Dune - Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert is one of those books that are impossible to review. It is a monument in the genre, described as the novel that is to science fiction what The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy. It won a Hugo Award and appears on every list of must read science fiction. The book spawned five sequels by Herbert himself and a whole (mostly to be avoided) shelf of books by his son in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson. There is a movie and a mini-series and a second attempt at a movie in the works. The book has been read by just about everybody with an interest in science fiction and there must be thousands of reviews out there. Everything I could possibly say about this book has been said several times already, and probably more eloquent than I could manage. So what can I possibly add to that?

Not a whole lot I've decided. So there won't be a review this week. I will say that it is the first time I read this book in English and the Dutch translation is quite good. I'm not quite sure of how many times I've read it in total. Four or five times at least. I think it is a novel that deserves its status as a landmark in the genre. For all its flaws, and it does have a few, it is a defining book in the new age era of science fiction. But then, I don't have to tell you that. You'll likely have read it already. If not, then you really ought to. Preferably before that movie they are planning hits the theatres. If you insist on reading a review however, go read the one Lana wrote a while back.

I'll be back in a few days to close the year at Random Comments.

The Dosadi Experiment - Frank Herbert

The Dosadi Experiment is part of a series on Saboteur Extraordinary Jorj X. McKie consisting of two pieces of short fiction, A Matter of Traces (1958) and The Tactful Saboteur (1964) and two novels. The first novel is Whipping Star, which appeared in 1970. It was followed seven years later by this book. The books and stories can be read independently - in fact, that is what I did first time around - but, I after reading the novels in the proper order I have to say you get a bit more out of them that way. The Dosadi Experiment is a very dense piece of writing, revelations and insights follow each other in rapid succession. With the background on the species and the universe provided in Whipping Star it is a bit easier to read. Personally I think it is one of the best Herbert has written. It features many of the themes that are common in his work. The quality of the writing however, and this too is common in Herbert's oeuvre, leaves something to be desired at some points. For some readers, it can make this work impenetrable.

Many generations ago a number of powerful individuals among the Gowachin, one of the species that makes up the ConSentiency, started a  secret experiment. On the planet Dosadi they imprisoned a group of  humans and Gowachin and thus exposing them to highly toxic and hostile conditions on the planet. To prevent their escape a veil across the sky was put in  place, known by the Dosadi as the God Wall. While the Gowachin looked on a society developed, packed into the one city on the planet where a  relatively toxic free environment could be created. Even with the staggering population density this city maintains, there is only a place for so many. A great many more humans and Gowachin eke out a short  living outside the city, a place referred  to as the Rim. Now, the bureau of sabotage has caught wind of this experiment that goes against many of the laws of the ConSentiency. It will cause acute embarrassment to the Gowachin, a species that value the law above all else. BuSab's top agent Jorj X. McKie is sent in to find out why this experiment had to remain secret and what the Gowachin hoped to gain with it.

As I mentioned before, Herbert uses a number of themes in this novel that readers of his other works will recognize. In the early stages of the novel in particular, human survival and our evolution as a species is being discussed. Dosadi is like Salusa Secundus or Dune, a place to harden the human species, a place where the environment demands both physical and psychological adaptations in order to survive. We see a number of these survival tactics in The Dosadi Experiment too. It is one of those adaptations that make the Dosadi an acute danger to the ConSentiency. Their struggle for survival is so intense that they see everything in terms of how it will impact their position, their chances of survival. In fact, when asked what drives the Dosadi: McKie answers: "the power to change your condition." When everything is treated as a threat to, or an opportunity to improve upon, your condition, people become very transparent indeed. Dosadi has peeled away all the games, all the veils that hide such motivations in societies where survival is not an issue. Where others are constantly confused by such misdirection, the Dosadi see what lies underneath.

Unfortunately this way of thinking has a drawback. Most of the characters from Dosadi are pretty much interchangeable. They all think alike and while their station in society may differ, their driving forces are the same. That sameness takes something away from sheer Machiavellian power struggle that unfolds on the planet. The key players are not really that interesting as characters, in fact, they are bordering on being sociopaths most of the time. Herbert is playing this game on a higher level and does not invest in them too much.

