The author of more than sixty novels of science fiction and fantasy, together with novels of mystery or conventional fiction, collections of short stories, many uncollected stories, poems, songs, translations, essays, and a movie script, John Brunner helped to shape science fiction for three decades. Even his earliest novels demonstrate his distinctive concern for the present and future of human society, rather than the scientific marvels that are the stock-in-trade of so much science fiction. Although knowledgeable about computers, genetics, astronomy, and other technical features of the science-fiction landscape, Brunner was essentially concerned with the effects of such technology on human freedoms and economic, psychological, and moral salvation. His best-known works are set in the near future and serve as cautionary tales about where current conditions of racism, greed, fear, and fanaticism of all kinds can lead humankind. They also hold out hope that courage and independent thinking...