Catch a Falling Star

by John Brunner
Reviewed date: 2005 Apr 23
Rating: 3
215 pages
cover art

Hey look! It's a book from John Brunner. Let's take a look at our Brunner checklist.

  • Half-baked theory of time travel? Check.
  • Clear-thinking scientist surrounded by a world of self-indulging delusional narcissists? Check.
  • Looming threat of total world destruction by natural means? Check.
  • Complacent non-industrial society unable to invent the technology necessary to save the world? Check.
  • Free-spirited woman who admires the scientist and drops everything to join his quest? Check.
  • Clumsy dialog and pedestrian prose? Check.

The moral? John Brunner was prolific, but that came at the cost of quality. Catch a Falling Star is saved from total uselessness by the incredible surprise Brunner springs in the novel's final pages. The rest of the book is too poorly written for me to recommend it, but overall the book just barely rates a three out of five.


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