John Brunner (novelist)

Infobox Writer
name = John Kilian Houston Brunner
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date|1934|09|24
birthplace = Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
deathdate = death date|1995|08|26 (Age 61)
deathplace =
occupation = Novelist
nationality = British
period =
genre = Science fiction
fantasy
subject =
movement =
notableworks = Stand on Zanzibar,
The Shockwave Rider,
The Sheep Look Up
influences =
influenced = Cyberpunk
website = http://www.sfhub.ac.uk/Brunner.htm

John Kilian Houston Brunner (September 24, 1934 – August 26, 1995) was a prolific British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar", about overpopulation, won the 1969 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year. "The Jagged Orbit" won the BSFA award in 1970.

Life

He was born at Preston Crowmarsh in Oxfordshire, and went to school at Cheltenham. He wrote his first novel, "Galactic Storm", at 17, published under the name of Gill Hunt, but did not write full time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 1958-07-12. His health began to decline in the 1980s, and worsened with the death of his wife Marjorie in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on September 27, 1991. Brunner died of a stroke in Glasgow, Scotland on August 25, 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there. Brunner was popular in science fiction fandom in his native Britain.

Literary Works

At first writing conventional space opera, he later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar", about overpopulation, won the 1969 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year. "The Jagged Orbit" won the BSFA award in 1970. His novel "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) was a prophetic warning of ecological disaster.Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" in his 1975's proto-Cyberpunk novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used it to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. His pen names include: K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, and Keith Woodcott.

As well as his fiction, he wrote many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and "Physics Education" (1971) volume 6 pages 389-391 "The educational relevance of science fiction" by John Brunner. Brunner was an active member of CND and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder" which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches. He was a linguist and Guest of Honour at the first European Science Fiction Convention "Eurocon-1" in Trieste in 1972.

Bibliography

1950s

*"Galactic Storm" (1951, as Gill Hunt)
*"(more here)"
*"Echo in the Skull" (1959)
*"The Brink" (1959)
*"The Hundredth Millennium" (1959)
*"The Threshold of Eternity" (1959)
*"The World Swappers" (1959)

1960s

*"The Atlantic Abomination" (1960)
*"Sanctuary in the Sky" (1960)
*"The Skynappers" (1960)
*"Slavers of Space" (1960)
*"Meeting at Infinity" (1961)
*"I Speak for Earth" (1961, as Keith Woodcott)
*"The Ladder in the Sky" (1962, as Keith Woodcott)
*"No Future in It" (1962) short story collection
*"Secret Agent of Terra" (1962)
*"The Super Barbarians" (1962)
*"Castaways' World" (1963)
*"The Dreaming Earth" (1963)
*"Listen, the Stars!" (1963)
*"The Rites of Ohe" (1963)
*"The Space-Time Juggler" (1963)
*"The Astronauts Must Not Land" (1963, revised later as "More Things in Heaven")
*"The Psionic Menace" (1963, as Keith Woodcott)
*"Endless Shadow" (1964)
*"To Conquer Chaos" (1964)
*"The Whole Man" (1964, also published as "Telepathist")
*"The Altar at/on Asconel" (1965)
*"Day of the Star Cities" (1965, revised later as "Age of Miracles")
*"Enigma from Tantalus" (1965)
*"The Long Result" (1965)
*"The Martian Sphinx" (1965, as Keith Woodcott)
*"The Repairmen of Cyclops" (1965)
*"The Squares of the City" (1965)
*"Now Then!" (1965) short story collection
*"Born Under Mars" (1966)
*"The Evil that Men Do" (1966)
*"No Other Gods But Me" (1966) short story collection
*"A Planet of Your Own" (1966)
*"The Productions of Time" (1966)
*"Out of My Mind" (1967) short story collection
*"Quicksand" (1967)
*"Not Before Time" (1968) short story collection
*"Bedlam Planet" (1968)
*"Catch a Falling Star" (1968)
*"Father of Lies" (1968)
*"Into the Slave Nebula" (1968, revision of "Slavers of Space")
*"Stand on Zanzibar" (1968)
*"The Avengers of Carrig" (1969, revision of "Secret Agent of Terra")
*"A Plague on Both Your Causes" (1969)
*"Double, Double" (1969)
*"Timescoop" (1969)
*"The Jagged Orbit" (1969)
*"Times Without Number" (1969)

1970s

*"The Gaudy Shadows" (1970)
*"Good Men Do Nothing" (1970)
*"The Dramaturges of Yan" (1971)
*"Honky in the Woodpile" (1971)
*"The Traveller in Black" (1971, later (1987) revised and expanded)
*"The Wrong End of Time" (1971)
*"The Sheep Look Up" (1972)
*"Entry to Elsewhen" (1972), short story collection
*"The Stardroppers" (1972)
*"From This Day Forward" (1972)
*"Age of Miracles" (1971, revision of "Day of the Star Cities")
*"More Things in Heaven" (1973, revision of "The Astronauts Must Not Land")
*"The Stone That Never Came Down" (1973)
*"Give Warning to the World" (1973, revision of "Echo in the Skull")
*"Polymath" (1974)
*"Total Eclipse" (1974)
*"Web of Everywhere" (1974) (later reprinted as "The Webs of Everywhere")
*"The Shockwave Rider" (1975)
*"Interstellar Empire" (1976)

1980s

*"The Infinitive of Go" (1980)
*"Players at the Game of People" (1980)
*"Manshape" (1982, revision of "Endless Shadow")
*"While There's Hope" (1982)
*"The Crucible of Time" (1983)
*"The Great Steamboat Race" (1983)
*"The Tides of Time" (1984)
*"The Compleat Traveller in Black" (1986) short story collection
*"The Shift Key" (1987)
*"Children of the Thunder" (1988)

1990s

*"A Maze of Stars" (1991)
*"Muddle Earth" (1993)
*"Case of Painter's Ear" (1998, posthumous)

References

*cite book | last=Tuck | first=Donald H. | authorlink=Donald H. Tuck | title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy | location=Chicago | publisher=Advent | pages=70-72 | date=1974|id=ISBN 0-911682-20-1
*"Daily Telegraph" 25 September 1995, page 23, Obituary of John Brunner [http://www.gwillick.com/Spacelight/obit/brunnero.html]

External links

* [http://www.sfhub.ac.uk/Brunner.htm John Brunner Archive at the University of Liverpool]
* [http://www.rudysbooks.com/brunnerobit.html Obituary] on Rudy's Books
* [http://scifan.com/writers/bb/BrunnerJohn.asp Bibliography] on SciFan
*
* [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalAlphaList.asp?AuNum=24 Science Fiction Inventions by John Brunner]
* [http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/26 Audio review of The Crucible of Time] at [http://www.sfbrp.com/ The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast]
* [http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/mini/amazing_64_02.htm Cover for short story by Brunner that looks like scene from Planet of the Apes]