Science Fiction · ThoughtfulIn 2010, an overpopulated world and a large cast of characters meet a corporate deal and a genetic breakthrough
Stand on Zanzibar
by John Brunner
A crowded 2010 told through many voices at once
Parts of the novel appeared in New Worlds in 1967, and Doubleday published the first book edition in 1968, with 582 pages. It is set in 2010, mostly in the United States, and concerns overpopulation and its projected consequences. A large cast includes Norman Niblock House, Donald Hogan, Georgette Tallon Buckfast, Zadkiel Obomi and Elihu Masters. Beninia, a fictional African state, makes a deal with the corporation General Technics, and a genetic engineering breakthrough occurs in the fictional Southeast Asian nation of Yatakang.
More about this book
Who
Norman Niblock House, Donald Hogan, Georgette Tallon Buckfast, Zadkiel Obomi and Elihu Masters.
World
The year 2010, mostly in the United States, with the fictional states of Beninia and Yatakang.
What makes it different
The title alludes to a thought experiment: all humans could fit shoulder to shoulder on the Isle of Wight, and Brunner expanded it to Zanzibar to allow for population growth. He borrowed the multi-character structure from John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy.
Feel
Dense and busy.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Stand on ZanzibarWikipedia