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The Werewolf Principle

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I find it remarkable that Simak was writing about genetic engineering in 1967. He even nailed the fact that religious and social conservatives would be up in arms over the issue.

Set some five hundred years into the future, mankind has been exploring space for centuries. Yet, remarkably few of the new worlds that have been discovered are suitable for human life. In fact, only the terrible expensive and time-consuming process of terra forming can make more worlds livable for man.

However, genetic engineers have come up with a program to adapt man to fit an alien environment and not vice versa. Humans could be genetically altered to exist under hostile conditions of intolerable gravity, heat, cold, or toxic atmospheres. While they might not look strictly human in the traditional sense, inside they would still think and feel as any other human being might.

Reactionary elements, however, held that this would be unnatural and the results would not be human as much they would be abominations and monsters.

What neither side initially knew was that this experiment had been tried two centuries before- and abandoned. At that time an even more radical experiment had been attempted. Instead of adapting one strain of man to a single hostile environment, a synthetic man (an android) would be developed with an open-ended genetic structure that would be able to mimic the form, and the mind, of any alien life form. It was thought that this would be the perfect tool to infiltrate and study any alien culture. It was also thought that such an open-ended synthetic man could be reused on many different planets. What the bio-engineers didn't realize was that every time such a being took on the form of an alien he would also take on its mind- permanently. This meant that over time many different, individual, alien personalities would share the same brain- a sort of ultimate schizophrenic. Not only that, but these different alien personalities would be able to intercommunicate and cooperate. Plus, at any moment, they could take on their original form once again. That was why the original breakthrough had been termed the "Werewolf Principle."

Now, after 200 years of being frozen in deep space, the last surviving experimental "werewolf" has been found and returned to earth. Yet neither he, nor his rescuers know who or what he truly is. Not only that, but the two alien personalities melded with the original synthetic are a psychic wolf-thing that can even talk to the stars, and a chameleon-like biological computer of near infinite intellect.

The debate over genetic engineering is about to get very interesting....

Upon turning the final page of this powerful novel, 21st century readers of "The Werewolf Principle" will likely set the book down slack-jawed with amazement at Simak's thoughtful, prescient exploration of genetic engineering, a scientific field of endeavour that, unheard of a scant 40 years ago, now reaches front page headlines on a regular basis.

Space travel as technology is now several hundred years old. But, currently debate is raging in the Senate over a proposal for a program of bio-engineering as a basis for the colonization of other solar systems. Is it better to force the planet to fit the man through terra-forming or to bio-engineer the man and mold his abilities to withstand hostile alien environments? There are those that feel the results of such a modification would somehow be less than human or may even be perceived as a monster.

But neither side to this debate is aware of Andrew Blake. Two hundred years earlier, this problem had already been faced and resolved at that time by producing a synthetic human - an android with the imprint of a fully human mind that would be capable of absorbing the form and mind of any alien culture it might encounter. The mission that carried Blake to the stars had been lost and the Space Administration reached the decision to formally bury any reference to the project as a regrettable failure! Luck and happenstance have now returned Blake to earth into the middle of the current debate and the world is shocked to learn of the flaw in their 200 year old experiment - the "data" from the absorption of an alien mind could not be erased. Blake is now an amalgam of three wildly different alien personalities able to interact and communicate with each other but within a single body.

Under the circumstances, Blake, of course, becomes the lightning rod "poster child" for BOTH sides of the debate. Even Blake himself is puzzled and questions both his humanity and his place on earth.

"The Werewolf Principle" is a trademark Simak blend of soft and hard sci-fi, crafted in his low-key softly stated pastoral Midwest style that cannot fail to amaze any thinking reader. The ending of the novel not only contains a blind-side twist worthy of the finest thriller but is also warmly romantic and intelligently optimistic without being trite or gushy. With standards like this to live up to, it is a miracle that contemporary writers of science fiction can actually make a living!

Paul Weiss

A very characteristic book for Simak. This is not "easy reading", but it will reward those willing to think.

"Earth wanted to get rid of him, perhaps afraid of him, perhaps merely disgusted by him, a loathsome product of its own ambitions and imagination that must be quickly swept under the rug. For there was no place for him on the Earth or in humanity, and yet he was a human product and had been made possible by the nimble brains and the weasel understanding of Earth's scientist." from "The Werewolf Principle"

The "Werewolf Principle" is a thoughtful and entertaining science fiction novel. The time is 200 years from the present and mankind has achieved faster-that-light space travel, is exploring other star system and finding a verity of intelligent life forms. A derelict space capsule contained a man with no identity and no memory is discovered drifting through space.

