Customer Reviews

The brains of Earth

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fairly early Vance book, published in 1966. However it has a feeling of having been written in the same period as 'To live forever' ['56] and 'The languages of Pao' ['58] in being a darker world-view than 'The Blue World' ['65] and the demon princes series ['64-'81].

But hey - it is still Jack Vance, out of print and worth finding. Note - two titles - but the same book

Nopalgarth, or the Brains of Earth, will probably always evoke divided reactions because it is a basically comic story about something which people find terribly disturbing, namely, mind control. Although superficially seeming to be a realistic science fiction story, the plot and characterizations never quite fit in the genre and as reviewers reactions to other editions of this book show, it can appear to be slightly silly in that frame of reference. Nevertheless it is unforgettable once read which to me is the mark of a classic (albeit it is a minor one).

Like the other reviewer says, this story has an element of self-discovery... is a man's behavior and motivation truly his own, or is it swayed by something that is not truly him? The conclusion to the story is weak, but I gave it five stars for the fascinating beginning and premise. Not as outright entertaining as Vance's Dying Earth stories, but the philosophical/psychological investigation in Brains Of Earth is something I have not seen in any other Jack Vance stories. The story is also available as a Tor-double, I found it for about TWO BUCKS.

The book is probably an early work, with no bickering about hotel checks or bills, and the plot makes me think of scientology teachings, with parasitical entities attached to human minds.