Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Ballantine Books (New York, 1974). 1st edition, 1st printing. 281 pages. $1.25.
Description
A post-apocalyptic dystopian fable by the acclaimed author of HALF PAST HUMAN, with an introduction by Ken MacLeod Rorqual Maru was a cyborg - part organic whale, part mechanised ship - and part god. She was a harvester - a vast plankton rake, now without a crop, abandoned by earth society when the seas died. So she selected an island for her grave, hoping to keep her carcass visible for salvage. Although her long ear heard nothing, she believed that man still lived in his hive. If he should ever return to the sea, she wanted to serve. She longed for the thrill of a human's bare feet touching the skin of her deck. She missed the hearty hails, the sweat and the laughter. She needed mankind. But all humans were long gone ... or were they?
User reviews
LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
A mixed bag. High-concept SF with what could've been another 1970's overpopulation yarn. Despite the title, the Godwhale is just one gear in the plot machine. Far more inventive are the Hives (first described in Bass' Half-Past Human), underground multi-tiered masses of humanity recycling all
The novel is weak on plot structure and character development. New characters are introduced in every chapter till near the end, and all speak pretty much the same sophisticated medical talk. Major leaps in time occur frequently. Much happens and it all ties together in the end, but this is not an adventure but framework of events for presenting a range of interesting ideas.
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protein, no matter what source, and emitting noxious waste out to a (mostly) dead Earth. 19 is old age in the Hive. In small domes in the sea (almost mostly dead) live the Benthic humans, scavenging what they can from the Hive gardens. The ecology and everyday life of both environments is well-developed and engrossing, as well as out-grossing. The novel is weak on plot structure and character development. New characters are introduced in every chapter till near the end, and all speak pretty much the same sophisticated medical talk. Major leaps in time occur frequently. Much happens and it all ties together in the end, but this is not an adventure but framework of events for presenting a range of interesting ideas.
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reaction to reading this novel in 1998. Spoilers follow.
This book is allegedly, according to its back blurb, a sequel to the earlier written Half Past Human. In the dense prose, I really couldn’t get any clues as to internal chronology. As I recall, the oceans in Half Past Human were lifeless,
The plots of both books are roughly the same. Outsiders (here the Benthic dwellers who have adapted to living by and below the sea via knowledge and leftover technology – presumably from the days the Hive tried to settle in the seas – alluded to in the earlier novel) fight the Hive with the help of rebels and castoffs from ES. As in the earlier novel, an old space probe, K.A.R.L., shows up at the end – though as a derelict and not to save the day – the oceans are seeded early on. Both books even end by mentioning an equation.
ARNOLD grumbles that he’d rather be an accident of nature than a product of design. To be sure, the character types are not repeated. Larry Dever is a cyborg crippled in the days pre-ES who hopes to be cured when taken out of cryonic suspension. ES thaws him out – and then, in one of the several black humor episodes of the book, won’t fix him and demands he down “Euthanasia Liquor”. He refuses and takes up residence in the squalid “Tweenwall” society of ES. There he links up with Har, a reject from the “Embryolab” who was to be briefly used as therapy for a hebephrenic schizophrenic woman before being recycled as Protein. Intelligent mechs (it’s still unclear if their parts are really organic – the Hive is skilled at biological engineering – or just referred to with biological nomenclature) play a big part, particularly Rorqual Mara, titular cyborg of the title, last of a fleet of plankton harvesters back in the days when there was marine life for the Hive to harvest. There is Drum, who has his retirement cut short, and Chess Grandmother Ode, who looses an election (a diabolically clever egalitarian notion where, if at least five people don’t vote for you, you loose your ration of shelter and food). They work their way up from the sewers – literally – to become important players in the struggle between the Hive and Benthics. There is ARNOLD, engineered warrior who turns on the Hive.
Bass’ prose is dense. This novel has the breaks clearly marked so transitions between scenes are much clearer. The science of both robotics, cloning, genetic engineering, and medical details all strike me as plausible. (The “memory molecules” probably stem from the belief, in the early seventies, that RNA molecules encoded memory.) Bass’ prose doesn’t work as well for describing naval battles as it did describing the earlier novels descriptions of hunts for “garden pests”.
An enjoyable, hard sf novel that I liked a lot more than I thought I would.
This book is allegedly, according to its back blurb, a sequel to the earlier written Half Past Human. In the dense prose, I really couldn’t get any clues as to internal chronology. As I recall, the oceans in Half Past Human were lifeless,
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and the Procyon Implant reseeds them in this novel. There is also a reference to Dan, a dog with golden teeth, which could refer to the dog of Half Past Human. His leptoscul records (the least scientifically convincing aspect of the book) are said to be ancient. On the other hand, the buckeyes of Half Past Human are hardly mentioned. The plots of both books are roughly the same. Outsiders (here the Benthic dwellers who have adapted to living by and below the sea via knowledge and leftover technology – presumably from the days the Hive tried to settle in the seas – alluded to in the earlier novel) fight the Hive with the help of rebels and castoffs from ES. As in the earlier novel, an old space probe, K.A.R.L., shows up at the end – though as a derelict and not to save the day – the oceans are seeded early on. Both books even end by mentioning an equation.
ARNOLD grumbles that he’d rather be an accident of nature than a product of design. To be sure, the character types are not repeated. Larry Dever is a cyborg crippled in the days pre-ES who hopes to be cured when taken out of cryonic suspension. ES thaws him out – and then, in one of the several black humor episodes of the book, won’t fix him and demands he down “Euthanasia Liquor”. He refuses and takes up residence in the squalid “Tweenwall” society of ES. There he links up with Har, a reject from the “Embryolab” who was to be briefly used as therapy for a hebephrenic schizophrenic woman before being recycled as Protein. Intelligent mechs (it’s still unclear if their parts are really organic – the Hive is skilled at biological engineering – or just referred to with biological nomenclature) play a big part, particularly Rorqual Mara, titular cyborg of the title, last of a fleet of plankton harvesters back in the days when there was marine life for the Hive to harvest. There is Drum, who has his retirement cut short, and Chess Grandmother Ode, who looses an election (a diabolically clever egalitarian notion where, if at least five people don’t vote for you, you loose your ration of shelter and food). They work their way up from the sewers – literally – to become important players in the struggle between the Hive and Benthics. There is ARNOLD, engineered warrior who turns on the Hive.
Bass’ prose is dense. This novel has the breaks clearly marked so transitions between scenes are much clearer. The science of both robotics, cloning, genetic engineering, and medical details all strike me as plausible. (The “memory molecules” probably stem from the belief, in the early seventies, that RNA molecules encoded memory.) Bass’ prose doesn’t work as well for describing naval battles as it did describing the earlier novels descriptions of hunts for “garden pests”.
An enjoyable, hard sf novel that I liked a lot more than I thought I would.
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Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1974)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1974
Physical description
281 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
0345237129 / 9780345237125
Local notes
Bottom of front cover shredded.
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