The novel “The Green Brain” by Frank Herbert was published for the first time in 1966. It’s the expanded version of a novelette titled “Greenslaves” published in 1965 in the magazine “Amazing Stories”.
To try to remedy the overpopulation, nations such as China and Brazil are looking to expand their habitable areas in the jungle. Among the work needed there’s the total elimination of insects with actual weapons but that causes a series of unexpected consequences.
Joao Martinho and his team are supposed to clean up an area of Mato Grosso in Brazil but are hampered by insects that seem immune to elimination attempts. Giant insect sightings seem just nonsense or fraud but even the assistance of the Chinese scientist Chen-Lhu and entomologist Rhin Kelly bring no progress. The insects seem to be under the control of an intelligence but who or what can it be?
Frank Herbert was one of the first authors to write science fiction stories in which ecology was an important issue. “The Green Brain” is set in an overpopulated future in which the need to expand the habitable areas has not only led to the destruction of jungles and forests but also to the attempt to eliminate insects.
Ecosystems are complex and significant changes have consequences. Insects have their roles in their ecosystems so their elimination affects the way they work to reach a new balance or slide toward a collapse. In “The Green Brain” humans resort to new means to achieve a mass extermination of insects but that causes unexpected side effects.
In the Mato Grosso sightings of giant insects and other strange creatures begin and these strange mutants are just what humans see. Hidden in the jungle, an intelligence emerged that in the novel is simply called the Brain and part of the story is told from its point of view.
The Brain controls insects and through them tries to oppose the extermination attempts made by humans. At the same time, it tries to understand human mental processes such as their emotions and their greed. This creature is a kind of alien eye that forms a view of humanity not exactly positive observing their actions.
The human psychological element is also developed through the relationships among the protagonists, which tends to be confrontational because they all have different goals and motivations. Again there are typical themes of Frank Herbert’s works.
The big problem of “The Green Brain” is that the potential is not adequately developed. The comparison with other novels by Frank Herbert such as “Dune” but also others such as “Hellstrom’s Hive” to name a couple in which similar themes are developed, are definitely superior in their depth.
At times I had the impression I was reading a first draft of the novel in which the characters are still sketchy with various stereotypes and the author has initially focused on their relationships. Even the plot would need further development because the events have also various political implications but they’re told only in a superficial way.
“The Green Brain” is a very short novel, even by the standards of the ’60s, too short to properly develop its characters and themes. The consequence is that I was initially intrigued seeing some typical elements of Frank Herbert’s works and then disappointed discovering the limits in their development.
With another author, perhaps I would have been less critical but knowing Frank Herbert’s works I know what quality level they can have with the result that perhaps I see even more the flaws in “The Green Brain”. For this reason it seems to me a novel that may be of interest to the author’s fans who want to have all his books and to someone interested in its themes, even if their developement is not the best.