One of these levels Herbert is interested in is the intersection between power, politics, economics and religion. Like the Bene Gesserit in Dune, the Gowachin that designed the experiment put in place certain religious restrictions to keep the experiment moving in the direction they desired. This use of religion is more of a sidenote in the story though. Herbert has more to say on leadership, power and justice in this book. One quote that remains frightfully relevant in these times of economic stagnation states:

Does a population have informed consent when a population is not taught the inner workings of its monetary system, and then is drawn, all  unknowing, into economic adventures?

I guess many business moguls, bankers and politicians wouldn't like to consider this question in detail at the moment. While this question seems to challenge the current western economic system, Herbert doesn't assume the alternative to be much better. Keep in mind this novel was published in 1977, cold war thinking was still very relevant at the time. The fall of the communist economic block was still some years in the future.

Communal/managed economics have always been more destructive of their societies than those driven by greed. This is what the Dosadi says: Greed sets its own limits, is self-regulating.

Herbert constantly challenges and questions the use of power in politics and economics. He poses uncomfortable questions about what drives our own society and how the way it functions impact the individual. With all these thoughts in the back of his head, Herbert then moves on to another central concept in this novel: justice.

This is where the novel gets really alien. McKie is not only and agent of BuSab, he is also an expert in Gowachin law. In fact, his is one of the few non-Gowachin ever to be raised to the bar. Gowachin law is a very different beast from law that is being practiced in our society. Herbert of course draws contrasts with the American (and by extension Anglo-Saxon) system, but it will work for places where current law is based on other legal traditions too. Gowachin court cases are potentially lethal to all participants. Keeping this in mind, it is not surprising that one of the tenets of practicing law on their home planet is that litigation is to be avoided at all cost. One of the snippets of text Herbert uses as an introduction to a new chapter puts it like this:

No legal system can maintain justice unless every participant -  magisters, prosecutors, Legums, defendants, witnesses, all - risks life itself in whatever dispute comes before the bar. Everything must be risked in the Courtarena. If any element remains outside the contest and without personal risk, justice inevitably fails.

One may question if this is true of course, but it certainly cuts back on frivolous lawsuits. It also puts tremendous pressure on the few cases that do end up in the courtarena. Litigation among the Gowachin can easily turn into a bloody spectacle.

Herbert uses all these ideas he puts in the novel to create an extreme and very dramatic scenario of course. He does do so in a way that can be seen as commentary on many things that go on in our society. The questions Herbert asks about the use of power, economic systems and justice are, and as far as I can tell will be for some time to come, dreadfully relevant. Thematically Herbert condensed many of the ideas that he had been writing about in the previous two decades into one novel. In a way that is quite an achievement but the result will feel too dense for comfortable reading to many people. I've read this novel twice before the read I did for this review, and I still found quite a lot of links to his other works I had missed. So many in fact that I fear that if I read it again in a few years time, I'll see even more.

My opinion that The Dosadi Experiment is Herbert's best non-Dune book has remained unchanged. It is a novel that summarizes many of the themes that can be found in his works but also highlights some of the problems with his writing. The lack of character development, the constantly changing viewpoints and the cognitive leaps that characterize the novel keep it from being a great work. Herbert's grasp of the ideas he wants to discuss is unrivaled in science fiction but the way he translates them to the plot is less so. Personally, I can live with Herbert's shortcomings as a writer though. I wouldn't recommend anybody new to Herbert to start here, but if you like his style this is certainly a novel you'll not want to miss.

Book Details
Title: The Dosadi Experiment
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 310
Year: 2002
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0-765-34253-7
First published: 1977

Lana Reviews: Dune - Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert was the sixth book I read for my reading challenge, and will be the third book that I review. I chose to read it because, although I did not know anything about Dune or its universe beforehand, I did know that it has been an important book for both science fiction and the fantasy genre. (Plus I hoped it would help me understand the Dune-related spice jokes that sometimes pop up on my Facebook feed.) When first picking it up, however, I got a bit worried as the first thing it tells me on its front cover is that the only thing Arthur C. Clarke knows that is comparable to it, is The Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, - I quite enjoyed The Lord of the Rings, at least on my reread, but I always felt it was a relatively difficult read so thanks to this Clarke fellow I kind of expected Dune to be the same. It wasn't.

Young Paul Atreides is a member of a noble family who has just been offered the stewardship of the planet Arrakis - also known as Dune. As part of an interstellar feudal society where all noble houses owe their allegiance to the Padishah Emperor, his father, the Duke, has little choice but to accept the offer, fully aware that it is little more than a trap he and his family is walking into. Arriving at Arrakis, they find a desert planet where every drop of water is worth a fortune. But what makes the planet so valuable to the rest of the Galactic Empire, is that it is the only source of melange, the 'spice of spices.'

