Prolific Grand Master Poul Anderson earned his place of honor within the hallowed halls of science fiction’s best and brightest. His work may not be as engagingly readable as Asimov, or as accessibly impactful as Clarke. He was never as politically-minded as Heinlein and his prose is not as slick and stylish as Vance or Zelazny. However, I would argue that his product is among the top in so many areas that his wide-ranging competencies, when married to his prodigious ability to spin the “big idea,” make his catalog a required staple for any serious examination of science fiction. SYNOPSIS:Brain Wave is the quintessence of big idea science fiction and Anderson explores it with the skill of a veteran spelunker navigating through a vast underground expanse. The Earth, having existed in a neural-dampening field since the cretaceous period, suddenly emerges resulting in a five fold increase in intelligence for every person (and animal) on the planet. Following this life-altering event singularity, society immediately begins to breakdown as the first step of a radical realignment. You have: **unskilled workers suddenly disenchanted with the monotony of their daily, yet essential jobs; **professionals finding their money and status-centric occupations tiresome and unfulfilling; **large portions of the “pre change” highly intelligent finding nothing but confused madness on the other side of the IQ boost; **pigs, monkeys and other animals suddenly finding themselves questioning their place in humanity’s world and equipped with the capacity to do something about it; and**regular joes and janes finding that heightened intelligence does not necessarily mean an end to prejudice, intolerance, fear and self-doubt. This is a fascinating premise for a “what if” novel and Poul does an admirable job, to the extent he is allowed, to explore the effects on human society and how life reorganizes itself when the age-old hierarchies and social structures are shattered. THOUGHTS:I “only” gave this 3 stars (really 3.5). This is not a reflection of the power or skill of Anderson’s novel. There is much of both within. It’s rather an acknowledgement of the shackles placed on Poul by his editors and the marketing gurus of the time, who required the book to fit within the slim 200 page format of SF stories of the time. I believe this is a story begging to be allowed to breathe and develop and I think if Poul had been given the opportunity, this would be a 500 page, wide net examination of the many facets of what it means to be human. As it is, we are limited to following a handful of individuals: Peter Corinth, a brilliant (by pre-change standards) research physicist; Sheila Corinth, Peter’s wife; Felix Mandelbaum, a union official; and Archie Brock, a mentally handicapped individual.Within the four individual stories we see the struggles faced by most of the world’s population as they come to terms with the extreme increase in intelligence. To Anderson’s credit, he uses the time he is allotted to tell a compelling story. The tales of both Sheila Corinth and Archie Brock are particularly moving. It just could have been so much more. In addition to the unfortunate lack of full idea development, I found the ending, while good, to be not quite as wowza as I would have liked. Still, this is a work that deserves to be read and I think is more than worth the ration of hours it will take to consume it. A lesser known, but quality work by one of the best. 3.5 stars. Recommended (highly).
I read this for a local sf club. I didn't think that the craft of writing was up to Anderson's usual level, even given it's from '54. But the concept was a great one.It made for some very interesting discussion, and I like the concept. I did disagree with the effect that greatly increased intelligence had on people. The general effect is that "normal" and smart people act like they have Asperger's syndrome. I'll use the computer as analogy. In our stereotypical view of a genius, one of the programs (i.e. the abstract thought/logic/math one)takes up all the space and processing power and the other programs (social interaction, survival, etc.) are rudimentary and low priority. Sheldon of TV's Big Bang Theory. We forget that some have a combination of better hardware and software- Da Vinci was good at a lot of different things. So what happens when everything with a brain gets a 5x boost? What happens in brainwaves is that everyone turns into a navel-gazing egghead. I think you'd retain your original suite of head-programs, but vastly upgrade them, and maybe write some new programs as well. So things are a too stereotypical in the book.The other part (a typical 50's assumption from a time of economic opportunity) is that only the "lower orders"- the mentally slow- will do the grunt work of society. Farming, driving trucks, picking up trash. There are still people in power that feel this way, arguing that we need a flood of unskilled illegal immigrants to keep things rolling along. But take a look at the ranks of "The Fallen"- people who had challenging, high-paying jobs prior to 2001. Now they're working part-time skut jobs or surviving by marginal self-employment. (A trivia Q: how many people were unemployed in the US in 1934? A: zero. "Unemployment" means "currently receiving unemployment insurance payments".) Back to the book: So no, I think that very smart people are capable of doing boring, dirty jobs. They may not be motivated to keep up with the Joneses, and it might be much harder to cow or exploit them. You might have to pay them more! Or develop some other method of motivation. And anybody could be a CEO, so the upheavals would be far more interesting.So yes, go ahead and read it. Just deal with the bad editing and other flaws and enjoy the good points.
What do You think about Brain Wave (1985)?
This was a great book. There are so many levels at which Poul looks at this "What if...". The basic one that drew me to the book was "What if man became super intelligent?" Many of the the conclusions he came up with matched mine, and some matched changes that had happened in our society since this was originally book was publish back in 1954.Another part that interested me was how he affected the mental change. If there was a force inhibiting our functionality, and it dissipated, how would the
—Jeremy Carman
Originally posted at FanLit:Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave has a great premise — for millennia, unknown to scientists, the Earth has been under the influence of some sort of field that dampens the speed of neurons in the cortex. But now the Earth has suddenly passed out of the field and immediately neurons start working faster, making everyone’s IQs (man and animal) escalate dramatically. This sounds like a good thing to me, but perhaps it’s not in Poul Anderson’s mind. In his story, human civilization changes drastically, and mostly not in positive ways.The story follows several characters: a physicist named Peter Corinth; Sheila, his timid and dull-witted housewife; a mentally-handicapped farmhand named Archie Brock; and an official named Felix Mandelbaum. Each of these characters experiences a large jump in IQ which causes a change in their circumstances. Each of them deals with this change differently as Poul Anderson... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
—Kat Hooper
Throughout earth's history, it has been in a region of the galaxy where some sort of force field has inhibited the activity of brain neurons. As the solar system spins around the galaxy, the earth exits this region, and almost overnight, all living creatures with brains are impacted. Brain neurons fire more rapidly, and as a result, they all become smarter. Smart people become geniuses, morons become very smart, and animals gain in intelligence as well.Society turns upside down. People who previously had an inner purpose in life, some aspiration or goal, use their new boost in intelligence to their advantage, and to society's advantage as well. People who previously had no goals, ambitions, or purpose in life have great difficulties--they still retain their old personalities, their superstitions and prejudices, and become despondent or even violent. The story follows several people through these changes; a scientist, his wife, and a low-intelligence farmhand.While the premise is brilliant, the execution is not. It bothered me that during the faster-than-light space travel, relativistic effects were ignored--a science fiction writer should at least mention these effects, and try to make the consequences seem plausible. Also, so much of the plot is quite predictable. The dialog is often trite. While some reviewers complain that the book is too short, I am glad that it is not longer.
—David
