- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New impression edition (Dec 1969)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061050261
- ISBN-13: 978-0061050268
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,696,535 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
High Crimes Call for High Punishment. It is the twenty-first century. Convicts are sentenced to asteroids that move in ever-widening solar orbits, timed to return when their terms run out. But a few ambitious administrators discover that small "errors" in velocity can rid them of selected groups altogether: the hardcore violent, the mentally defective, and especially the political dissidents. Enduring the black vise of interstellar space-time, these human rejects--men and women mixed together--create their own Darwinian societies, struggling to survive. Back on Earth, a handful of sympathetic and curious scientists have not forgotten these lost citizens. When a technological breakthrough makes it possible to overtake these scattered asteroids, a courageous team sets out to go where none has willingly gone before. What they discover in these "brute orbits" is both provocative and moving--a startling vision of humanity you will never forget.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From the Publisher
offers some excerpts from review from SF trade periodicals.
"Zebrowski's latest is an impressive... look at the penal system of the future. The author explores this... through a number of credible characters, and demonstrates once again our ability to commit heinous crimes in the name of the 'common good.' Brute Orbits is highly recommended, but not if you're already depressed." --Don D'Ammassa, _Science Fiction Chronicle_ "SF has long had an interest in how future societies would punish their malefactors and malcontents. From Heinlein's Coventry to Cordwainer Smith's Shayol, from Sheckley's Omega to Dick's Alphane Moon, many fine writers have envisioned a variety of schemes whereby the marriage of technology and law would open up new penal possibilities. Now one of SF's most visionary authors, George Zebrowski, gives us _Brute Orbits_, the latest novel in this lineage, and it proves to be a worthy sucessor and innovator... By focusing on the criminals and their... living conditions, Zebrowski succeeds in rubbing our noses in the harsh actions any society under assault by sociopaths must undertake in order to survive. Zebrowski has always by temperament been inclined to follow the transcendentalism of Clarke and Stapleton and Blish, and this new book is no exception. His language and his perspective are elegaically lofty... Zebrowski never ceases to invest his individual characters with three-dimensional roundness... Startling and sobering, Zebrowski's provocative novel should prick the consciences of all readers, as he slices open the veins of prisoners and wardens alike, revealing the identical blood that flows on either side of the bars." -- Paul DiFilippo, _Asimov's_
"Zebrowski's latest is an impressive... look at the penal system of the future. The author explores this... through a number of credible characters, and demonstrates once again our ability to commit heinous crimes in the name of the 'common good.' Brute Orbits is highly recommended, but not if you're already depressed." --Don D'Ammassa, _Science Fiction Chronicle_ "SF has long had an interest in how future societies would punish their malefactors and malcontents. From Heinlein's Coventry to Cordwainer Smith's Shayol, from Sheckley's Omega to Dick's Alphane Moon, many fine writers have envisioned a variety of schemes whereby the marriage of technology and law would open up new penal possibilities. Now one of SF's most visionary authors, George Zebrowski, gives us _Brute Orbits_, the latest novel in this lineage, and it proves to be a worthy sucessor and innovator... By focusing on the criminals and their... living conditions, Zebrowski succeeds in rubbing our noses in the harsh actions any society under assault by sociopaths must undertake in order to survive. Zebrowski has always by temperament been inclined to follow the transcendentalism of Clarke and Stapleton and Blish, and this new book is no exception. His language and his perspective are elegaically lofty... Zebrowski never ceases to invest his individual characters with three-dimensional roundness... Startling and sobering, Zebrowski's provocative novel should prick the consciences of all readers, as he slices open the veins of prisoners and wardens alike, revealing the identical blood that flows on either side of the bars." -- Paul DiFilippo, _Asimov's_
"Zebrowski's latest evokes the pioneering SF of social philosopher Olaf Stapledon... boldly speculative" --_Publishers Weekly_
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Brute Orbit received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of 1998.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Science Fiction Literature
4 Nov 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is that rarest of books that can actually change how you think. Not just about prisons or prisoners, or cruelty, though there is plentiful speculation on these topics, but indeed I mean HOW YOU THINK. This book is full of so many challenging ideas on so many different aspects of the human experience that my mind buzzed for two full days. Perception, history, biology and evolution, evil, societal limitations, the limitations of one's own mind. And not a paragraph of preaching, just good storytelling rich with scientific speculation that advances the tale. The action is harrowing and there are moments of awe and wonder that resonate much deeper than most good action SF scenes. Go forth and read and ask yourself: HOW DO I THINK?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Wall of Space
13 Mar 2009
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is a work of philosophy disguised as a science fiction novel. An impact will be made with readers looking for subversive social commentary, but the book will probably fail with readers looking for a functioning story. The book suffers from a very inconsistent timeline and narration that operates mostly as a front for Zebrowski's thoughts on crime and punishment. Those thoughts are highly incisive, based on the works of solid philosophers like Kant and Pascal (and probably Dostoevsky), and while some readers would justifiably find them preachy, others will find them uncompromising and thought-provoking. Zebrowski has the knowledge to pull off this philosophical treatise on the problems of prisons, and the book holds no punches and launches straight into deep thoughts on the matter.
Most of the book works well as social and political commentary, with a series of vignettes about future prisoners and all of their ugliest behavior. This future society has found a way to conveniently get rid of not just hardened criminals but an expanding palette of political and social undesirables, by putting them in hollow asteroids and launching them into deep space. Most of the story is shocking and provocative, and the behavior of the criminals and the authorities is often hideous, allowing Zebrowski to really explore the ramifications of his philosophical treatise. Critics of this book have perfectly valid points, but readers looking for uncompromising allegorical commentary could enjoy it if they're willing to sacrifice logical development of characters and themes. But there is still a problem with inconsistency, as the conclusion falls into a type of quaint and unrealistic future humanism that contrasts sharply with the rest of the book. It's also too short, as Zebrowski could have devoted much more space to both the philosophy and the development of his characters, but here such matters surge ahead at a very awkward pace. [~doomsdayer520~]
Most of the book works well as social and political commentary, with a series of vignettes about future prisoners and all of their ugliest behavior. This future society has found a way to conveniently get rid of not just hardened criminals but an expanding palette of political and social undesirables, by putting them in hollow asteroids and launching them into deep space. Most of the story is shocking and provocative, and the behavior of the criminals and the authorities is often hideous, allowing Zebrowski to really explore the ramifications of his philosophical treatise. Critics of this book have perfectly valid points, but readers looking for uncompromising allegorical commentary could enjoy it if they're willing to sacrifice logical development of characters and themes. But there is still a problem with inconsistency, as the conclusion falls into a type of quaint and unrealistic future humanism that contrasts sharply with the rest of the book. It's also too short, as Zebrowski could have devoted much more space to both the philosophy and the development of his characters, but here such matters surge ahead at a very awkward pace. [~doomsdayer520~]
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Too short
11 Jan 2002
Format:Hardcover
The idea of putting penal colonies in space is really interesting. Zebrowski tries to tell the story of the individuals in the colonies and at the same time examine the long term social effects of hurling thousands of people into a closed environment in only 200 pages. This brevity resulted in the isolation of both ideas. What we get is the beginning and the end of what could have been a good book had the middle not been left out.
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