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Non-Stop 20

Posted by timothy from the 'til-the-batteries-die dept.
Unstoppable reviewer Duncan Lawie is back through the gate this time with his review of a legitimate science fiction classic (though one that may be hard to find at your local MegaStore), Brian Aldiss' Non-Stop. I wonder my local oddball bookstore has a used copy in stock ...

Non-Stop
author Brian Aldiss
pages 260
publisher USA: Carrol & Graf; UK: Millennium
rating 7.5
reviewer Duncan Lawie
ISBN 0881844926
summary One of the Old Books of Power in science fiction - still in print

Brian Aldiss started writing in the 1950s and is still going strong. His publications include several autobiographical works and a number of mainstream novels from which he is quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary over 100 times. Nevertheless, he is most widely known as an author of science fiction. In this field, he was an important contributor to the British New Wave of the late 1960s and has written influential works on the history of SF -- being credited with originating the now widely held view that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the progenitors of the genre. Despite the quantity and quality of his science fiction, his genre-crossing approach and an aversion to repeating himself make it difficult to view his work as a cohesive body.

Non-Stop was Aldiss' first science fiction novel. Like much 1950s SF it was first published as a magazine serial. The partwork structure shapes the novel and the exploration of the world which the characters inhabit. The first section describes life in the Greene Tribe, a society which has decayed from our own with a religion derived from Freud and Jung. The primary viewpoint character is a typical disaffected youth who runs away yet finds himself forced to take on great responsibility. He is one of a mismatched group which escapes the tribe's territory in search of fame and power in mythical places far from the corridors of their birth. Such a template has been a part of story telling since at least the time of Homer, yet here the central characters are far from heroic and learn almost everything the hard way. Each subsequent section broadens the scope and adjusts the focus of the story, gradually revealing the true nature and effect of the claustrophobic environs.

One potential problem with the book is the way in which much of the back story is recounted. The central characters find a diary and the reader is simply given a huge data dump. Many questions of history are answered, explaining for the reader's benefit how this world came to be, as the diary's author has a viewpoint much like our own. Rather than offering closure, the additional historical perspective generates new resonances in the plot. The information cannot be easily digested by the novel's protagonists. Neither can it solve the crises of the present; the satisfaction of intellectual understanding does not end mortal danger. The final portion of the book demonstrates the the use of this rediscovered knowledge but shows a world about to be remade as much by fire as order.

Non-Stop has a fearsome reputation and the setting must be familiar to many with a passing knowledge of science fiction. Some of the ideas within it have been reused in so many different ways that it is difficult to imagine in advance that this ancient text could be worth reading for any reason other than genre archaeology. However, it retains its place in many lists of great SF novels for better reason than nostalgia for the youth of the genre or author -- or reader. It is the extent to which the occupants have lost their context and the effects of regaining awareness of their history which gives this novel its lasting power. The book's revelations are not dulled by their apparent familiarity. There is much more to it than the clever use of what was then an original setting. The lasting strengths of Non-Stop are its awareness of the universal themes of human nature and its sharp writing.

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.
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Non-Stop

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  • I would rather toy with ideas like living technology. A creature the size of a planet use to move between stars, and weapons that are alive. A lot more intersting.
  • I have several series I am reading currently. I don't know when I would fit it in, but it looks like it would put me to sleep. I have enough with reading CS books, Dr. Who, Star Wars (New Jedi Order), and A fantacy series (I forget the name). They can't seem to write them fast enough for me.

    For those of you who like Star Wars and technology, if you haven't check out Star Wars: New Jedi Order, you need to. The new "Evil Enimy" has only living technology. Including HUGE planet sized creatures used to move between galaxies and living fighting creatures for space. They have living breathign masks. There is going to be 22 novels in this series. All the hard cover books are major events in the series. The first in the series is Vector Prime [barnesandnoble.com].
  • My library catalog [tucson.az.us] claims that it was published as Starship:

    AUTHOR Aldiss, Brian Wilson, 1925-
    TITLE Non-stop / by Brian Wilson.
    EDITION [Book Club ed.]
    PUBLISHER New York, N.Y. : Carrol & Graf, 1989.
    DESCRIPTION 182 p. ; 22 cm.
    NOTES "Previously published in the United States as Starship."
    OTHER AUTHOR Aldiss, Brian Wilson, 1925- Starship.

