Rating: 
Summary: Mildly Interesting
Review: I'm going to focus my thoughts on the visionary event that everyone seems to have missed in their reviews of this book. Certainly along with Vinge (True Names), this book predicts the rise of the Internet, but there is another prediction in there that people don't seem to be paying attention to.The Plug-in lifestyle. Corporations as a game, and not a source of all that is good. People leave and change companies and towns as easily as... you and I do today. Remember when switching jobs wasn't regarded as a smart career move and a chance at promotion? It's easy to forget that even as recently as the 80's (ack. It's not recent to me, but it is in certain senses) the corporation was a place to spend life and retire with a pension and a gold watch. Since then, the concept of a pension is foreign to most of us, as is life-long employment. The early 90's took care of that. The 50's and 60's were the time of the "organization man", not one who could or would switch places or jobs easily, and easily meld in with the newest grouping. It's a shallow lifestyle, but how many people do you know that are experienced at it. After Chainsaw Al (among others), how many people owe loyalty to a company? A far-reaching vision. The book is worth reading to see how true it has become in certain senses. Predicting the future is a hit or miss proposition. This book is a solid hit. At least for me - in the Internet/Information Technology industry.
Rating: 
Summary: This is what Science Fiction should be like
Review: John Brunner's Shockwave Rider is a compelling novel successfully combining a stunning vision of a/the/our future society and a meticulously crafted plot that never lets you leave the book for anything but primordial necessities. The characters are intense and truly believable, while the social structure and technological developments are so realistic that their implications - especially in conjunction with where we stand today - leave you wondering whether the proper reaction should be a shudder down the spine or a thrill of joy. The only thing I dare question is the author's optimistic view of our intrinsic qualities, but that does not change anything about the quality of this novel. This is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: I demand a reprint
Review: Little is to be added to the other reviews. This 28-year old book not only decribed the internet as it will become very soon long before its inception, but computer viruses (called "worms" by Brunner) before the first PC too, plus a few other things and issues not even mentioned yet.
Since a friend gave it to me to read many years ago, I've bought every copy of it I could find. I have kept one German and one English version and as I will not let them out of my bookshelf under no circumstances I gave all others away as gifts, still looking for more copies to give away.
It has been sold out so often and for such a long time, each time and in each of those two languages available to me, that if one were to be a follower of conspiracy theories, well, the fact that this book is not reprinted as often as some other books of Brunner are would be reason for suspicion.
Rating:
Summary: I demand a reprint
Review: Little is to be added to the other reviews. This 28-year old book not only decribed the internet as it will become very soon long before its inception, but computer viruses (called "worms" by Brunner) before the first PC too, plus a few other things and issues not even mentioned yet.
Since a friend gave it to me to read many years ago, I've bought every copy of it I could find. I have kept one German and one English version and as I will not let them out of my bookshelf under no circumstances I gave all others away as gifts, still looking for more copies to give away.
It has been sold out so often and for such a long time, each time and in each of those two languages available to me, that if one were to be a follower of conspiracy theories, well, the fact that this book is not reprinted as often as some other books of Brunner are would be reason for suspicion.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Cyberspace fiction
Review: Shockwave Rider is a book before its time - written in the early 1970s but still providing a vision for the future of computer networks today. The term 'Web' was used in this book (was it the real origin of the term?) decades before the Web as we know it emerged. A riveting story of freeman vs Big Brother society which contains the classic values of privacy still being debated vigorously today. Computer worms and self replicating code - all the cyber components. John Brunner's very best and a mandatory read for those who liked Neuromancer.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: Shockwave Rider tells a fantastic story of a none-too-distant future, where the internet can be accessed from a normal public phone, but has become the main instrument of social control. The hero, Nickie Haflinger, revolts against a pardoxically individualistic but uniform society. The first half of the story is told in flashbacks during interrogation, and is spaced with ethical arguments between Nickie and his interrogator. In this way Brunner - as well as telling a fascinating story - brings in some very serious moral considerations. Where does freedom lie when all choices are known - and preguessed? In a fiercely individualistic society, what happens to the individual who stands alone?
Rating:
Summary: Tell me it's not true!
