review of
John Brunner's Into the Slave Nebula
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 25, 2013

Do you ever think about slavery? For many US citizens, like myself, the use of slaves in the establishment of the wealth of this nation is still a huge point of shame - even 150 yrs after its abolition here. Nonetheless, I suspect that most people who at least pay lip service to scorning slavery think of it as something in the past. But why would it be? On the level of common social opinion slavery is fairly widely held to be completely unacceptable. Nonetheless, greedy & uncaring humans are still common & little glimpses of slavery appear here & there. Capitalism essentially encourages such practices under the guise of 'free trade'. & lest we think it's only these demonic Christians of European descent who practice slavery please note that the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a West African nation, is one of the last hold-outs for widespread slavery.

But even more ignored than nationally institutionalized slavery, such as what we had in the US, & such as what still prevails in Mauritania (although there have been government attempts to stop it there), is the slavery of human trafficking. Last night I watched the movie entitled The Whistleblower about sex slave traffic in Bosnia in 1999 partially run by members of the IPTF (International Police Task Force) employees of DynCorp. What better way to enslave people than under the aegis of being an unprosecutable international 'peace-keeper'? These PMCs (Private Military Contractors) aka PMFs (Private Military Firms) like DynCorp are BIG PROFIT MAKERS & they thrive best in destabilized countries - wch just happen to be the best places for natural resources to be extracted from, eh?! In other words, capitalism at work w/ business-as-usual.

ANYWAY, Brunner has his own inimitable spin on the possibilities of future slavery here in Into the Slave Nebula & I have to commend his genius, as usual. It's hard for me to discuss this novel w/o getting into spoilers so I'll just leave it by saying that my little anti-human-trafficking tirade that begins this review is highly relevant. If you see some kid peddling themselves somewhere don't just assume they're doing it willingly - they may very well have been kidnapped & forced into being sex slaves. They may've been displaced from their environment of origin & put somewhere where they barely speak the language, where they barely know where they are, & where they're being held under threat of death. You might want to check out things like the Polaris Project ( http://www.polarisproject.org/ ) or other such anti-slavery groups (there are, fortunately, many) for more info. For all you know, there may be a slave stuck in a back rm of a 'business' establishment near you. AND, if you want to be warned about future possibilities, read Brunner's Into the Slave Nebula - it's not so far-fetched. ( )

This SF novel from 1968 and by an American is clearly a product of its time and place, reflecting the civil rights movement and its origins a century and more before in the slave trade. Alarmingly, the allegorical aspects are at least as relevant now with the current "people trafficking" issue, which let's face it, is no different from the African slave trade: forcibly transferring people from one place to another and selling them into servitude, except that it's illegal.

It's attitude to women is also of its time; they are almost absent except as menials, victims or sex objects - with the exception of a minor character who perpetrates one crucial heroic act.

Bizarrely for such a short novel (its length being also typical of the '60s), it feels slow in the first half - but the second half is swifter. It's competent, amusing and very unexceptional. ( )