John Kilian Houston Brunner (24 September 1934 – 25 August 1995) was a British author ofscience fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novelStand on Zanzibar, about anoverpopulated world, won the 1969Hugo Award for best science fiction novel and theBSFA Award the same year.The Jagged Orbit won the BSFA Award in 1970. His first novel,Galactic Storm, was written under the pen-name Gill Hunt when he was seventeen. He did not start writing full-time until 1958, some years after his military service.[1]
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with Britishnew wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was known to be difficult to deal with. His wife, Marjorie Brunner, had handled his publishing relations before she died.[3]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending theWorld Science Fiction Convention there.[4]
At first writing conventionalspace opera, Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novelStand on Zanzibar exploits the fragmented organizational style that American writerJohn Dos Passos created for hisU.S.A. trilogy, but updates it in terms of thetheory of media popularised by Canadian academicMarshall McLuhan, a major cultural figure of the period.
These four novelsStand on Zanzibar (1968),The Jagged Orbit (1969),The Sheep Look Up (1972) andThe Shockwave Rider (1975), have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after theClub of Rome, whose 1972 reportThe Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.[6]
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner (Kilian Houston Brunner), Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick,[5] Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.[1]
In addition to fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and published many unpaid articles in a variety of venues, particularlyfanzines. He also published 13 letters to theNew Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction inPhysics Education.[7] Brunner was an active member of the organisationCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on theAldermaston Marches. He was a linguist, translator, and Guest of Honour at the firstEuropean Science Fiction ConventionEurocon-1 inTrieste in 1972.[1]
Two of his short stories, "Some Lapse of Time" and "The Last Lonely Man", were adapted as TV plays in the BBC science fiction seriesOut of the Unknown, inseries 1 (1965) andseries 3 (1969), respectively.
Brunner's short novelThe Wanton of Argus was originally published inTwo Complete Science-Adventure Books in 1953, before appearing in book form asThe Space-Time Juggler.Brunner's noveletteRendezvous With Destiny was cover-featured on the March 1958 issue ofFantastic Universe.
Interstellar Empire, DAW 208 (1976); a collection of a novella and two "Ace Double" halves:The Altar on Asconel, "The Man from the Big Dark" andThe Space-Time Juggler (under the title ofThe Wanton of Argus)
^"The John Brunner Archive". University of Liverpool Library, Special Collections and Archives. Archived fromthe original on 25 January 2015. Retrieved24 January 2015.