  • Robert Heinlein's ORPHANS OF THE SKY, according to the title page of this first edition I am holding in my lap, "was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction in 1941, under the titles Universe and Common Sense. Universe was republished in a Dell edition in 1951..." This "First American Edition" hardcover is dated 1964.
  • The last sentence of that review states that the "lasting strengths of Non-Stop are its awareness of the universal themes of human nature and its sharp writing."

    If they're so "lasting," then why don't we hear about them today in reference to this Non-Stop?

  • This book was also published under another name --_Hothouse_.
  • For me, that was always his finest moment -- a surreal, wholly whacked-out novel about what would happen if World War Three were fought with bombs carrying hallucinogens. The book is written in this crazy, trippy Joycean style that actually works -- one of the few times I've seen the trick pulled off without it turning into a self-important bore.
  • i swear, I have at home a copy of a book called hothouse and a copy of a book called Nonstop --both with the exact same text inside. It's the only book I've read by Aldiss, so I know I can't be confused (although I do own his heliconia books and intend to read them as soon as winter break starts). Maybe I have a publishing error?
  • one that may be hard to find at your local MegaStore

    Actually this has hard a fairly recent reprint as part of the SF masterworks series try here [waterstones.co.uk] For a start

  • Star Wars rip-off series - *shudder*

    The point of reviewing classics like Mr. Aldiss' is to tell a new generation of readers what real sci-fi is about - and to wean y'all off ripoff tripe.

  • Such a template has been a part of story telling since at least the time of Homer...

    So it's been around for the last ten years or so... big deal.

    Oh, that Homer. D'oh!

  • This book was also published under another name _Hothouse_.

    Er, no that was a different novel.

    Non-stop was published in the US as Starship. Hothouse came later (1962) and was published as The long afternoon of Earth in the US.

  • Re:I don't know when I would fit it in... (Score:4)

    by SEWilco ( 27983 ) on Friday December 15, 2000 @08:07AM (#556711) Journal
    No, no, no... If you like Star Wars and technology, try E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" [davis.ca.us] series. It was written at the height of the 1930's "space police" space opera and intentionally overwhelmed the others in scope and scale. If you think the Star Wars rebels are underdogs, you don't know Atlantis. If you think the Star Wars fleet battles are large and complex, you don't know fleet formation fighting. If you think planetary defenses are impressive, you don't know the difference between a negasphere and a planet's intrinsic velocity.
  • ok ok ok, cool, it's a new idea and it's interesting. but please please listen to the guy --- the Lensman series are some of the best sci-fi I have ever read. Not for depth of thought, or characterisation, or any of those literary things, but because they kicked every other action hero's ass. Kimball Kinnison is seriously the greatest hero ever - and that includes all anime heroes too. Start on number 3, Galactic Patrol, ask me why afterwards. Prepare for the best ever.
  • Excellent. So where can I pick this book up for less than face value? I really don't want to buy it as if it were a new book, since it isn't, and I really don't want to order it online... Anyone got a used and abused copy they'd like to send me? Or better still ... online text! The book sounds like a good book. That wasn't what I meant when I made my prior post. I merely questioned what made the book lasting; I didn't say it sucked. Obviously the book isn't as lasting as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four or the question I asked would certainly have warranted your idiotic reply. Thank you, though, for making my day.
  • ...worst book report ever!
  • It does appear all of the current in-prints are paperback however. Powells Books [powells.com] in Portland, OR (a quite giant independent new & used bookstore, great for finding OOPs and rares) has 3 used hardbacks available. Just drop "Brian Aldiss non-stop" in the search. All less than $8 too.
  • So where can I pick this book up for less than face value?

    I think the rates at your local public library will meet with your approval as long as you don't mind giving the book back when you're done. If not, please don't take it out of Mr. Cratchet's wages--he has a family and all.
  • The book is lasting because it makes as much sense now, as it did 40 years ago when it was writen. The book is lasting because it makes people think, and wonder, when they read it. But, more importantly. The book is lasting because it gets noted on slashdot 40 years after its original printing because it was a good book. While most of the books printed now days will only get noted here when they are pulled out of the local land fill, where they deserve to be, 40 years from now and are perfectly preserved.
  • Heheh. My local library sucks, man. Hence why I asked the question in the first place. I did, on the other hand, discover a BBC used books store that carries old paperbacks, mostly antique books, for a really cheap price. Mayhaps I should give that place a try, mm?

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