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From: mpm@hpfcla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Compare: D. Galouye & P. Anderson
Message-ID: <24000030@hpfcms.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 12:33:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hpfcms.24000030
Posted: Mon Feb 10 12:33:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 05:22:14 EST
Organization: 10 Feb 86 10:33:00 MST
Lines: 40


     In a response to "Request from an SF Dilettante" I wrote the follow-
ing:

>      An excellent book that seems little known of late is Daniel Galouye's
> "A Scourge of Screamers".  It offers a novel plot:  one based on the as-
> sumption that we are all functioning at a "low" level of mental ability
> because of a "field" that the Earth has been within for thousands of years.
> What happens when our solar system moves into "free space" and our neurons
> go crazy?

     One observant reader of "net.sf-lovers" (namely William J.  Richard
of Charles River Data Systems) responded with this:

>      Funny, this sounds exactly like the plot of "Brain Wave" by Poul
> Anderson. I haven't read the book you mention, though the title sounds
> familiar, so I guess there could be two books with essentialy the same
> plot or maybe one of us is confused.

     Indeed, both books have a similar plot.  I found myself more engaged by
Galouye's novel.  Both authors show the effects of "neural enhancement" on
ordinary people.  In each book there are cases of people who have grown ac-
customed to "ordinary" life - one with no demands, or risks - and find them-
selves thrust into supernormalcy.  To these people, greater intellectual
ability is a threat to their way of life, their very being.

     I think Galouye is the more effective of the two authors at portraying
this change in society and in individuals.  He subtly shows the psycholog-
ical effects on people - changes in personality, reactions to the events
that transpire - in a way that brought the story home to me.  To me it was
more of a "novel of what could come to pass" than was the story by Anderson
(which I did find entertaining).

     In "A Scourge of Screamers" I found a sense of horror-bordering-on-
fascination (or fascination-bordering-on-horror) like that found in some of
the best journalism.

	-- From Colorado:  land of high mountains
	   Mike McCarthy
	   {ihnp4, hplabs}!hpfcla!mpm