The stone that never came down
The world is awash in civic decay, military coups and revolutionary governments, bands of believers ('Godheads') roaming the streets and turning plastic crosses into assault weapons. One scientist has discovered a new kind of viral drug, VC, which has the power to drastically alter the human mind. It could save civilization but at what cost? And who has the right to make a decision about whether or not to use it? Brunner at his thought-provoking, action-packed best.
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2015–2025years
67% recommend33% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- Brunner was amazingly prescient, but sadly almost forgotten now.
See also The Stone that Never Came Down - the most 70s novel ever.
- I need to go back and read Stand on Zanzibar. Back when I was in 8th grade, I read Brunner's The Stone that Never Came Down which I thought at the time was the best SF novel I'd ever read (it held my top spot for some considerable time). I never found a copy of Stand at the time.
- It was already a libertarian/neoliberal fantasy - one where everything is corrupt, everyone is competing with everyone else, and the point of the game is to grab as much as you can for yourself while selling your services to the highest bidder.
There's nothing counter about it. It makes surviving in a white knuckle corporate techno-dystopia cool. It's a celebration, not a critique.
Compare with PKD or the much less well-known John Brunner in books like The Stone That Never Came Down and The Shockwave Rider - the latter being an obvious influence on Gibson.
