The Godwhale presents a view of a far-future Earth in which almost all non-human life has been exterminated due to rampant overpopulation, and most human beings have been transformed into weak, docile, diminutive creatures via genetic engineering and extensive reliance on automation and artificial intelligence.

His child, Dim Dever, is selected by the guiding world computer, called Olga, to carry his ancient genes to a possible new colony on a planet orbiting Procyon.

Technology and science have degraded, and all freely breeding species have been exterminated except for the five-toed neolithic humans, which are classified as a garden varmint.

As Larry is trying to adapt to his new life, without most of his own body or his "cyber" torso, accompanied by Big Har, a genetic defect sent for destruction as an infant but managing to escape 'tweenwalls' in the shaft city- something re-awakens an ancient, half-derelict cyborg, the Godwhale of the title.

"[3] James Nicoll, conversely, called it "not a good novel", with "characters (who) are thin when they're not implausible", but nonetheless praised it as "a vivid attempt to imagine how a world with trillions of humans might work".