one.

2 people found this helpful

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Bruce S.

A masterwork for its time but particularly relevant today.

Reviewed in Canada on July 20, 2023

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It's a bit dated so you'll have to work past the mysogomy (women are calked shiggies and objectified) and racism (actually the whole point of the book) but it raises interesting issues and has some fun characters.

The novel revolves around a giant corporation's attempt to take over an African country with the assistance of a massive AI computer called Shalmaneser. Its involvement in everybody's life is particularly scary.

One person found this helpful

PADH

Probalement le plus grand roman de spéculative fiction (sociologique) du XXe siècle

Reviewed in France on July 28, 2018

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Si j'aime et je conseille et j'offre autour de moi ce roman aujourd'hui oublié, c'est parce que je suis raisonnablement bilingue Anglais/Français et que je suis extrêmement amateur de SF spéculative. C'est aussi que ce livre lu pour la première fois il y a 40 ans, et relu plusieurs fois depuis, m'a plus préoccupé et instruit que distrait. Et ce livre m'a également énormément éclairé sur ce que peut-être une approche possible de la sociologie systémique et la valeur prédictive de certains de ses essais bien documenté. C'est même un des rares romans de SF à ma connaissance à mettre en scène, parmi la foule de personnages principaux, un savant qui n'est ni physicien ni chimiste ni ingénieur, mais sociologue.
Si cela peut faire penser à la série "Fondation" d'Asimov, attention cependant, rien du livre ne ressort de la SF classique rien ici ne ressemble à Asimov !
Inspiré pour la technique d'écriture de John Dos Passos pour sa trilogie U.S.A. (The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932) and The Big Money (1936)), Stand on Zanzibar (en Français: Tous à Zanzibar) a été publié il y a 50 ans (1968) et est supposé se passer à peu près à notre époque. Le texte est complexe à lire en Anglais (ou en Français) vu la quantité de néologismes qui en composent le texte. Mais une connaissance élémentaire des théories de la communication et des médias développées dans les années 1950- 1970 aide beaucoup ! Il me semble que John Brunner était particulièrement bien documenté en matières des théories "dernier cri" qui avaient cours durant ces décennies .
La trame correspond au schéma classique de la spéculative fiction: "que se serait-il passé et que se passerait-il si à tel moment de l'histoire de la terre on constaterait que...." Mais dans ce cas, on est frappé comme les prévisions sont relativement proches de notre réalité.
Le roman explore le sujet principalement des impacts (négatifs) de la surpopulation, la confiance totale (positive) dans un monde connecté à une intelligence artificielle et quelques évolutions écologiques (négatives) sur l'évolution du monde.
La technique d’écriture mélange collage de slogans publicitaires, flash radio ou télé qui par un effet quasi hypnotique fournissent au lecteur un sentiment de réalité (virtuelle) extrêmement vivace. En un sens le livre anticipe également anticipe notre goût actuel et notre facilité contemporaine à nous informer, par court segments vidéos, par courts messages sur les réseaux sociaux, ou flash infos, et diaporama PowerPoint à liste à puces, plus que par de longs articles de journaux. Je pense qu’aujourd’hui les plus jeunes lecteurs ne seront absolument pas dépaysés par le rythme du livre comme ont pu l'être leurs aînés.
Ni dystopie, ni utopie, avec une histoire dépourvue de "grand méchant", le livre une fois terminé laisse le lecteur un peu plus intelligent et avec une invitation à s'instruire davantage sur la partie mécanique et objective du fonctionnement de la société et du monde et des effets de nos mythes idéologiques et politiques, de nos choix et de décisions.
(écrit en français car livre commandé sur Amazon France)

2 people found this helpful

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Mr. GB Couttie

Certainly a Masterwork!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2017

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A stunning novel where one gets flashes and bits of story, then they start to come together and it becomes irresistable!! Imagine a rope, frayed at the end, almost to the individual threads. THAT is where you begin (without knowledge of the unified rope in the future). These threads start gradually to come together to form individual stories which merge in diverse ways to become THE story (the whole rope)!! A vision of the future that is not ENTIRELY ACCURATE but, in some areas it is chillingly close!!

The title come from the theory that, if people stood side to side and virtually one in front of the other, the population of the world would (at one time) have fitted on the Isle of Wight. In this future, the population has expanded and it would need an island the size of Zanzibar to fit them all in!

4 people found this helpful

V. Wanner

Keine leichte Kost, aber die Mühe wert

Reviewed in Germany on September 16, 2007

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Durch die ersten 20-30 Seiten von "Stand on Zanzibar" muss man sich wirklich durchkämpfen. Kurze Abrisse, wie aus einem Bewusstseinsstrom der Weltnachrichten - nur aus einer fiktiven Welt, mit merklich verändertem Englisch und anderen kulturellen Bezugspunkten. Man soll an diesem Punkt aber auch nicht alles verstehen. Tatsächlich erinnert man sich beim Lesen hin und wieder an Teile dieser immer wieder im Buch verstreuten Nachrichtenschnipsel, die zu dem Zeitpunkt noch keinen Sinn machten, aber am entsprechenden Punkt zu wertvollem Hintergrundwissen werden.

John Brunner arbeitet, ähnlich wie z.B. Babel-17 (Auch aus der Millenium SF Masterworks Reihe) sehr viel mit Sprache. Der Zukunftsjargon den er für dieses Buch kreiert schafft eine glaubwürdige Atmosphäre.

Das Geburtsjahr 1968 merkt man dem Buch anhand der etwas sexistischen Untertöne und einer recht naiven Einstellung zu Homosexualität/Rassismus an. Auch die Darstellung der Themen Nationalismus/Patriotismus wirkt nach dem Fall des eisernen Vorhangs leicht angestaubt.
Dennoch bleibt "Stand on Zanzibar" beeindruckend prophetisch im Bezug auf viele Entwicklungen und auch 2007 noch relevant.

Ein klassischer Ableger von Ideen-ScieneFiction, aber sprachlich meisterhaft und gealtert wie guter Wein.

10 people found this helpful

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Gittebri

Un classique de science fiction qui survit au temps

Reviewed in France on July 24, 2022

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Je l'avais lu il y a 40 ans. Je l'ai relu récemment et à ma grande surprise, il m'a semblé qu'il n'avait pas pris une ride. A ne manquer sous aucun prétexte.

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