Shockwave Rider :: essays research papers

There are numerous books on the science fictionmarket, that aim with the myriad of possibilitiesinvolving the technology of the future. John Brunnersbook, Shockwave Rider, is unmatched of the most popular, aswell as one of the most famous, books dealing with thisissue. Brunner presents many different realities to thereader, and they are all potentially very realistic interms of the current state of technology. For the mostpart, Brunner seems to illustrate that technology, as itrelates to the world wide datanet, is a good thing. Thisis not to say that he does not illustrate it as a verynegative reality in the world he presents to the reader,but he does indicate that the world wide datanet andtechnology has immense potential to make the world a betterplace for all concerned.In Brunners book we have a reality that isincredibly tense, and almost credible today. The spacethat the author deals with is filled with endless bits ofinformation (information overload to be more precise),co rporate domination, and it appears, just like manyscience fiction books that deal with the planet earth inthe future, everything is known about everyone. there areno secrets from the system. Brunner illustrates this as areality that is not necessarily very desirable. He plantsa character, Nickie Haflinger, onto the scene. As withmany books we can look at this character and see theauthor within. Haflinger is a prodigy whose talents allowhim to switch identities with a childly phone call. By theadvanced technology and the ingenuity that is completelyHaflingers, we see that the author is not one to becontent with the realities that may be a possibility inthe future of technology.Brunner clearly illustrates, by the previousdescription of Haflinger, that technology and the advanceswithin that field, are incredibly beneficial, or they canbe. but he is clearly unhappy with the way things haveturned out due to the controlling nature of thegovernments. This is further illustrated in the fac t thatBrunners hero is a preteen man who is bent on changing theworld. He struggles to evade the officials and uses allskills available to him, whether inherent skills ortechnological ones, to the best of his ability, to put anend to the vilification of power that is so much a part of hisworld which involves the entity of the world wide datanet.Perhaps, one of the most insightful parts of the bookcomes in the starting signal half, when Haflinger is experiencingflashbacks due to interrogations. It is in these sectionsthat we see the inner mind of Brunner as he deflty