Bedlam Planet (1968)

I wasn't expecting much from Bedlam Planet, but ended up enjoying this short book quite a bit. If you are looking for action adventure science fiction, this certainly isn't for you. It was more of a cerebral read, with some surprising events that took place with this band of adventurers from earth trying to settle on a different planet. ( )

The story is about a space colony working to fit into an alien ecology. Most of the beginning of the book is about the problems of the one member of the colony who had intended to go back to Earth, but is stuck on the colony for various reasons. Then Brunner finally gets around to the meat of the problem: how do you really adapt to life on a different planet? He has some interesting things to say on this subject, but the solution is very compressed and mythopoetic, and once you "get" it, there's not much to keep you reading. Not one of his best. ( )