A rare beast - an original SF idea

Most SF stories have been told over and again with slight variations, but this one is truly unique.

There are lots of dated aspects - everyone smokes etc., but they can be overlooked because the underlying story is so brilliantly told.

Highly recommended.

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Prescient

Although this was written almost 70 years ago, it holds up really well. The author has imagined many of the technologies we take for granted every day and so, despite feeling a little old fashioned, it is an enjoyable read from the "included" offerings.

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Brain Wave

This book is basically a long thought experiment.
The overall idea is interesting - What would happen if all life forms with a brain suddenly got much smarter? It raises so many interesting questions.
Unfortunately though the execution is rather poor. After about a third or half way through the story takes a nose dive. The reason given for increased neuronal activity seemed pretty stupid to me. The story itself is rather disjointed and none of the interesting ideas really get sufficiently explored.
Overall though I did enjoy following Anderson's ideas and speculations and considering them for myself - Did I agree or not? Why? Etc..

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1 person found this helpful

a little dated but clever and original

given that it was written best part of 50 years ago, it's really a very good listen.

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Hold up p well after all these years

The Earth, in its orbit around the centre of the galaxy, moves out of a (natural?) force field that suppresses intelligence and mankind has to adapt to a maybe five-fold increase in IQ.
I remember reading this forty years ago .I haven’t thought much about it since, though I remember thinking about it a lot the first few years after discovering it. But, as soon as I saw the title, I recognised and remembered it.
I remembered it as a short story and was surprised at its five-hour length, I think this is an indication of how the story gripped and absorbed me.
This story holds up very well, and is excellently narrated. I had a vague remembrance of the shape of the story, but this didn’t hamper my enjoyment of it at all.

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Less said the better

Old fashioned, out of date, poorly drawn characters, ridiculous plot, less said the better. Don't waste your time on this.

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Couldn't get past the dated sexism and gave up

Interesting concept, but clunky writing utterly embedded in a male chauvinistic world view.
Not just because the majority of the main characters were male, (sadly common in Sci Fi), but how the women were described and talked about.
Given that the core theme of the book is intelligence the author was writing from the internal perspective of women and clearly thinks my half of the human race is pretty limited and trivial.
I gave up at the point when two male protagonists were discussing a female co-worker, how she couldn't keep a man and had turned 'cold'.... Reading it felt like I was being insulted repeatedly so I'll never know whether the plot was any good.
You could say it's of it's time, deal with it, or you can go find an Octavia Bulter book instead...

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Fantastic idea but poorly executed

The idea for this book is brilliant but I don't really feel that Poul Anderson did the idea justice, the story seemed to skip along the surface of some really intriguing ideas without ever really delving into them. I'd love to see what someone like Peter Hamilton could do with this idea, it just didn't seem very well explored.

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3 people found this helpful