review of
Fredrik Pohl & C.M.Kornbluth's Wolfbane
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 18, 2012

I doubt that I'll say much, if anything, about this bk that hasn't already been sd. This is the 5th collaborative bk by Pohl & Kornbluth that I've read so far & my least favorite of them - wch isn't to say that I didn't like it. In a way, it was refreshingly different from the others b/c it was a bit less social commentary & a bit more space opera. At least they're capable of variety.

SF is full of dystopic projections of futures in wch machines dominate humanity. This is just such a thing. Its prescience lays, perhaps, in how close it is to the (IMO deservedly) popular The Matrix movie - given that it was 1st published in 1957. Terminator also comes to mind.

Despite, or b/c of my heavy reliance on & use of technology, I think The Matrix was spot-on indeed in its representations of humanity as batteries for machinery. Today's technology requires such an intense interdependency that I find more & more people being technicians just as a result of their normal daily lives. Is this necessarily 'good'? I think not. A mechanistic mindset is created as a direct or side effect. Whatever. Arguments can be made in many directions. W/ my back to the wall, I'd pick psychic over technic. I'd rather not have my back to the wall.

Wolfbane is different from The Matrix, tho, insofar as potentials are detected in the technological override of humanity being usurped in turn by humanity's override of technology - meaning that one isn't inevitably enslaved by the most advanced technology. As long as humanity stays on top there's much to be gained. Wolfbane initially revolves around 2 types of humans: "sheep", those who accept & demure, vs "wolves", those who resist. Eventually, tho, this duality is called into question. Nonetheless, in the end, the message seems to be on the side of the wolves. ( )

This repulsively occluded crystal of a book is not about werewolves of the transform into canine sort, but about human wolves who are a bane almost 300 years into a future earth rent from the solar system on which humans have devolved not into savagery but into an ultra-civilized society the formalities of which would make Genjii's court look like yahoos. The climax is near perfect, the ending a disagreeable muddle. ( )

Where do I start? I miss this kind of book. 180 pages! And it could have been shorter but for the tech talk. These old SF masters, they loved their tech talk. Wolfbane was a little trip down educational memory lane, with its long sections on chemical and electrical engineering, and materials technology.

I don't miss this kind of book. The characterisation is a smear, little painted dolls and yet the men still manage to be about twenty times as richly drawn as the women, all wives, and mostly by the time the book gets into serious action, brood mares for the reinvigorated human race.

These old guys, did they truly not know how to draw a character or was it the style? The plot is way cool, though. A planet has kidnapped earth, constrained in a binary system with the moon, artificially burning, as the only source of light and heat for both planets. Now they're travelling through space and all but a few humans have given up, living constrained by ritual and malnutrition.

In the movie I cast in my heart, Glenn Tropile, a man rebelling against the strictures of his buttoned down society, is played by Paul Newman, Gala Tropile by Geena Davis (it's a dream team, Philip Jose Farmer-style!), and Haendl by Gene Hackman (if you've read the book, you know this is perfect), the Germyns by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (casting against type - it's my genius), and Alla Narova by Sophia Loren because I can.

By skipping page 130 completely you can avoid the book's most disgusting racist paragraphs and not miss any of the plot.
( )

This one is timeless. The Earth has been snatched by an alien intelligence which uses men as computational units. It opens many windows on the possible strangeness that waits in the darkness. ( )

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