Rating: 
Summary: From Genius to Madness
Review: This novel is not as chilling as its reputation suggests, but it is a pretty thought-provoking look into the nature of genius. Here, the standard evil government/corporate conspirators have created a drug that increases intelligence and is testing it on prisoners. However, the drug has been developed from a virus that causes venereal disease, and thus behaves in that fashion. So genius has become contagious and then leads to an awful death. In a rather refreshing way, Disch avoids dwelling too much on the doomsday scenario inherent in the story, and instead ruminates on the fine line between genius and madness, or between knowledge and death. This is especially true for the narrator Sacchetti, a writer who has been subjected to the drug testing and soon finds that genius isn't all it's cracked up to be. These are useful deep thoughts for the reader, except for some of Disch's methods of putting them across - especially through horrifically long-winded speeches by the characters, which are way beyond the scope of believable dialogue. This in turn makes some of the characters implausible in themselves, especially an unethical bureaucrat named Skilliman. There is also a little nastiness in Disch's writing style, especially toward the book's token female and black characters. However, there is a marvelous twist at the end of the story that saves human genius from such a cruel death, if not necessarily madness. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating: 
Summary: Concentrated Brilliance
Review: This novella is a burnished jewel of concentrated thought. Disch's hero is all too much like we are, and when he begins to experience the mind-expanding effects of his "therapy," we watch his shifting perceptions register the pleasures and horrors of the change. His dry commentary on the other experimental subjects is by turns empathetic and dispassionate-- but always grimly fascinating. Disch has created an SF framework for this cold meditation on mortality, but it transcends the genre. The plot satisfies-- but it's the precise writing and the brittle and cynical philosophizing behind it that make this special.
Rating:
Summary: Concentrated Brilliance
Review: This novella is a burnished jewel of concentrated thought. Disch's hero is all too much like we are, and when he begins to experience the mind-expanding effects of his "therapy," we watch his shifting perceptions register the pleasures and horrors of the change. His dry commentary on the other experimental subjects is by turns empathetic and dispassionate-- but always grimly fascinating. Disch has created an SF framework for this cold meditation on mortality, but it transcends the genre. The plot satisfies-- but it's the precise writing and the brittle and cynical philosophizing behind it that make this special.
Rating:
Summary: Concentrated Brilliance
Review: This novella is a burnished jewel of concentrated thought. Disch's hero is all too much like we are, and when he begins to experience the mind-expanding effects of his "therapy," we watch his shifting perceptions register the pleasures and horrors of the change. His dry commentary on the other experimental subjects is by turns empathetic and dispassionate-- but always grimly fascinating. Disch has created an SF framework for this cold meditation on mortality, but it transcends the genre. The plot satisfies-- but it's the precise writing and the brittle and cynical philosophizing behind it that make this special.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the concentration
Review: This seems to be a must-read in Arlington, VA this year. It's well worth the effort. Disch is the equal of any of the writers who are considered classics in SF, and this is probably his second best book. It is not an easy read, but that's half the point. (My perception here may be skewed by the fact that I read it at the same time as Dhalgren, which is barely English.) I found that the characters were completely believable and compelling. Although the language got abstruse, I was able to pick up most of the meaning from context. The stuff I couldn't get still made some sense, and added to an atmosphere that was strange, but not alienating.My only quibble is that I found the ending a bit contrived and out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the book, which cost it a star in my book. I would recommend it to everyone, especially to those readers who are tired of the crappy writing, bloat, and tired ideas that pervade contemporary SF.
Rating:
Summary: Sublime Fiction
Review: This work gives new meaning to SF: Sublime Fiction. This is the one-book-on-a-desert-island book. This is a masterpiece. I had trouble believing it was written by a mortal, and not a god. Keep a dictionary handy.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating premise, but a narrative that bogs down
Review: Thomas Disch has written an unusual and nightmarish tale of war, disease, and government skullduggery that makes for fascinating reading-- most of the way through. It is frightening but true that his premise that the government might secretly develop and test a disease organism that augments intelligence but then kills seems more credible today than it did when he wrote the story decades ago. However, as the story develops, Disch's narrative slips further and further into a succession of obscure literary, philosophical, and religious allusions that only those steeped deeply in arcane intellectual works will understand, let alone appreciate. There are lengthy passages that I found frustratingly obscure, and overall, I felt that in the last part of the novel the work loses its original sharp edge and intensity. Perhaps for the chosen few with the proper intellectual pedigree to connect with the veritable cavalcade of allusions, quotations, and metaphors, the work will seem far more meaningful. For the rest of us, it ends up being an interesting but in some ways unsatisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: An Intelligent Sci-Fi
Review: Tomas Disch did a wonderful job presenting this Sci-Fi! He not only did his homework on the subject which he wrote about, he presented the material in an intelligent and enlightening manner. To think that the future is not far away from the substance of this book, in which scientist could actually manufacture intelligence, is exciting as much as it is scary! A good read for those who can have their attention spans held with thought provoking paragraphs, yet in a fictional sense!
Rating: 
Summary: Camp Tedium: A Bore
Review: Tripe, its own self.
I've watched grass grow with more verve and enthusiasm. Disch is an author who was let in when the publishers opened the sci-fi floodgates in the mid-60s...and it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Being obscure is not being intelligent - on the contrary
Review: What is HIQ? How does it feel from the inside? Disch tries to tell us, by placing his protagonist in a situation where his IQ is enhanced artificially. But, IMHO Disch doesn't really succeed in showing what HIQ (= high IQ) feels like. There are scores of books describing the differences between HIQ persons and normal people. Here come some of the characteristics Kevin Kearney sums up in the book "Accidental Genius": having excessive amounts of energy, high sensitivity, extreme equity orientation, being bored easily, challenging authority, being extremely democratic oriented, being easily frustrated, extreme perfectionisme, they are intuitive and can predict what you're going to say before you say it. HIQ also has to do with being able to see connections easily, drawing conclusions from a few facts, clarity of thought. Disch's geniuses show almost none of these charactersitics. They would have reacted very different on their situation, if they had. When Disch wants to show his geniuses's thought patterns the protagonists are being thrown into mental states, that can be best compared to being high on drugs or drunk. Partly because of that, but also when the protagionists are described in a more normal state, the book contains a lot of talking and thinking that I couldn't follow without an encyclopedia, since my knowledge of Renascence philosophy is not very impressive. Disch seems to use (f.i.) the discussions of Saint Thomas as a way to make the reader feel that these geniuses can comprehend difficult things. But that's my point. Being a genius has very little to do with knowledge. And beside that: I didn't pick this book in order to be informed on Renascence. I wanted to read about intelligence. There are better ways to show what HIQ feels like from the inside, then using a wide beam of irrelevant, specialist, knowledge. Daniel Keyes for instance succeeds very well in showing the growth in clarity, the better deductions, the enhanced reasoning in his "Flowers for Algernon" And even if Renascence philosphy would have been the best way to descibe geniality, then it would have been not only common courtesy to let the readers in on some of the basic principles, it would have also made it easier to comprehend how very excellent (perhaps) the thought patterns of the protagonists on this subject really were. Now, without this, all these philosophical side dishes made the book hard work, and not great fun to read, in my opinion. So if you want to read a plausible story on what happens when someones IQ is enhanced suddenly, and what HIQ feels like, dont expect to much of this book.
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