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than Anderson's. Then I think it would have been one of the finest science fiction books of our time. As it is, in two hundred pages, the author carefully and ingeniously works out the probable effects of the "brain wave"the disruption of metropolitan life and its rescue by the new brilliant minds, the calamity in rural areas with the revolt of farm animals, the rising of the coloured peoples against the white oppressorsand scattered incidents all over the world. Then the rebuilding of a new civilization with its incredible science and new ways of speech communications, the building of the first star ship and its fantastic voyage, the subversive plot to synthesize the old order of dimmed thinking in a misguided (or was it?) attempt to avoid the unknown but possibly glorious future of unleashed mankind. A tender emotional ending, and a serene feeling of magic entertainment is the reward for the reader. Brain Wave is a convincing, humanly realistic example of the wonders of the science fiction novel at its literary and thought-provoking best.
Leslie Flood, [Review of Brain Wave], New Worlds No. 44 (February 1956): 127-28
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Michael King
If the term "space opera" didn't have almost universal connotations of "juvenile" and "comic strip" I'd have listed this novel (Star Ways) as such. Then I could have made the point that good space opera very definitely has its place among the many mansions of science fiction. However, I'd better not use the dread term, lest some readers assume that this novel of a far-flung futurewhere a Nomad society is caught between the outspread of integrated civilization and the encroachment of a totally different culture whose existence has been heretofore unsuspected by either-is Captain Future stuff. Star Ways isn't juvenile at all; it would have been a credit to any of the top science fiction magazines as a serial. In the intricate philosophy of the alien culture, Anderson approaches the excellence of S. Fowler Wright (. . .)
Michael King, [Review of Star Ways], Future Science Fiction No. 31 (Winter 1957-57): 101-2
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Damon Knight
The Enemy Stars, by Poul Anderson, is another recent book that gives me to hope, even if only marginally. The story,

 
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