When the story begins, Paul is 15 years old and described as small for his age. Those who meet him first think of him as a child, only to discover as they interact with him, that he thinks, speaks and acts like a grown man. From his mother, Lady Jessica, he has received Bene Gesserit training giving him, among other things, heightened senses and knowledge of martial arts. He has also received training in how to use weapons from some of his father's trusted men, and in being a mentat - a human computer. When his family is betrayed on Dune, he and Jessica escape into the desert where they find shelter with the Freemen, the extremely hardy inhabitants of the planet. Being thought dead, the House of Atreides believed to be nothing more than a memory, gives Paul the opportunity to gather his forces and resources, and take back what is rightfully his.

For anyone familiar with the monomyth, (or the hero's journey,) it is quite obvious from the very first few pages of the book that the young boy Paul Atreides has a great destiny ahead of him. Even those unfamiliar with the above pattern are unlikely to miss Paul's own feelings of having a terrible purpose, feelings he has even before he receives the visions revealing what exactly that purpose will be. Like with most heroes written in this way, he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter, but rather has unfortunate circumstances forced upon him, changing his life from the normal to the unknown. Some heroes will survive the unknown thanks to powers they suddenly acquire at this point; Paul survives because of the years of training he has received when things could still be considered normal. For those that are familiar with the pattern of the hero's journey, Paul's story will most likely be extremely predictable, - I guess that would be true even for those who have simply read similar stories based on the same pattern, without knowing that there is such a pattern. It is okay though, it was how the author meant for it to be.

The future interstellar feudal society of Dune does not seem to have come very far when it comes to gender roles. The galaxy is, based on what we are told in this book, dominated by the male gender, and even the exclusively female Bene Gesserit, a religious group, want nothing more than to bring about a male Bene Gesserit among them; it has been their goal for thousands of years. The women that do not have any special powers, are hardly ever seen or mentioned, and seem to stick to the traditional female duties and roles in society. Those that have special powers, like the Bene Gesserit, are feared and hated, and often referred to as witches. In addition, it seems their powers are only meant to be used to serve the men around them. This is not really criticism though, more of an observation.

As I was reading Dune, I sometimes wondered what kind of reception it would have gotten had it been written and published now, and not back in 1965. How would the world today have reacted to a book where the hero adapts into a society of fighters that have Arab-sounding names, Arabic and Islamic terms in their language, and won't hesitate to spend their own lives if it means taking out their enemies along the way? And what about the immoral and corrupt enemy who will do anything to get their hands on the one valuable thing on the desert-planet that these fighters inhabit; the substance that makes space-travel/transportation possible? In a way, I wish I had read Dune when I was in my early or middle teens, so that my reading experience would not have been colored by what has happened in the real world in the last 15 years. I do not think it made me enjoy the story any less, but it did add thoughts and feelings to it that I do not think Herbert had ever intended.

I really liked Dune. For a science fiction story, it resembles my favorite genre (fantasy) a lot more than I thought it would. Keeping most of the focus on the story and the characters made it more enjoyable and available for me than science fiction that focuses more on science or technology. I also felt that it is an easier read than many other books because of the language itself. Sure, Herbert uses a lot of words that is not actually English, but there is a glossary in the back for that, and the rest of the story flows nicely enough. I would definitely recommend this, both for science fiction and fantasy fans.

Book Details
Title: Dune
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 609
Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-575-08150-5
First published: 1965

The Ascension Factor - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

The Ascension Factor (1988) is the third book Herbert wrote in collaboration with Bill Ransom and the fourth in the setting introduced in his novel Destination: Void (1966). It's a series plagued with problems and tragedy. The first novel, The Jesus Incident (1979), had to be extensively rewritten at the last moment after a copyright issue threatened to block its publication. The second novel, The Lazarus Effect (1983), was written during a time of rapidly declining health of Herbert's second wife Beverly. She died less than a year after its publication. Herbert himself did not live to see the publication of the third novel. He died in February 1986, with much of the actual writing of the novel still to be done. Although Herbert and Ransom had agreed on the plot and character development, much of the novel is his work rather than Herbert's. It is clear however, that thematically at least, Herbert had a large influence on this novel.

