Another oddity. Two hundred pages of "unexplained phenomena!!" And then in the last ten, pretty much the biggest bombshell imaginable, then the deus ex machina says "laters" and we grapple with what would be absolutely the largest, most shattering discovery in human history.

The pacing is a little weird, is what I'm saying.

Brunner favorite theme of misogyny returns, and the whole book has a lot of ideas/loose ends that don't resolve. Compulsively readable, ultimately the sort of book I imagine the author writing and literally forgetting about. ( )

Okay science fiction book about the return of the first interstellar ship, and uh-oh - there is more to the universe than we know. The first person narrator who is a science reporter and brother of one of the astronauts, seemed a little stubborn at times. They tried to throw in some heavy philosophical discussions but that got boring pretty quickly. ( )

The first interstellar space ship returns from hyperspace to our solar system, but the crew aren't brought back to Earth, and the space agency is keeping very, very quiet. Meanwhile, people are spotting the ship's crew walking around various cities, and seeing giant monsters in the sky. An ace science reporter has to get to the bottom of it.

In my opinion, Brunner is one of the consistently under-rated authors of the classic science fiction era. He always has an interesting tale, and characters with more depth than many of his contemporaries (I'm thinking of Asimov, Niven, Clarke, etc.). I was discussing this with a colleague recently, and we were mystified that he doesn't seem to have the name recognition of those others.

Regardless of that, once again Brunner did not disappoint. This book is a fun ride. The set up is great, parts are creepy as heck, and the ending was not what I expected. The finale did feel quite rushed, however; I wish the author had taken another 30 or 40 pages to stretch it out. It also made me a little sad, because 40 years ago this story was written with a major plot point revolving around journalistic integrity, and how the general public trusts and respects reporters; there's no way I could see that being anything other than ironic today. Nevertheless, I'm really glad I read it, because it reminded me to search for more Brunner titles whenever I hit the used bookstores. ( )

When David Drummond sees his brother Leon on earth he is shocked because at that moment his brother is on the spaceship Starventure and Starventure is crossing the orbit of Jupiter. Very interesting exploration of the time-space continuum. ( )

Interestingly, the cover image of the gloppy blue monster over the landscape is not some random picture slapped on to sell copies but a relatively direct illustration from the story. This 1973 book is a mild revision of The Astronauts Must Not Land, which appeared as in an Ace Double with a much less accurate cover but equally accurate title. The main character, an ex-reporter, sees his astronaut brother on the streets of Quito, but the brother is supposedly on the first starship just now returning from Alpha Centaurus. Others with relatives on the ship are reporting the same thing. Plus giant odd monster images are appearing in the sky over cities in Central America. It must be connected but how? This is a typical puzzle story from the 1960's. There's a lot of running around, including shuttling into space, but Brunner's real interest is in playing with a few ideas about the nature of the universe. For all that communication is a central theme, communication technology is an aspect that is jarringly dated here. Yes, they have picture phones of a sort, but these PAY phones, and the images are sent every few seconds -- there are frequent references to being caught in an unfortunate expression by the "picture melt." An OK time-passer but nothing to seek out. ( )