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tom_jonesman 's review for:
The Green Brain
by Frank Herbert
A fascinating idea, which has seemingly influenced a lot of sci-fi since e.g. Michael Crichton's "Prey", Octavia Butler's "Xenogenesis", Robert Rodriguez's movie "The Faculty". It is very much of its time though, in terms of contemporary ecological theory (It was published four years after Rachel Carson's seminal environmental science book "Silent Spring", which documented the negative effects of pesticide overuse) and in terms of societal attitudes to gender politics, marriage and religion, among others. A lot of the dialogue, as well as the rapid POV switching feels quite dated. All in all, though, in such a short novel there is an remarkably well-built world and some captivating action sequences. In one way, the very last line reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain", in its crescendo to a message contained in a single summing-up sentence of dialogue. A ripping yarn best read from age-yellowed pages.