Twenty-five years after the events described in The Lazarus Effect, Chaplain-Psychiatrist Raja Flattery, to the Pandorans known as the Director, rules the planet with an iron fist. Ecological and geological upheaval continue to wrack the planet and Flattery sees no other course to save humanity than to flee this planet and its dangerous alien intelligence. To do this he has geared the entire planet's economy towards outfitting and supplying a new Voidship. Famine is rampant and Flattery uses it to control the population. The increasing brutality of his rule has made him enemies however. A mysterious organization called Shadowbox is a menace and the kelp, always on the brink of once again becoming sentient, is an ever present threat. It is only a matter of time before he faces a full scale revolt.

This novel is one large attempt at dynamic equilibrium, a concept Herbert uses in many novels. It is most clearly expressed in the ecology of Pandora which plays a very large role in this n novel. Again the connection between the kelp, the ocean, weather and currents are explored. Flattery is aware of the kelp's importance to the planet. He sees it as a treat, trained as he is to act on signs of non-human intelligence. He doesn't dare to kill it off again though. He will not repeat the mistake Jesus Lewis made in The Jesus Incident and cause another ecological catastrophe. As a result he is forced to try and maintain a balance between regulating the kelp and stunting its growth to a level short of gaining self awareness. The margin for error is minimal but Flattery only has to hang on for so long, his escape vehicle is nearing completion after all.

Population pressure is a second example of a dynamic equilibrium. Pandora could comfortably feed its human population and Flattery knows it. To do so, would mean taking away resources from the huge project of building the Voidship however. The construction would become a multi-generational project and given the planet's instability, he feels he cannot afford to spend that much time on it. So hunger is used to keep the population in line and the workforce eager for the privileges their jobs provide. There is even a reference to Malthus in the book. Quite a lot of old earth's history, religion and science has survived it seems. Although the book doesn't really stress the point, it is the connection between economy and ecology that I really liked about it. The Director sees them as one problem to be managed rather than ignoring the ecological impact of economical activity. It's something a lot of science fiction fails to do unfortunately.

Flattery's approach is coldly brutal and relies on absolute control of the economy and communications. And that last bit is what gets him in trouble eventually. Keeping people ignorant is part of his strategy. He controls the media and transport and doesn't allow anyone else to set up their own networks. Keeping people ignorant of what is going on elsewhere keeps rebellions small and manageable. It is here that Flattery makes his mistake. Isolation cannot be maintained. Everything is connected after all, and the kelp is the connected factor.

The novel contains many themes found throughout Herbert's entire oeuvre. In that sense the novel doesn't stand out. The writing is noticeably different however. It took me a while to pin down the difference but I think it comes down to Ransom explaining too much. Herbert always relied on the reader to make the connections. In fact, some people felt he relied on them too much. Some of his leaps were hard to follow since Herbert liked to juggle multiple, often abstract notions in a single novel. This novel is not nearly as ambiguous as some of Herbert's best ones. It doesn't make the reader work as hard.

For me, that took a lot away from this book. Characterization has never been the strength of this series and to be honest, most of the main characters in this book are either two dimensional, uninteresting or plain don't make sense. Avata's new human form Crista Galli is particularly problematic. For someone who all parties in the conflict consider of key importance, she is remarkably passive in the novel. Or maybe it's the unconvincing and somewhat rambling conclusion of the novel that doesn't do her any favours. Bad guy Flattery is probably the most interesting of the lot since we've seen a totally different version of him in the earlier books.

Given the obstacles life threw in Herbert's direction during the writing of the series, it shouldn't come as a surprise that it is not his a highlight in his oeuvre. They are perfectly readable in a way but The Jesus Incident is unpolished, The Lazarus Effect uninspired and The Ascension Factor unconvincing. In a way, I can still enjoy the ideas Herbert and Ransom put in this novel. They are genuine Herbert in most places and I can see how they fit in the larger body of his work, but the story itself is just weak and not very well executed. It's not the kind of novel one would wish for when closing a successful career in science fiction.

Book Details
Title: The Ascension Factor
Author: Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom
Publisher: Putnam
Pages: 381
Year: 1988
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-399-13224-4
First published: 1988

Hellstrom's Hive - Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert's 1973 novel Hellstrom's Hive is considered to be one of his better ones. It is one of the two works currently included in the Gollancz SF Masterworks series for instance.  The other being the inevitable Dune. My copy is an earlier reissue by Tor to coincide with some of the Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson Dune expansions. It first appeared in serialized form in Galaxy between November 1972 and March 1973 under the title Project 40 and saw release as a full novel not long after. I first read it in 2007 and I think that it was as close as Herbert would come to full blown horror in his career. There is something incredibly creepy about the novel. It literally makes your skin crawl.

