John Brunner
Doubleday, New York
1974
Hardback
As I said in other reviews here, John Brunner is an author that I have been wanting to read more of ever since reading Shockwave Rider, which I discussed in my paper on virtual reality in science fiction. An Englishman, he wrote over sixty-five books and was the winner of the British Fantasy award in 1966. He had impressed me in Shockwave Rider and I wanted to read more of his works.
Again, during a visit to a book sale at the Jonesboro, Arkansas public library in early January, I found a large number of Brunner's works available in discarded hardback Science Fiction Book Club editions. I was able to purchase them for twenty-five to fifty cents each..
Total Eclipse is another of those books. This one only cost me twenty-five cents and for that I am glad. I was extremely disappointed in the ending.
Perhaps I am being too hard. The book did keep me reading wanting to know the answer to the question posed by the protagonist.
Basically the plot is that a group of thirty scientists are on a planet where a previous race has died out. The question is why did this race die out?
Brunner poses some interesting concepts in the book but then the ending looks like he simply ran out of things to say. Or maybe the book was under contract and he was behind in delivering to his publisher. For whatever reason, I would recommend this book only to those looking for more concerning this interesting author. Don't expect to like the ending.