The Shockwave Rider

Description

In a world drowning in data and information and choking on novelty and innovation, Nickie Haflinger - a most dangerous fugitive who doesn't even appear to exist - provides a window onto a global society falling apart in all directions, with madness run amok and personal freedom surrendered to computers and bureaucrats. Caught and about to be re-programmed, can he escape once again, defy the government and turn the tide of organizational destruction?

John Brunner (1934-1995) was a prolific British SF writer. In 1951, he published his first novel, Galactic Storm, at the age of just 17, and went on to write dozens of novels under his own and various house names until his death in 1995 at the Glasgow Worldcon. He won the Hugo Award and the British Science Fiction Award for Stand on Zanzibar (a regular contender for the 'best SF novel of all time') and the British Science Fiction Award for The Jagged Orbit.

Brunner writes about the future as if he and the reader were already living in it! - New York Times Book Review When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write the book, I was fascinated - but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has, with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it as twitched at me ever since. One of the most important science fiction authors. Brunner held a mirror up to reflect our foibles because he wanted to save us from ourselves. - SF Site