POLYMATH by John Brunner

"Planet-Builders Dare Not Fail"

Finished Mo 2/15/16

This is one of my paperbacks that I had never read. After reading, it has become one of my favorite Brunner novels;  short, sweet, and makes a thoughtful impression. Can easily be read in a couple of sittings.

The theme examines how a society can avoid foolish or insane policies. This is projected within the bounds of a Space Opera. Two space ships have crash landed on a marginally inhabitable planet. One group focuses on  repairing a hopelessly broken ship while the other, forgoes escape, and tries to adapt to the environment.

Lex has only finished part of his training to become a full-fledged polymath.  He has been surgically enhanced on the home planet, but a polymath's role is to rule a planet, but this takes nearly two decades of study. Polymath- a person of great learning in several fields of study.

When the two groups meet in a violent confrontation, Lex takes the 'non-violent' course.

Interesting sexual/lesbian sub-plot

From Wikipedia-

A spacecraft filled with refugees from a cosmic catastrophe crash-lands on an unmapped planet. There the survivors must face the reality of their precarious situation; the ship was lost and little had been salvaged from it. Everything comes to depend on one bright young man accidentally among them, a trainee planet-builder, Lex ("polymath"). While it would have been his job to oversee all aspects of establishing a successful colony he faces major difficulties; not only is his education incomplete, he had been studying a vastly different planet.
Two ships escaped the catastrophe. One lands in the jungle in a mountainous area. The other, with the polymath, lands on water, allowing the passengers just enough time to escape the sinking ship. With his education incomplete, he is faced with an array of problems he needs to overcome, in order to ensure the survival, of not only the passengers from his ship, but those on the lost ship as well, who are under the control of a despotic captain determined to get back into space.

Customer Reviews at Amazon-

http://www.amazon.com/Polymath-John-Brunner/product-reviews/0879977663