Reviewed by CP in 2002. This article may be downloaded, but may not be uploaded or printed elsewhere.

This is Brian Aldiss in his comic inferno strip: he writes about a huge and diverse cast of characters, living their various lives as the world goes to hell in a bucket.

We are in a near future with familiar problems: global warming, terrorism, eco-catastrophe. War with a third-world country looms. Meteorites slam in from outer space, or maybe from somewhere closer to home. The crew of the spacecraft Roddenberry prepare to land on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. War breaks out. Things go horribly wrong for a lot of people on Earth, but not as wrong as they go for the extra-terrestrial life on Europa. In the end it all works out fine, or at least it works out somehow.

This is not a disaster novel, but a novel of life lived on the fringes of disaster. We hear of love, death, suicide, failure, achievement, dawning awareness. In this last category you could place a memorable scene of amaroli à la source. If you're not sure what that means, you won't forget it once you've found out.

Aldiss writes in short, declarative sentences, full of sprightly images and semi-punned references, so this endlessly inventive book is an easy read from start to finish. At the same time though, the vast number of sketchily drawn principal characters means the novel is often hard to follow, or at least it's not easy to stay involved. As you start taking an interest in one small sub-plot or another, the scene changes and the novel goes galloping off somewhere else, leaving you clinging to the reins and staring back whence you came. The effect is one of distractedness, a story seeking interest through frenetic novelty, but in the end it's the reader who suffers distraction.

If you want a thumbnail, Super-State could be described as Stand on Zanzibar as it might have been written by Douglas Adams. It's not as long as Brunner's book, though, nor is it as larky as any of Adams's. That's a recommendation from me, though some might interpret it otherwise.