She appeared in our world naked, defenceless, unable to say a word anyone could understand. Her origin was at first simply a puzzle, then a scientific enigma, and finally a series of terrifying surmises that her most fascinated investigator was afraid to probe. But probe he must, for somehow he knew that this strange girl was a key to the kind of information science had sought for centuries. But the more he uncovered from the depths of her mind, the deeper became the quicksand into which his own was sinking. (First published 1967)
"Brunner was a giant of sf, dealing at his best with lived-in futures combining extrapolative exhilaration & the nightmare of future shock. 'Stand on Zanzibar' ('68) with its focus on overpopulation was his recognized blockbuster. It slightly overshadows its companion volumes 'The Jagged Orbit' ('69), 'The Sheep Look Up' ('72)--a scarifying polemic against pollution which ends with the stench of all America burning--& 'The Shockwave Rider' ('75), prophetically mapping problems of information overload, computer viruses, rampant hacking & the net. John Brunner was cursed by sanity & a hatred of superstition & cant combined with wide-ranging erudition. His peace-activism & left-leaning political views were perhaps factors in his sometimes disappointing US sales."--Dave Langford.
"There are two particularly identifiable phases in his writing career. In the 50s & early 60s, he was turning out numerous competent space adventures. In the late 60s & early 70s, he was writing near-future socially-oriented fiction, referred to as dystopias. Many of these books are written under the shadow of the VietNam war."--Dani Zweig.
"The girl walked naked out of nowhere on a winter night & to psychiatrist Paul Fidler it was as if one of his own obsessive visions of disaster took human form, bringing nightmares to life. Tiny, appearing harmless, she had half killed a man who tried to assault her. Piquantly lovely, she belonged to no known racial type. Of high intelligence, she spoke a language no one could be found to understand. Most remarkable of all, commonplace objects like clothing & cars were a mystery to her. They called her "Urchin." Himself haunted by visions of unrealized disaster, irrationally terrified by things he might have done wrong but escaped by chance, threatened by the failure of his marriage & with it his career, Paul sees in her a victim of his own fears made real. Has she truly wandered out of her own familiar world & been cast adrift--the loneliest of all lonely people--in another branch of the universe? Inexorably, as he scrapes at the barriers of secrecy that surround Urchin, he finds his fate becoming linked to hers. His life collapses about him until at last he has nothing left but Urchin herself & the vision she has given him of a world far better than any he has ever known. But does he really have either? Quicksand is a novel of today about a lone man facing a fantastic crisis. It will move you to pity & sadness."
She appeared in our world naked, defenceless, unable to say a word anyone could understand. Her origin was at first simply a puzzle, then a scientific enigma, and finally a series of terrifying surmises that her most fascinated investigator was afraid to probe. But probe he must, for somehow he knew that this strange girl was a key to the kind of information science had sought for centuries. But the more he uncovered from the depths of her mind, the deeper became the quicksand into which his own was sinking. (First published 1967)
Description:
She appeared in our world naked, defenceless, unable to say a word anyone could understand. Her origin was at first simply a puzzle, then a scientific enigma, and finally a series of terrifying surmises that her most fascinated investigator was afraid to probe. But probe he must, for somehow he knew that this strange girl was a key to the kind of information science had sought for centuries. But the more he uncovered from the depths of her mind, the deeper became the quicksand into which his own was sinking. (First published 1967)
"Brunner was a giant of sf, dealing at his best with lived-in futures combining extrapolative exhilaration & the nightmare of future shock. 'Stand on Zanzibar' ('68) with its focus on overpopulation was his recognized blockbuster. It slightly overshadows its companion volumes 'The Jagged Orbit' ('69), 'The Sheep Look Up' ('72)--a scarifying polemic against pollution which ends with the stench of all America burning--& 'The Shockwave Rider' ('75), prophetically mapping problems of information overload, computer viruses, rampant hacking & the net. John Brunner was cursed by sanity & a hatred of superstition & cant combined with wide-ranging erudition. His peace-activism & left-leaning political views were perhaps factors in his sometimes disappointing US sales."--Dave Langford.
"There are two particularly identifiable phases in his writing career. In the 50s & early 60s, he was turning out numerous competent space adventures. In the late 60s & early 70s, he was writing near-future socially-oriented fiction, referred to as dystopias. Many of these books are written under the shadow of the VietNam war."--Dani Zweig.
"The girl walked naked out of nowhere on a winter night & to psychiatrist Paul Fidler it was as if one of his own obsessive visions of disaster took human form, bringing nightmares to life. Tiny, appearing harmless, she had half killed a man who tried to assault her. Piquantly lovely, she belonged to no known racial type. Of high intelligence, she spoke a language no one could be found to understand. Most remarkable of all, commonplace objects like clothing & cars were a mystery to her. They called her "Urchin." Himself haunted by visions of unrealized disaster, irrationally terrified by things he might have done wrong but escaped by chance, threatened by the failure of his marriage & with it his career, Paul sees in her a victim of his own fears made real. Has she truly wandered out of her own familiar world & been cast adrift--the loneliest of all lonely people--in another branch of the universe? Inexorably, as he scrapes at the barriers of secrecy that surround Urchin, he finds his fate becoming linked to hers. His life collapses about him until at last he has nothing left but Urchin herself & the vision she has given him of a world far better than any he has ever known. But does he really have either? Quicksand is a novel of today about a lone man facing a fantastic crisis. It will move you to pity & sadness."
She appeared in our world naked, defenceless, unable to say a word anyone could understand. Her origin was at first simply a puzzle, then a scientific enigma, and finally a series of terrifying surmises that her most fascinated investigator was afraid to probe. But probe he must, for somehow he knew that this strange girl was a key to the kind of information science had sought for centuries. But the more he uncovered from the depths of her mind, the deeper became the quicksand into which his own was sinking. (First published 1967)