The Forge of God

'''Bear, Greg. The Forge of God.''' 1987. New York: Doherty, n.d. "A TOR Book." [S. F.] Book Club Edition.

Part of the technophobe vs. technophile debate, using relatively technophobic motifs in ways that neutralize them or render them positive. Alludes directly to F. Saberhagen's berserkers (49), but the destruction of the Earth is accomplished mostly offstage and by devices more prosaic than berserkers. Descent into the enemy ship and possession very similar to that of R. A. Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (1951), with the "slugs" replaced by small, elegant, robot spiders; the descents in FoG accomplish nothing, though, and the robot spiders are part of a rescue mission. At novel's end, the robots who've rescued humankind are called "the Moms," but there's none of the irony one would find in J. Williamson. (See entries for Saberhagen and Williamson.)

RDE, Title, 7Aug19