The Jagged Orbit

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The Jagged Orbit (ISBN 0-09-905840-5) is a science fiction novel written by John Brunner. It was first published in 1970, and is similar to his earlier novel, Stand on Zanzibar in its narrative style and dystopic outlook. The book won the BSFA award for 1971.

The book is set in the United States of America in 2014, when inter-racial distrust and tensions have reached and passed breaking point. A Mafia-like cartel, the Gottschalks, are exploiting this and other tensions to sell weapons to anyone able to buy. There is a split within the cartel between the conservative old men, and ambitious underlings prepared to use new computer technology to pull off some spectacular coups.

There are several separate strands to the narrative. James Reedeth is a young psychologist at New York's major mental health institution who is disenchanted with his job and his employer, the revered Elias Mogshack. Lyla Clay is a "pythoness," a young woman capable of metabolising certain psychedelic drugs to enter a trance in which she makes unconscious predictions. Matthew Flamen, a "spoolpigeon" (a variety of investigative journalist), is struggling to hold onto his job, and by his obsessive behaviour has driven his wife into Mogshack's asylum.

The plot is contrived to bring the strands together and resolve matters by a lengthy discussion between Flamen, Reedeth, Lyla Clay, Pedro Diablo (Flamen's African-American counterpart), Xavier Conroy (a long-time critic of Mogshack), and Harry Madison (a former patient at Mogshack's asylum).