The rescued man, Andrew Blake, as he in named, has a complicated past and some incredible unearthly talents. Approximately 200 years ago "Blake" was part of an experiment to create an artificial human that could not only travel to the distance reaches of the universe but could mentally assimilate alien intelligences. The project was called the "Werewolf Principle". Since neither of the two experimental explorers ever returned the project was buried and forgotten in the archives by the Space Agency. Blake has the ability to transform into one of two alien beings - an energy absorbing pyramid or a wolf like alien both companions are "intelligent". The plot revolves around Blake's quest to discover his true identity and destiny.

It should be no surprise to readers of Simak's novels that a high esteem for the natural world and a distain for metropolitan sprawl is a theme in this story. Another recognizable topic is the use of a rural-loving extraterrestrials - Brownies - as a agent for unenthusiastic observations on mankind's urbanization.

The "Werewolf Principle"[1987] is the third science fiction novel by Clifford D. Simak [1904-88] that uses a similar theme: that of mankind's achieving dramatic intellectual growth by merging mentally with an entity[s] from a distant solar system. The other two are "Time and Again" [1951] and "Time is the Simplest Thing" [1961].

There is a kind of rhythm to the dialogue in a Clifford D. Simak story. Lines of dialogue are frequently interrupted by forms of "he/she said" and then continued. Here is a sampling of dialogue from _The Werewolf Principle_ (1967) between the hero (on a fishing trip) and a Brownie:

[The creature's] snout twitched. "Would you, perhaps," it asked in its squeaking voice, "have food inside that basket?"

"Why, yes," said Blake. "I take it that you are hungry."

It was absurd, of course. In just a little while-- in another minute, if not less-- this illustration from a children's book would go away and he could get on with his fishing.

"I'm starving," said the illustration. "The people who usually set out food for me have gone on a vacation. I've been scrounging ever since. Have you, perhaps, sometime in your life, tried scrounging for food?"

"I don't think," said Blake, "that I ever have". (40)

Here is a similar pattern of dialogue between Blake and a talking Diner:

"How are you?" asked the Diner. The voice was that of a brassy, wise-cracking waitress. "What will it be this morning?"

Blake looked around, seeing no one, then realized the situation. Another robotic installation, like the flying houses.

He went across the floor and sat down on one of the stools.

"Cakes," he said, "and some bacon. And coffee."

He let the knapsack slip off his shoulder and lowered it to the floor beside the stool.

"Out early, aren't you?" asked the Diner. "Don't tell me you have walked all night."

"Not all night," said Blake. "Up early, that is all."

"Don't see many of you fellows anymore," the Diner said. "What is your racket, friend?"

"I do a little writing," said Blake. "At least, I try to do it." (109-110)

Of course, Simak is much too crafty a writer to use this pattern of dialogue all the time. He can be terse and snappy when he needs to be. There is even one chapter in the form of dialogue from a Senate hearing. But Simak uses that broken, rhythmic pattern of dialogue a lot in novel after novel, story after story. And he uses a similar style when dealing with mental thought patterns:

It could not stay here, it told itself. It could not wander endlessly. It must find a place to shelter.

...

The lights? it wondered. Should it investigate the lights or should it... (7)

The style in _Werewolf_, laced with phrases like "of course" and "perhaps," loans itself to a slow, easy pace and a sense of Simak's brotherhood of all creatures. The story is one of Simak's better novels. We have a hero rescued from suspended animation whom we can be _pretty_ damned well sure is more than he seems to be, a political battle in Washington over the use of genetic engineering to colonize the stars (opposed by fundamentalists and social conservatives), and a 200 year old project called the werewolf project that apparently went askew. There is also a future world of computerized homes, giant flying freighters, alien brownies, wandering scholars, and antigravity devices. Read this one for the basic story. But read this one for the style as well.

Humanity is again thinking about genetic engineering as a tool for the exploration of space, to look at malleable androids, or other forms that could interact easily with alien beings and environments.

This had been tried before, and failed, because melding with alien beings or minds allowed them partial or full control of the host, and they could change forms back at times - hence the Werewolf Principle.

There are few writers of sci-fi that even come close to the intimacy and emotional life that exists within the Werewolf Principle