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kingaion's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
vandermeer's review against another edition
1.0
Gute Idee,. aber nicht gut gealtert, die Geschichte. Man merkt ihr sehr an, wann sie geschrieben wurde (50er). Männer tun alles; sprechen und handeln, Frauen sind Weibchen- zwar schlau, aber doch beschränkt. Die Sprache ist stelzig. Es ist toll, dass die Tiere ebenfalls klüger werden, nur leider wird dies kaum ausgebaut. Die Folgen, die dargestellt werden, finde ich nicht überzeugend. Die einzigen sympathischen Protagonisten sind der Farmarbeiter und sein Hund. Bei 47% wird mir langweilig und ich habe keine Lust mehr.
maube1017's review against another edition
The physicist blinked. The attendant had always been part of the machinery to him; they had exchanged the usual pleasantries, but it hadn’t meant a thing. Suddenly Corinth saw him as a human being, a living and unique organism, part of an enormous impersonal web which ultimately became the entire universe, and yet bearing his own heart within him. Now why, he asked himself amazedly, should I think that?
I realize this book is written in another time period, but it shouldn't take a scientific anomaly to see another human as a person. This could have been left out. This wasn't a good example to put into the story to try to further the point.
stephenmeansme's review against another edition
3.0
This was a much better story from Poul Anderson than his collaboration anthology with Gordon Dickson ([b:Hoka|315622|Hoka (Hoka, #3)|Poul Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1299964531l/315622._SY75_.jpg|41096710]) or his later novel [b:The Stars are Also Fire|252230|The Stars are Also Fire (Harvest of Stars, #2)|Poul Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420944544l/252230._SY75_.jpg|244415]. Apparently he shifted quite a bit in his politics as he got older, and that might have been part of it. Anyway this one has an interesting premise: what if, in the year 19XX (probably about 1953, when it was first serialized), Earth moved out of a galactic anomalous zone that had slowed down electromagnetic processes just a bit? As a consequence, nerves would fire faster, especially the delicate and highly sophisticated cells in the brain.
And so every living thing on Earth with a brain jumps several standard deviations of IQ: smart people get super-smart, normal people get smart, etc. through the mentally handicapped to animals. Anderson describes the what-it-would-be-like-ness of getting suddenly much more intelligent in a way that I don't know if I've seen before. There's the stereotypical "and then he solved high order partial differential equations" or "the child invented calculus from first principles before breakfast," but for the POV characters it's more like having even more thoughts arise in one's stream of consciousness, and noticing more details about things, remembering more things, etc. etc. There's a maybe-predictable societal upheaval: oppressed people coordinate and rise up, farm animals figure out what's really going on and break out, lots of people go crazy because they're just not used to having so many thoughts...!
So this is the first stumbling block. Even though this is ultimately an optimistic book, with all of humanity finding a better way of living than before, Anderson's view of society and mental illness seems a bit reductive. I think some of the terminology is also quite outdated: we just say that some has a mental handicap or something, we don't have labeled bins for exactly how much they're handicapped.
Then there's the usual Fifties-sf problem of representation. Granted(?) he posits no racial component to which groups of people figure it out or freak out; but Anderson had an Anglo-Saxon-chauvinism streak and it's weirdly present here. Almost all the characters we see most often have extremely ethnic Northern European names: Helga Arnulfsen, Felix Mandelbaum, Archie Brock, Grunewald and Johansson (no first names given, lol). The main square-jawed scientist character is named Peter Corinth, which I suppose is Greek but is mostly pulpy as heck. Anyway, again, Anderson doesn't try to make some sort of cultural-superiority point by this, it's just a big difference from modern sf. That and the women being side characters at best.
The other big problem is structural, and I think it relates to the original publication method. Since it was originally a serial, that might explain why the later parts of the book skip forward in time so much, or why there's a brief but sort of pointless excursion into space. (Hey, if everyone gets really smart, why not build a spaceship?)
Finally, there are just some very Fifties-sfnal quirks to the book. Felix Mandelbaum wrangles the labor unions to help stabilize New York City, for example. It would not be as convenient nowadays. And Anderson concludes that with greatly heightened general intelligence, cities would become obsolete - this was not unique to him, but I find it amusing, especially since we actually have more of a "knowledge economy" now and cities are more important than ever.
Overall it's a fast read and a good example of that high-concept pulp sf scene of the 1950s, but a standard example of some of that scene's faults. 2.5 stars, rounded up for the neat premise.
And so every living thing on Earth with a brain jumps several standard deviations of IQ: smart people get super-smart, normal people get smart, etc. through the mentally handicapped to animals. Anderson describes the what-it-would-be-like-ness of getting suddenly much more intelligent in a way that I don't know if I've seen before. There's the stereotypical "and then he solved high order partial differential equations" or "the child invented calculus from first principles before breakfast," but for the POV characters it's more like having even more thoughts arise in one's stream of consciousness, and noticing more details about things, remembering more things, etc. etc. There's a maybe-predictable societal upheaval: oppressed people coordinate and rise up, farm animals figure out what's really going on and break out, lots of people go crazy because they're just not used to having so many thoughts...!
So this is the first stumbling block. Even though this is ultimately an optimistic book, with all of humanity finding a better way of living than before, Anderson's view of society and mental illness seems a bit reductive. I think some of the terminology is also quite outdated: we just say that some has a mental handicap or something, we don't have labeled bins for exactly how much they're handicapped.
Then there's the usual Fifties-sf problem of representation. Granted(?) he posits no racial component to which groups of people figure it out or freak out; but Anderson had an Anglo-Saxon-chauvinism streak and it's weirdly present here. Almost all the characters we see most often have extremely ethnic Northern European names: Helga Arnulfsen, Felix Mandelbaum, Archie Brock, Grunewald and Johansson (no first names given, lol). The main square-jawed scientist character is named Peter Corinth, which I suppose is Greek but is mostly pulpy as heck. Anyway, again, Anderson doesn't try to make some sort of cultural-superiority point by this, it's just a big difference from modern sf. That and the women being side characters at best.
