The Shockwave Rider

By: John Brunner

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

He was the most dangerous fugitive, but didn’t exist!

Nickie Haflinger had lived several lifetimes...but technically never existed. He was originally a fugitive from Tarnover, the incredibly powerful government think tank that educated him. First he had broken his identity code - then he made his escape.

Now he needed to find a way to restore sanity and freedom to the computerized masses and save a world nearing the brink of disaster. He didn’t care how he accomplished this - but the government did. That’s when his Tarnover teachers took him back into their labs, where Nickie Haflinger was set up to receive a whole new education.

©2014 John Brunner (P)2020 by Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc.

Very abrupt transitions

The sidebars and narrators all blur together because the performer doesn’t put any pauses in his narration. It feels like the story is random stream of consciousness at times because of that.

Classic Sci Fi from a master

Reading "The Shockwave Rider", back in the '70s, I marveled at the level of quality Brunner brought to another book, following the insanely unique and inventive "Stand on Zanzibar".

Brunner was a very prolific science fiction writer. I read at least a dozen of his books. With the exception of "Stand on Zanzibar", "The Shockwave Rider", "The Seep Look Up" and "The Jagged Orbit", I judged most of them to be of the "pulp" variety, despite the fact that they were always entertaining. I imagined him a suitable inspiration for Vonnegut's character, Kilgore Trout.

When you hear ""The Shockwave Rider", it is vitally important that you keep in mind, that it was written in 1975, long before the internet, before cell phones, before computers were commonplace, before the concept of computer viruses were familiar, even among computer scientists. Brunner's amazing foretelling of these integral parts of today's global reality are astounding, all by themselves. To have put them together in a compelling and masterfully told story is more than a treat, it's almost a miracle.

I was thankful that he had discarded the repeated 4-different-narrative-style organization of "Stand on Zanzibar" (a la John Dos Passos?) to write his other books, and presented "Shockwave Rider" in a more conventional narrative form. I DO NOT recommend the audio version of "Zanzibar", not because I didn't like it, I've never heard it. I have had the unfortunate experience of listening to an audio version of a great book that was difficult to follow, solely by being unable to see the text, instead of merely hearing it. To me, "Zanzibar" would have to be as awful to hear, as it was a joy to read.

All of Brunner's great work is diminished, once again, by the continually disappointing narration of the unaccountably popular Stefan Rudnicki. His rich, bass-baritone voice and excellent articulation are constantly at war with his inability, or unwillingness, to convey distinct audio identification to characters, leaving the listener to wonder who is speaking in every conversation, and missing the emotional nuance required by the text. Even when a spark of differentiation is heard from a particular character, it vanishes before the character's audio identity can be established. Worse still, his name shows up very often, in the titles I choose, more often than any other narrator.

Best Science Fiction Writer Ever

I’m so glad there are now audio versions of my favorite author’s best work. If you haven’t read The Sheep Look Up or Stand On Zanzibar, get to it. I have to keep wondering how he could have written these and his other prescient works before the internet, suicide bombings, school shootings, or the for profit opioid epidemic, to name just a few visionary ideas. The somewhat hokey endings only make the reality of today’s crazy world sadder.

Not for everyone

Listened to a almost half and could not get into the story or connect with the characters.

Not what it sounds like

I couldn’t get into this one. The preview made it sound good, but this isn’t the type of book that I’m interested in.