Review: The late Mr. Brunner predated the cyberpunk genre in this and it's two companion volumes (The Sheep Look Up and Stand On Zanzibar). Unfortunately for the cyberpunks, John Brunner was a far better writer than any of them, and his vision more far-reaching. The plots of all three of these books almost have to be absorbed rather than analyzed to get the full effect (show, don't tell), and each has at least one character that really stands out, in this case Nicky Halflinger. I still have the hardcover copy that I stole from the library, so I wouldn't have to keep buying it like I did Stand On Zanzibar, which was on its second go-round with me. Buy it, steal it, get it at the library, whatever. Just read it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 5 I'd take on a desert island
Review: The title comes from Alvin Toffler's "FutureShock." In the best of his books (Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, and Shockwave Rider), Brunner takes one problematic element of modern society and extrapolates into the future. In Stand on Zanzibar it is population pressure; in The Sheep Look Up it is environmental pollution; in Shockwave Rider it is the increasing rate of change and its effect on us. (BTW, the rest of his books are very different; and he's written some of the most depressing SF I've ever read; it might have been therapy for him but his "Total Eclipse" might send me into it!)
The increasing rate of change has sent most Americans into mental distress. The most obvious cause (i.e. the most identifiable thing with an increasing rate of change) is the internet (Brunner doesn't call it that, but he has it right nonetheless) -- everything one does is subject to scrutiny by the Feds and by anyone who can hack the net. The flip side is that oneself is rarely able to find out important information. In other words: there are those around one who know things they shouldn't, are improperly profiting from it, and one can't do anything about it. The protagonist is a goverment-trained programmer who becomes hacker extraordinaire.
The structure of the book takes getting used to, but is also the reason its a desert island book. Shockwave Rider is arranged in short sections, the shortest only a paragraph, the longest rarely more than a few pages. The scene jumps around and there seems to be no continuity. Stick with it! It will become clear soon enough, and it worth plowing on till it does. One hint: one type of section is commentary, not plot. Each section has a heading -- a quote or a reference. I would spend my time on my hypothetical desert island reading this book; but most importantly tracking down the references and discovering the relevance of the heading and commentary to the plot.
Writing about Shockwave Rider makes me want to reread it; I think I'll do that now.
Rating:
Summary: One of the 5 I'd take on a desert island
Review: The title comes from Alvin Toffler's "FutureShock." In the best of his books (Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up, and Shockwave Rider), Brunner takes one problematic element of modern society and extrapolates into the future. In Stand on Zanzibar it is population pressure; in The Sheep Look Up it is environmental pollution; in Shockwave Rider it is the increasing rate of change and its effect on us. (BTW, the rest of his books are very different; and he's written some of the most depressing SF I've ever read; it might have been therapy for him but his "Total Eclipse" might send me into it!)
The increasing rate of change has sent most Americans into mental distress. The most obvious cause (i.e. the most identifiable thing with an increasing rate of change) is the internet (Brunner doesn't call it that, but he has it right nonetheless) -- everything one does is subject to scrutiny by the Feds and by anyone who can hack the net. The flip side is that oneself is rarely able to find out important information. In other words: there are those around one who know things they shouldn't, are improperly profiting from it, and one can't do anything about it. The protagonist is a goverment-trained programmer who becomes hacker extraordinaire.
The structure of the book takes getting used to, but is also the reason its a desert island book. Shockwave Rider is arranged in short sections, the shortest only a paragraph, the longest rarely more than a few pages. The scene jumps around and there seems to be no continuity. Stick with it! It will become clear soon enough, and it worth plowing on till it does. One hint: one type of section is commentary, not plot. Each section has a heading -- a quote or a reference. I would spend my time on my hypothetical desert island reading this book; but most importantly tracking down the references and discovering the relevance of the heading and commentary to the plot.
Writing about Shockwave Rider makes me want to reread it; I think I'll do that now.
Rating:
Summary: I demand a reprint
Review: There is so little to add to the praise from the other reviewers, all of it accurate and well said. One warning, those with rightish-leaning politics will probably no like the ending. That said this book is timeless and works on every level. Wonderfully written in a stylistic sense. A great story as well, and as usual for Brunner just a masterful job of world building. As far as I am concerned Brunner needn't have created his plots in this book as well as Zanzibar and Sheep. The sheer joy of seeing the worlds he makes is enough for a 5 star review. Above and beyond that however a quarter century later the book still displays relevancy in speaking both of technology and societal change. Both have been discussed by other reviewers. I will just add that this is one of the books that will stay with you your whole life, and upon each re-reading at every stage of your life it will give more to you.
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