This, to me, is one of Brunner's 4 great novels - the others being 'The Sheep Look Up','The Shockwave Rider' and 'Stand on Zanzibar.' I've never understood why each is so different from everything else he has written (much of which I find disappointing.)

The Jagged Orbit is set in a near-future USA in which racial tension and arms sales have grown out of all proportion. It's told via the exploits of Matthew Flamen, an investigative reporter (spoolpigeon in Brunner's terminology) who's looking for a hot exclusive in order to keep his job.

This allows Brunner to bring in many other themes, including recreational drug use and dubious practices in mental health care, and the result is a complex near-future dystopia. As in his other novels of this type, chapters of the book are interspersed with real newspaper cuttings from about the time he was writing. They are intended to give the message "this stuff isn't as unlikely as you think - it's already begun."

I first tried to read this book shortly after publication, when I must have been about 12. I couldn't handle it then - in particular, I wasn't able to take in a book whose entire first chapter consists of the text "I-", and one where many of the chapter titles do more to convey information than the contents do. But returning to it some years later, I was gripped.

Don't read this book as a description of a future which is now already past; simply as an exploration of ideas and as a warning of what might be and might have been. ( )

Fascinating ideas and extrapolations are found throughout this book stemming from the increasing racial tensions and riots in the United States and other Western countries during the late '60s. The prose was not impressive but the story was very engaging. It is a shame that the female characters were all portrayed as helpless objects, usually frightened, smiling "pretty" or silent. Brunner's sexism was very surprising in the midst of his criticism of racial segregation. ( )