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Brain Wave

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Overview

What if we're all designed to be smarter than we actually are. That is, in short, the premise of master science fiction novelist Poul Anderson s 1954 debut work, Brainwave. Unbeknownst to its inhabitants, the solar system has, for millions of years, been caught in a force field that has had the effect of suppressing intelligence. When, in the course of normal galactic movement the solar system finally breaks free of the force field and its inhibiting effects, a remarkable change begins to sweep across the earth.

In fact, the entire world is turned upside-down, and Anderson s novel is devoted to detailing the sometimes-surprising, sometimes-chilling aftereffects of this watershed event. In one of the novel s opening scenes, Archie Brock, a mentally disabled man, finds himself suddenly awash in new kinds of thoughts as he looks up at the night sky. In another scene, a young boy on summer break works out the basic foundations of calculus before breakfast. Human life is dramatically transformed, as people with IQ s of 400 find themselves living within social structures and institutions designed for people of considerably less intelligence. There are also those who refuse to accept what has happened and band together to rebel against the new order.

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Author Information

Bio of Poul Anderson

Acclaimed science fiction writer Poul Anderson was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania in 1926. After earning a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota, he moved to San Francisco where he lived for the rest of his life with his wife and writing partner Karen. Anderson was a prolific writer, with over 100 novels to his credit. His unique perspective was one informed by a deep understanding of science as well as an interest in Norse mythology. While he wrote fantasy novels, including The Broken Sword (1954), Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961) and A Midsummer Tempest (1974), his reputation rests primarily on the strength of his science fiction. His first SF novel was 1954's Brain Wave, and it is considered by many to be a classic of the genre. He often wrote series of novels, including the popular "Time Patrol" works, beginning with 1981's Guardians of Time. He also wrote novellas and many short stories over the course of his writing career. His works won numerous science fiction prizes including three Hugo and seven Nebula awards, but it is perhaps for his 1970 novel Tau Zero that he will be best remembered. A member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and winner of the Science Fiction Writers' Association's prestigious Grandmaster Award, Anderson continued to write engaging and masterful science fiction novels right up to his death in 2001. His last novel, Genesis, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel of the year 2000.

Customer Reviews

  • 3 stars out of 5Brain Wave by Poul Anderson

    Posted January 13, 2007 by mbgyulay, Milwaukee, WI

    Standard '50s sci-fi. Not riveting but certainly entertaining. It has that post-WWII optimism that the human race won't make the same mistakes or kill itself.

Additional Info

Imprint

Rosetta Books

Filesize

801.86 KB

Number of Pages

176

eBook ISBN

0795327439

Excerpt from: Brain Wave by Poul Anderson

Summer waned as the planet turned toward winter. On a warm evening late in September, Mandelbaum sat by the window with Rossman, exchanging a few low-voiced words. The room was unlit, full of night. Far below them the city of Manhattan glowed with spots of radiance, not the frantic flash and glare of earlier days but the lights of a million homes. Overhead, there was a dull blue wash of luminance across the sky, flickering and glimmering on the edge of visibility. The Empire State Building was crowned with a burning sphere like a small sun come to rest, and the wandering air held a faint tingle of ozone. The two men sat quietly, resting, smoking the tobacco which had again become minutely available, Mandelbaum's pipe and Rossman's cigarette like two ruddy eyes in the twilit room. They were waiting for death.

"Wife," said Rossman with a note of gentle reproach. It could be rendered as: (I still don't see why you wouldn't tell your wife of this, and be with her tonight. It may be the last night of your lives.)

"Work, city, time," and the immemorial shrug and the wistful tone: (We both have our work to do, she at the relief center and I here at the defense hub. We haven't told the city either, you and I and the few others who know. It's best not to do so, eh ) We couldn't have evacuated them, there would have been no place for them to go and the fact of our attempting it would've been a tip-off to the enemy, an invitation to send the rockets immediately. Either we can save the city or we can't; at the moment, there's nothing anyone can do but wait and see if the defense works. (I wouldn't worry my Liebchen -- she'd worry on my account and the kids' and grandchildren's. No, let it happen, one way or the other. Still I do wish we could be together now, Sarah and I, the whole family -- ) Mandelbaum tamped his pipe with a horny thumb.

(The Brookhaven men think the field will stop the blast and radiation), implied Rossman. We've had them working secretly for the past month or more, anticipating an attack. The cities we think will be assailed are guarded now -- we hope. (But it's problematic. I wish we didn't have to do it this way.)

"What other way" We knew, from our spies and deductions, that the Soviets have developed their intercontinental atomic rockets, and that they're desperate. Revolution at home, arms and aid being smuggled in to the insurgents from America. They'll make a last-ditch attempt to wipe us out, and we believe the attack is due tonight. But if it fails, they've shot their bolt. It must have taken all their remaining resources to design and build those rockets. "Let them exhaust themselves against us, while the rebels take over their country. Dictatorship is done for."