Herbert was inspired by the 1971 movie The Hellstrom Chronicle, produced by David L. Wolper and directed by Walon Green. Herbert must have seen it shortly after it's release and it obviously had quite an impact on him. I hadn't seen the movie before so in preparation for the review I decided to watch it. Visually it is very good, considering the movie is over 40 years old by now. The content of the movie is utter nonsense however. It is a semi-documentary in which the fictional Dr. Nils Hellstrom (Herbert would use this name for one of the main characters in his novel) shares with us his shocking finding that insects are superior to us in every way and likely to rule the earth long after humanity has gone extinct. He does so by comparing an entire class of animals (there are currently over a million species of insects described by science and the consensus is that there are many more yet to be discovered) to a single species of mammal and, when it suits his argument throws in some arachnids for good measure because the are 'closely related.'  Never mind several hundred million years of diverging evolution.

Obviously, insects have many adaptations not seen in humans and can survive in environments inhospitable to humans. They also have limitations but the film tends to ignore those. Hellstrom, portrayed by actor Lawrence Pressman, takes us though the myriad of survival strategies of insects to show that in a Darwinian competition for survival we will inevitably lose. Hellstrom's narration is probably intended to be satirical. Personally, I found it annoying. The language he uses is pompous, full of grandiose statements presented without context. The facts presented in the movie are supposed to have been checked by several scientists but nevertheless manages to omit most of wider ecology that supports both humans and insects. From a ecological point of view his argument is laughably poorly reasoned. Even if it was meant to take down our opinion of our own achievements a notch I couldn't really take it seriously. In short, despite the pretty pictures, I thought the movie was rubbish.

Herbert himself must have realized some of the movie's shortcomings. Despite borrowing heavily form the movie in the snippets of text attributed to Hellstrom or his brood mother, he does go about presenting his story in a different way. The novel opens with operatives of an organization only referred to as the agency stumble across information regarding technological breakthrough. The information is incomplete but suspicions soon arise that it is a weapon. The information is traced back to a farm in Oregon, property of one Dr. Nils Hellstrom, an entomologist and documentary maker. When the agency starts to investigate his place, agents start disappearing.

Hellstrom's Hive is, as the title suggests, a community modeled on social insects. It's a society of classes, where each member has their own roll, specializations and adaptations. They are bred for the task they are meant to perform and selective breeding has been part of their community since its founding several centuries ago. A select group of specialists holds up a front for the outside world but most of the community is kept carefully hidden in an underground warren.

Herbert's depiction of this human hive is absolutely brilliant. He actually manages to create a kind of sympathy in the reader for poor, embattled Hellstrom, who is only trying to protect his community from outside forces. He realizes that if they are exposed, their society will be considered an abomination. The Hive would be destroyed instantly. They are not without their resources however, a cat and mouse game between Hellstrom and the agency ensues. As the story progresses and more details of the hive are exposed to the reader a sense of dread envelops the reader. The full consequences of the way the hive has chosen to read are horrific to an individualistic society and Herbert uses that to full effect.

The agency certainly seems to see it as such when they see the full extent of what is going on in Hellstrom's Hive. I guess the agency point of view shows the novel's age. It is an organization trapped in a kind of paranoid cold war state of mind. It would have been easy to draw the parallel between a communist state and the hive's social structure. Herbert thankfully doesn't really emphasize that, it must have been obvious enough at the time, and that certainly has helped the novel age more gracefully. It is a false analogy anyway. It's pretty insulting to compare a soviet worker to the mindless drones that make up the majority of the hive and in the end most of the characters who have an inkling of what it really is, seem to realize that.

One of the things that make me like the book much better than the movie that inspired it, is the fact that Herbert is aware of the different ecologies of humans and insects and that humans could never fully fit in the ecological structure of a social insect. The snippets of text from Hellstrom and his brood mother give the the reader some insight into the philosophy behind their community and warning that they should not slavishly follow the termite mold in which the hive is built show up fairly frequently. Another example of Herbert's ecological awareness is the internal pressure the community exerts on its leaders. The community is looking to expand and in times of severe stress, the tendency to swarm and start new colonies in order to maximize the chance of survival suffuses the story. It is almost as if this pressure is coming from the subconsciousness of the entire swarm, although explanations of pheromones are also given. It helps create the image of a Hellstrom beset by problems on all fronts.

