The Shockwave Rider
The Shockwave Rider book cover

The Shockwave Rider

Paperback – October 12, 1984

by
Price
$9.30
Format
Paperback
Pages
288
Publisher
Del Rey Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0345324313
Dimensions
4 x 0.75 x 6.5 inches
Weight
4.8 ounces

Description

This book has always been popular with the techy-geeky crowd, but, since it was first published in the '70s, it missed out on the cyberpunk revolution of the '80s. It's too bad, because this is a compelling story of a future world tied together by a universal data network, a world that could be our tomorrow. It's a tense place filled with information overload and corporate domination, and nearly everything is known about everybody. Except Nickie Haflinger, a prodigy whose talents allow him to switch identities with a phone call. Nickie plans to change the world, if only he can keep from getting caught. From the Inside Flap ction Book Club Selection"When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since."-- Alvin TofflerAuthor of Future ShockHe Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist!Nickie Haflinger had lived a score of lifetimes...but technically he didn't exist. He was a fugitive from Tarnover, the high-powered government think tank that had educated him. First he had broken his identity code -- then he escaped.Now he had to find a way to restore sanity and personal freedom to the computerized masses and to save a world tottering on the brink of disaster.He didn't care how he did it...but the g

Features & Highlights

  • A Science Fiction Book Club Selection"When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since."-- Alvin TofflerAuthor of Future ShockHe Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist!Nickie Haflinger had lived a score of lifetimes...but technically he didn't exist. He was a fugitive from Tarnover, the high-powered government think tank that had educated him. First he had broken his identity code -- then he escaped.Now he had to find a way to restore sanity and personal freedom to the computerized masses and to save a world tottering on the brink of disaster.He didn't care how he did it...but the government did. That's when his Tarnover teachers got him back in their labs...and Nickie Haflinger was set up for a whole new education!

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(149)
★★★★
25%
(124)
★★★
15%
(74)
★★
7%
(35)
★
23%
(113)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Mildly Interesting

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.
17 people found this helpful
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Prescient but dated

Although I can certainly understand the appeal of this groudbreaking precambrian cyberpunk novel, the story and language are hopelessly dated to a modern reader. In a way the book reminded me of an Ayn Rand novel; good ideas stuck between pages upon pages of confusing and ridiculous dialog spewed by one-dimensional characters.
14 people found this helpful
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Foresight into the Future!

This is a great great book! It was first published in 1975 with was a year before the first personal computer! Before the internet! But it forsaw all of these things and more. This book is also rumored to the inspiration for the first computer "worm" written by Robert Morris. It is in my opinion one of the greatest sci-fi books ever written. And equal to Neuromancer in terms of cyber genera books in greatness.
9 people found this helpful
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Tell me it's not true!

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.
7 people found this helpful
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Tomorrow is today

I read this book when it first appeared. I thought then it was so far off the mark I couldn't find anything in it believable, although it was a good story. I picked it up again a few years ago, and found that I was living the lifestyle of the hero. Everything Brunner talks about in this book as the future is true today.
The insights in this book make it a must have in my library.
5 people found this helpful
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The one true visionary of Cyberspace and The Net

Don't believe the Hype! There are people out there who would have you believe that the concepts of cyberspace, a networked society and sentient computers came out of their writing efforts in the 80s and 90s. Not true! This book, along with Brunner's other titles, really started it all. Or should I say predicted it all... spot on. In fact, Shockwave Rider, published in 1975 predicted the fusion of TV, PSTN, Internet and the banking system into one cyber-mass that he prophetically refers to simply as The Net. Read it and see the future converge into the present before your eyes.
2 people found this helpful
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Classic Cyberspace fiction

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.
1 people found this helpful
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My first John Brunner...but certainly not the last!

It took me a couple of tries before I settled down to get into this book. Seriously, I put it down twice then started all over again and could not stop until I finished. When I discovered it had been written in 1975(!!!), I was astonished! Long before the internet, cell phones, and basically digital everything! This is some serious SciFi!!

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