The Werewolf Principle
Ratings6
Average rating3.1
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.1
His body hosting a pair of strange alien presences, an amnesiac space traveler returns home to an unrecognizable Earth Many centuries in the future, a two-hundred-year-old man is discovered hibernating in a space capsule orbiting a distant star. Transported back to his home planet, Andrew Blake awakens to an Earth he does not recognize—a world of flying cars and sentient floating houses—with no memory whatsoever of his history or purpose. But he has not returned alone. The last survivor of a radical experiment abandoned more than a century earlier, Blake was genetically altered to be able to adapt to extreme alien environments, and now he can sense other presences inhabiting his mind and body. One is a biological computer of astonishing power; the other is a powerful creature akin to a large wolf. And Blake is definitely not the one in control. With his sanity hanging in the balance, Blake’s only option is to set out in frantic pursuit of his past, the truth, his destiny—and quite possibly the fate of humankind. A bravura demonstration of unparalleled imagination, intelligence, and heart, The Werewolf Principle addresses weighty issues of genetic manipulation that are as relevant today as when the novel first appeared in print. One of the all-time best and brightest in speculative fiction, Grand Master Clifford D. Simak offers a moving, stunning, witty, and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is basically an inferior reworking of Simak's earlier novel [b:Time Is the Simplest Thing 1269436 Time Is the Simplest Thing Clifford D. Simak https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1263950437l/1269436.SY75.jpg 1426997]: both are about a man who has the mind of an alien creature from a distant world inside his own. The earlier book is one of my favourites; it's more powerful, more eventful, and more convincing.This one has flashes of life, and I like it well enough to have reread it repeatedly over the years, but the story is rather weak and the ending is contrived and implausible. It's still Simak, but not Simak at his best.The hero is somewhat similar to earlier Simak heroes, but weaker: he thinks and talks, he reacts to his environment when necessary, but he doesn't do very much.This book is acceptable if you've already read Simak's better books and want more; but it's not the main course.
