Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligence enhancement: gift & curse., October 22, 2004
I've read this novel when I was a teenager in the mythical Argentinean sci-fi magazine "Más Allá". It was published in the last two volumes edited. I've treasured my collection for more than 40 years. Time and again I reread the most outstanding novels and short stories kept there as in a time shell.
"Brain Wave" is one of the best novels written by Poul Anderson.
The argument is great: suddenly all sentient beings start to change. Everybody is more intelligent each day. Cattle start to avoid slaughter. Horses refuse to be saddled. Brock, a moron peasant, start to have lucid insights and want to read.
The rest of humankind tries to cope with emotional disturbance, weird dreams, creativity shocks, religious surges and many more strange "symptoms".
Anderson analyzes this impossible situation and shows the reader a kaleidoscopic maddening universe. Little by little things began to fall in place and a new civilization emerges from chaos.
The follow up of the story is done by some key characters ranging from the retarded Brock, thru the ordinary housewife distressed by the new unsolicited abilities till her scientific husband and his neighbors.
The novel has an optimistic conclusion as was styled in the blessed `50s sci-fi.
Take a romp thru it, you won't be disappointed!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An IQ of 400+ for everybody in the world, December 29, 2000
What if - - - . What if earth, after millennia, leaves a part of space in which an unknown phenomena has (up untill then) dampened the IQ of the earthlings? What if everyone's IQ suddenly jumps up with 400%? Morons become "normal", pigs get smart and the great masses of normal people become geniuses over night, all bilions of them. Are they glad, can they cope with it, and what does it do to society? Poul Anderson explored these questions in 1954, in a book that is still fresh today. He succeeds very well in describing the changes in thinking and feeling patterns in people that evolve from normal to incredible high IQ. A good and interesting read, that is highly probable, once you have accepted the premisse. It'll set your mind in motion.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Optimistic, old-school hard SF, September 17, 2004
The Earth moves out of some kind of force field, and suddenly, all electromagnetic and -chemical processes; not only do intruments go out of wack, everyone and everything with a brain triples in intelligence. For some individuals, this is liberating, albeit terrifying; some crack under the strain of such a jump. The human race as a whole, indeed, finds itself wondering what wo do with itself. This is a pretty good piece of speculative fiction, the idea taken to the limit. There are great bits, like intelligent chimps rising elephants and teming with African tribes; the story of Brock, the one-time moron, is particularly resonant. Overall, it's certainly a supremely optimistic view. As one character in the book notes, just because people are smart doesn't stop them from doing stupid things like speeding or smoking; nor does intelligence always erase prejudice. Yet Anderson envisions a human race that, due solely to higher intelligence, (after a lengthy period of great strife) transcends war, patriotism, and borders - indeed, seems at the end to have formed into some unified collective mind. I'm not so sure that all this necessarily follows from increased intelligence, even such an exponential leap in brain activity; but I see that Anderson is actually painting humans as the wise celestial visitors that most SF authors depict alien beings as. It's sort of a nice touch. Recommended.
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