Brain Wave

By: Poul Anderson

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's summary

For millions of years, the part of the galaxy containing our solar system has been moving through a vast force field that has been inhibiting certain electromagnetic and electrochemical processes and, thus, certain neurotic functions. When Earth escapes the inhibiting field, synapse speed immediately increases, causing a rise in intelligence, which results in a transfigured humanity reaching for the stars, leaving behind our earth to the less intelligent humans and animal life-forms.

This is a transcendent look at the possible effects of enhanced intelligence on our planet.

©1954 Poul Anderson (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A masterpiece.” (Larry Niven)

Good book.

I really enjoyed this book. My one outstanding question is what about the rats and mice. Already smart to start with they could become scary.

Another brilliant Poul Anderson classic

Although written decades ago, this is a remarkably fresh story with wonderful speculations about how the world would change if everything with a nervous system suddenly started getting a lot smarter. The idea shows up a few decades later, highly modified, in Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep, but there it plays out on a more galactic scale. In Anderson's version we get a more intimately human look at what our intelligence means to us. Well narrated too boot.

Decent enough sci-fi from it's lens of time

Pretty good sci-fi from it's time, but it's not particularly "timeless".

The story is interesting both from the sci-fi perspective and the retro/historical perspective, just go in knowing that everything is from that 1954 perspective. The politics, the science, the ideals, the relationships, and all of the expected -ism's are present, either directly, indirectly, or subtly.

Wonderful story!

This book started slow but grabbed my interest quickly. The author weaved the separate experiences into a nice web. The thoughtfulness of each character and chapter made me smile, grimace and cheer.

a good story

the story overall was good. some parts of the story seem to lean towards a specific sort of bias as to how people would react to a sudden increase in thinking capacity but I guess that's to be expected when reading, or in this case listening, to sci fi stories.

Flowers for Algernon and everyone else

Poul Anderson's Brain Wave is an engaging tale of Earth emerging into a region of space that now allows for neural circuitry to move faster with the result that not only humans, but all animals with 'brains' are now 5X smarter than before. The story recounts not only the scientific adjustments, but also the societal adaptations that take place, not all of which are positive. In particular, mundane physical and clerical occupations go unfilled creating issues with feeding and maintaining civilization. At the same time, a star faring expedition is mounted that finds Earth unique among galactic intelligent species ascribed to its unique evolutionary history of intelligence forming with the 'brakes on'. Some people can't adapt and find ways to go back to their normal.

Anderson asks a simple questions and explores what on the surface sounds like a wonderful situation, but then goes on to detail all the possible problems. At the same time, he distinguishes intelligence from wisdom as smarter people are not always best for implementing solutions. One criticism is that he doesn't separate intelligence from knowledge. When the spacecraft reaches the field barrier and the neural slowdown ensues, the astronauts become forgetful as well as slow-witted, but they were brilliant scientists before and they revert to far below their former potential by forgetting what they have already learned.

The narration is well done with decent character distinction, especially with a host of accents. Pacing is brisk, making for a quick listen.

Very interesting

Story. A kind of reversed apocalypse. It could of course be more detailed and less jumps in the evolution, but I really liked the thought experiment of what would happen if suddenly everyone got supersmart and how that didn't make personality change...

Recommended!

Wonderful

Written very well. Narrated masterfully. You will enjoy it. I first read it as a teenager many years ago and I still found it enthralling.

I love this story!

the performance is very well done. the reader does a pretty good job at mimicking some of the other voices that are not his own. I thoroughly love the story. I have loved the story for a very long time. and I like the fact that only one thing changes, the loss of inhibition on the efficiency of the neuron, and it Ripples and causes all sorts of things to happen. I think this is a very good example of what good science fiction should be.

Brain Wave (1954) is a mediocre story, hindered by mediocre voice acting.

I started to listen to Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave with an open mind since I have positive memories reading a lot of science fiction from that era. The book was published in 1954 and I do not think it aged very well when you also consider how the voice actor has treated it. It is often preachy as well.

The story does not specify in what alternate future year it is taking place but when you read it, in this case listen on Audible, you get a distinct feel that it is set in the 1950s. There are many outdated cultural elements and mannerisms characters display which make it a kind of jarring experience to listen to it.

For example the few women characters in the story sound weak and timid. And the way the narrator has chosen to voice act their voices sounds like an intentional mockery of what in voice actor’s opinion they should sound like. The same problem occurs when other characters are given voices. There is one character who is describes as a Jewish man from New York, and another is a mentally undeveloped man from a farm. When their voices are acted it just sounds ridiculous and unbelievable. Essentially they sound like cartoon characters. When the voice actor does the main narrator voice the voice is excellent, so these “in character” portions come up it interrupts any enjoyments that could be derived from the book.

As far as fictional science in the book I don’t think the idea is scientific enough to be believable. Without spoiling anything, the people and animals are becoming rapidly “more intelligent” because of the shifting force/magnetic fields in space. It’s not explained convincingly how this at all could be possible, even as science fiction.

I just thoroughly didn’t like it.