The other big problem is structural, and I think it relates to the original publication method. Since it was originally a serial, that might explain why the later parts of the book skip forward in time so much, or why there's a brief but sort of pointless excursion into space. (Hey, if everyone gets really smart, why not build a spaceship?)
Finally, there are just some very Fifties-sfnal quirks to the book. Felix Mandelbaum wrangles the labor unions to help stabilize New York City, for example. It would not be as convenient nowadays. And Anderson concludes that with greatly heightened general intelligence, cities would become obsolete - this was not unique to him, but I find it amusing, especially since we actually have more of a "knowledge economy" now and cities are more important than ever.
Overall it's a fast read and a good example of that high-concept pulp sf scene of the 1950s, but a standard example of some of that scene's faults. 2.5 stars, rounded up for the neat premise.
kb_208's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really fun sci-fi story and concept. The Earth has passed out of a region of space that has been hindering our intelligence and now everyone, including animals experience a sudden dramatice increase in intelligence. We see the world from the experience of a young farmer who is having trouble, because everyone else has left the job and the animals are quite difficult now that they are super smart. A woman is not coping well and experiencing mental health issues with this new intelligence, so scientists have developed something to put intelligence back to normal, while other scientists have used their smarts to create a way to explore space and learn more.
kb_208's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really fun sci-fi story and concept. The Earth has passed out of a region of space that has been hindering our intelligence and now everyone, including animals experience a sudden dramatice increase in intelligence. We see the world from the experience of a young farmer who is having trouble, because everyone else has left the job and the animals are quite difficult now that they are super smart. A woman is not coping well and experiencing mental health issues with this new intelligence, so scientists have developed something to put intelligence back to normal, while other scientists have used their smarts to create a way to explore space and learn more.
christopher_dilts's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting idea for a book, and done well in the initial exposition and rising action leading up to the climax. Unfortunately, the latter half of the novel seems mired in less compelling minutiae which made for a generally dull experience. I knew the premise of the book before reading it and surmised that for such an innovative idea there was probably a reason this book was not on the "Top 100 sci-fi books of the past decade". I was right. Great idea, but the latter half of the book could have been done much better. It was set up well but seemed to fall apart towards the end as what seemingly was intended as a short novel was spread too thin among too many characters possibly. Still, I enjoyed it.
olityr's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Feels like Upgrades by Blake Crouch or Understand by Ted Chiang but if the boost happened to everything with a brain, not just a few individuals. It's also very reminiscent of the Zones of Thought series.
orlion's review against another edition
4.0
Frankly, my review for this book would be mostly about how terrible I thought "Flowers for Algernon" was. So, let's have at it:
Flowers for Algernon was inane, wish-fulfillment garbage. It mostly taps into the presumed "outsider" feelings of its readership and is only tragic in that the nerd's fantasy did not last with the main character. The only real value was the technique where the writing changed style as the narrator grew in intelligence.
And how silly was that displayed! Somehow, a personality that was not adept to research or critical thinking was able to dive into it after being injected with magical science goo. And, furthermore, he was able to pursue and consummate a romantic relationship with a professional teacher who observed him as a drooling Neanderthal.
It was trite, it was tripe, it really did not have anything to say about the human psyche or how it would react to an increase of IQ.
Not so with Brain Wave. In Brain Wave, the increased ability to process and handle information is not this magical gift... it's a catalyst for an immense struggle for the soul of humanity. What happens when your brain functions on such a level that you recognize tedious work for what is? What happens when all your past achievements look childish? Where the greatest works of art humanity had produced in history no longer stimulate the intellect? Where the futility of your actions in the great empty universe are grasped subconsciously?
Brain Wave is about a world where every living organism has its IQ increased on Earth... the result is struggle against the fear that results, the chaos and societal collapse that engenders, and desperate effort to find purpose and meaning in one's existence when thousands of years of culture and experience are suddenly rendered mote.
Poetic at times, Brain Wave causes the reader to ponder what role intelligence plays in 'being human'.
And yes, there is, briefly, a monkey with a shotgun riding an elephant named Jumbo.
Flowers for Algernon was inane, wish-fulfillment garbage. It mostly taps into the presumed "outsider" feelings of its readership and is only tragic in that the nerd's fantasy did not last with the main character. The only real value was the technique where the writing changed style as the narrator grew in intelligence.
And how silly was that displayed! Somehow, a personality that was not adept to research or critical thinking was able to dive into it after being injected with magical science goo. And, furthermore, he was able to pursue and consummate a romantic relationship with a professional teacher who observed him as a drooling Neanderthal.
It was trite, it was tripe, it really did not have anything to say about the human psyche or how it would react to an increase of IQ.
Not so with Brain Wave. In Brain Wave, the increased ability to process and handle information is not this magical gift... it's a catalyst for an immense struggle for the soul of humanity. What happens when your brain functions on such a level that you recognize tedious work for what is? What happens when all your past achievements look childish? Where the greatest works of art humanity had produced in history no longer stimulate the intellect? Where the futility of your actions in the great empty universe are grasped subconsciously?
Brain Wave is about a world where every living organism has its IQ increased on Earth... the result is struggle against the fear that results, the chaos and societal collapse that engenders, and desperate effort to find purpose and meaning in one's existence when thousands of years of culture and experience are suddenly rendered mote.
Poetic at times, Brain Wave causes the reader to ponder what role intelligence plays in 'being human'.
And yes, there is, briefly, a monkey with a shotgun riding an elephant named Jumbo.
simplyjack's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0