John Brunner Everyone in Zanzibar
The novel, written in 1968, telling the events of the distant future (for the author) of 2010, was not published in Poland until 2015. Reading science fiction about the times we live in is certainly a completely different experience than reading this book in the author’s modern times. However, John Brunner has so accurately predicted the direction in which humanity will develop that the vision is both fascinating and terrifying.
The novel Everyone in Zanzibar is distinguished by its structure, as the whole has been divided into 4 types of chapters intertwined with each other. In the “context” we find mainly quotes from books (real and fictional) explaining important concepts, “the here-and-now world” contains news and announcements from the world presented, “close-ups” are personal stories of seemingly unrelated characters, and ”Describes the main plot of the story. Thanks to this structure, the world of the novel seems to be fuller, and the understanding of the intricate dependencies that govern it becomes easier.
John Brunner’s book is timeless. It provokes reflection on the development of humanity, especially in the context of what the author correctly predicted. This is a demanding reading, with a slow pace and great detail of the story, but addictive and well worth your time.
