Polymath

by John Brunner

Book Overview

Colonising a new planet requires much more than just settling on a newly discovered island of Old Earth. New planets were different in thousands of ways, different from Earth and from each other. Any... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879970898
• ISBN13: 9780879970895
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Daw Books
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Polymath Good early Brunner tale

John Brunner's novel Polymath, written early in his career, is a gem and highly recommended. This tale about survival on an alien planet by shiploads of refugees escaping from a home world with a star going nova is not very original. In these types of stories we are confronted with, well, the usual: deadly flora and fauna, hostile climate conditions, boisterous settlers and inadequate resources. Brunner uses these familiar themes to create, yes, a fascinating backdrop, but the interaction of diverse character types makes this book exceptional. John Brunner is, in my estimation, a brilliant writer of Science Fiction whose body of works has disappeared from bookshelves since his untimely death in 1995. This book is an excellent introduction to a very underrated writer. Note to readers: there are two versions of this book one published in 1963 and one in 1974. The edition published in 1963 is shorter and substantially different than the 1974 version. This review is based upon the 1974 edition.

A Good Survival Tale

Brunner is rightly famous for his masterpieces Stand on Zanzibar, Shockwave Rider, and the Sheep Look Up. However, his earlier pulpish sci-fi such as Polymath is actually a pretty good survival tale on a very interesting planet. Secondly, I did not find its slight disturbing nature annoying at all, perhaps since I have managed to read Sheep Look Up and tons of Philip K. Dick. Yes, Captain Gnomes is unbelievable (but are the villains in 8/9 of fiction?) however Devia and Lex are suprisingly well rounded for characters for such a brief book that probably took Brunner a few months to write. For its one hundred and fifty four or so pages its a suprisingly good read. 4/5