Supermind
Review by Eric Grivel, May 23, 2001.
Information
| Title: | Supermind |
| Author: | Vogt, A. E. van |
| Year: | 1977 |
| Published: | 1977 by Daw Books, New York (paperback edition) |
| ISBN: | - |
The Story
This is the story of the development of a "supermind" with an IQ of 10,000. IQ values are defined so that the average human has an IQ of 100; most people would fall between 75 and 125. In this story, there are a multiple of humanoid alien races which differ by their intelligence levels.
One of these races is the Dreegh, vampires who, with an average IQ of 400, stand very low on the galactic scale, but are nevertheless far superior to humans. These vampires not only such blood, but also "life" out of their victims, which allows them to live forever.
Two Dreegh, Jeel and Merla, discover the Earth and manage to land on it. They know the Earth is watched by other galactic races, which want to quarantaine it until humans have developed far enough. This brings the vampires to the idea that, if they can take out the watch station, Earth could provide a hughe supply of blood and "life" for their race.
Through a reporter, William Leigh, they discover that the watch station is on a meteorite inhabited by two aliens who masquarade as Professor Ungarn and his daughter Patricia. By using Leigh as a decoy, they discover the actual location of the meteorite and are able to capture it.
At this point, the story becomes confusing. There are a few more sub plots, which I will not reveal here. In the end William Leigh's mind merges with those of the spaceman Hanardy and Barbara Ellington, the subject of an illegal experiment back on Earth to accelerate evolution, creating the "supermind". Then the story ends.
Evaluation
Confusing... I guess I would have to read the book two or three times to keep the different sub-plots apart and understand them properly.
However, I did not particularly like this book. Apart from the confusion, the story contains too many wild assumptions. If the assumption of humanoid aliens is already far-fetched, the idea of high intelligence and what it would look like seems pretty strange, and the concept of accelerating evolutions is simply ludicrous.
Disclaimer
This is a personal review, expressing my personal opinion. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me by by Email at [email protected].
This book seems to be out-of-print.