He ran forward suddenly, heels crashing on the hard tiled floor of the foyer, and tore open the double doors to the outside. On the steps beyond he halted, threw back his head, and shouted to the city, to Africa, to the world.
“God damn you for crazy idiots! All of you! You’re not fit to manage your own silly lives! I know you’re fools—I’ve watched you and wept for you. And … Oh my God!”
His voice cracked to a breathy moan.
“I love you! I’ve tried not to, and I can’t help it. I love you all…”
* * *
A long time later, when people had come from all the rooms to see what the shouting was about—Elihu, Gideon, scores of anonymous faces—he allowed Norman to take his hand and lead him quietly away.
the happening world (16)
OBITUARY
BUCKFAST Georgette Tallon (“Old GT”): of a cerebral haemorrhage; at the headquarters of the corporation she founded and devoted her life to; in her 91st year.
ELLERMAN Eric Charles: by suicide quote/unquote; on the track of the rapitrans system serving his home block; aged 33.
HOGAN Donald Orville: by military eptification; at Boat Camp, Ellay; he is survived by Donald Hogan Mark II.
LINDT Gerald Shamus, Pvt. U. S. Army: by partisan action; at Ellay; aged 19.
NOAKES Benjamin Ralph (“Bennie”): hitripping once too often, a trifle too far; at his home; aged 24.
PETERSON Philip Hugh Clarence: from the bolt of a policeman’s gun; at the apt of one of his victims; aged 20.
PETERSON Sasha Maureen (née Wilde): by her son’s hand; at her home; aged 44.
ROWLEY Grace Jane: from senility complicated by a broken heart; in an official institution for the aged poor; aged 77.
SHELTON Poppy: by a fall; on the ground outside the window of her home; aged 23.
SUGAIGUNTUNG Lyukakarta Moktilong (Dr. Med., Dr. Biochem., Prof. Tectogen. Dedication Univ.): by a knife-thrust in the femoral artery; in the lonely waters of the Shongao Strait; aged 54.
WHATMOUGH Victor Ernest: by a gunshot “while the balance of his mind was disturbed” at his home; aged 60.
* * *
Also victims of muckers, rioting, sabotage, partisan activity, disease, overdose of drugs, accident, warfare, old age …
* * *
Despite the foregoing, the human race by tens of thousands would be knee-deep in the water around Zanzibar.
tracking with closeups (32)
THE COOL AND DETACHED VIEW
Bathed in his currents of liquid helium, self-contained, immobile, vastly well informed by every mechanical sense: Shalmaneser.
Every now and again there passes through his circuits a pulse which carries the cybernetic equivalent of the phrase, “Christ, what an imagination I’ve got.”
context (28)
A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSORS
This non-novel was brought to you by John Brunner using Spicers Plus Fabric Bond and Commercial Bank papers interleaved with Serillo carbons in a Smith Corona 250 electric typewriter fitted with a Kolok black-record ribbon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Brunner was born in 1934. His first novel, Galactic Storm, was published in 1951 under the house name of Gill Hunt. In 1953 he sold his first story to Astounding Science Fiction as John Loxmith. With the sale of Threshold of Eternity (1959) and The Hundredth Millennium (1959) to Ace Books in the United States, he took up writing full time both under his own name and as Keith Woodcott. During the next six years he managed to write an astonishing twenty-seven novels for Ace along with work for other publishers. As the 1960s progressed, Brunner’s stories became more ambitious and experimental, culminating in Stand on Zanzibar in 1968. This was to win the Hugo Award in 1968, the British Science Fiction Award in 1970, and the French Prix Apollo in 1973. His next three major novels, The Jagged Orbit (1969), The Sheep Look Up (1972), and The Shockwave Rider (1975), explored different dystopian futures, making the four books a series of sorts. During the 1970s his health suffered and this slowed down his output subsequently. He died in 1995 while attending the World Science Fiction Convention at Glasgow.
Also by John Brunner
Galactic Storm (1951)
The Brink (1959)
Echo in the Skull (1959)
The World Swappers (1959)
Threshold of Eternity (1959)
The Hundredth Millennium (1959)
The Atlantic Abomination (1960)
The Skynappers (1960)
Sanctuary in the Sky (1960)
Slavers of Space (1960)
Meeting at Infinity (1961)
The Super Barbarians (1962)
Times Without Number (1962)
Secret Agent of Terra (1962)
Castaways’ World (1963)
The Rites of Ohe (1963)
The Astronauts Must Not Land (1963)
The Dreaming Earth (1963)
Listen! The Stars! (1963)
The Space-Time Juggler (1963)
Endless Shadow (1964)
To Conquer Chaos (1964)
The Crutch of Memory (1964)
The Repairmen of Cyclops (1965)
Day of the Star Cities (1965)
Telepathist (1965)
The Squares of the City (1965)
Enigma from Tantalus (1965)
The Long Result (1965)
The Altar on Asconel (1965)
A Planet of Your Own (1966)
Born Under Mars (1967)
The Productions of Time (1967)
Quicksand (1967)
Bedlam Planet (1968)
Father of Lies (1968)
Double, Double (1969)
Timescoop (1969)
The Jagged Orbit (1969)
The Wrong End of Time (1971)
The Dramaturges of Yan (1972)
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
The Stone That Never Came Down (1973)
Web of Everywhere (1974)
Total Eclipse (1974)
The Shockwave Rider (1975)
The Infinitive of Go (1980)
Players at the Game of People (1980)
The Crucible of Time (1983)
The Tides of Time (1984)
The Shift Key (1987)
Children of the Thunder (1989)
AS KEITH WOODCOTT
I Speak for Earth (1961)
Ladder in the Sky (1962)
The Psionic Menace (1963)
The Martian Sphinx (1965)
SHORT STORIES
No Future in It (1962)
Now Then (1965)
No Other Gods But Me (1966)
Out of My Mind (1968)
Not Before Time (1968)
The Traveler in Black (1971)
From This Day Forward (1972)
Time-Jump (1973)