If there is any element is the novel that is lacking, it is probably the climax. Throughout the novel, the work is very well paced, carefully keeping the balance between sympathy for the hive and discomfort with its ruthless nature. There is a masterfully depicted scene near the end of the novel that essentially shows us what happens when you poke an ant hill. Despite that, the end of the novel doesn't feel very satisfactory. Throughout the novel both parties search for an advantage but neither seems to get the upper hand. At the end of the novel there is still a status quo. Battles have been fought, secrets uncovered but nothing is really resolved. For a novel that mostly relies on the plot and the big idea behind the story rather than the characters, none of whom attain much depth, the ending really is a bit of a problem.

Despite an ending that could have been better I enjoyed Hellstrom's Hive a lot the second time around. Seeing where Herbert got his inspiration did significantly change my perception of the novel so I guess it was worth watching the rather poor movie after all. I still think The Dosadi Experiment is his best non Dune novel but this one is not that far behind. It takes the ecological awareness that can be found in many of his novels to a new level and the creepiness Herbert works into it make it stand out. If you can forgive Herbert the ending, I think it is well worth the read.

Book Details
Title: Hellstrom's Hive
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 332
Year: 2007
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0-765-31772-9
First published: 1973

Eye - Frank Herbert

I haven't finished any of the books I am currently reading so I find myself out of material for the blog again. I have dragged up an old review that I originally wrote in June 2008. It has undergone some mild editing to weed out the worst of my errors. I hope to be back sometime next week with a review of Aliette de Bodard's On a Red Station, Drifting. No promises for the week after that though, since I'll be taking a short trip to Norway to visit my girlfriend's family.

Eye is a short story collection but Frank Herbert and one of his last works. Published in 1985, the same year his sixth Dune novel Chapterhouse: Dune was published, it covers most of his career. I guess you could consider this a best of volume. Herbert was not a prolific short fiction writer, especially in his later years, but quite a few are still missing from this collection. Like many SF authors he began his career publishing in the genre's big magazines, quite a few of these stories ended up in this collection. I thought Eye was something of a mixed bag, some of the stories don't achieve the depth many of his novels have and more or less lean on an interesting technological concepts to carry the story. On the other hand there is some very interesting stuff here as well. The two stories that kicked of the ConSentiency universe for instance. For the real fan this collection is worth reading but I wouldn't suggest it as an introduction to Herbert's work.

I own a lovely UK hardcover published in 1986 that I found in a secondhand bookstore in London in 2003. It contains thirteen pieces of fiction and an introduction. Unlike most introductions to collections such as these the introduction to Eye is noteworthy. It focuses mostly on David Lynch' motion picture Dune, which was released the previous year. Herbert seems to correctly predict it will gain something of a cult following. Personally I enjoyed that movie a lot but plot-wise there is an awful lot wrong with it. If someone does make a new movie I hope they'll repeat that particular mistake.

The opening story in the collection is Rat Race. The story about a detective who stumbles upon irregularities in a morgue on a routine job. On nothing but a hunch he investigates and finds out a truth beyond his wildest suspicions. I liked the theme of this story. Superior alien beings using humans as lab rats is hardly original but he handled well, especially the bit on the morality of animal testing and what it would mean if your subjects turn out to be self aware. Good opening to this collection, makes you wonder what Herbert made of animal testing.

The second story is The Dragon in the Sea. It's the short version of the novel I reviewed here a while ago. It originally appeared in three parts in Astounding Science Fiction in 1955 and 1956. This version is far more limited, it ends when Ramsey weathers the first crisis and gains a measure of respect among the crew. Shorter but still quite interesting. I noticed a few changes Herbert made in the long version. If you are going to read The Dragon in the Sea though, go for the novel.

Story number three is Cease Fire, published for the first time in 1958. It's a bit dated. The story is set in a near future so we're probably way past it by now. It's about a soldier who in a flash of inspiration invents a new technology that he thinks will put an end to all wars. His superiors know better of course, it will just change the nature of warfare. It would have been in interesting concept if Herbert had written about the effects this technology has on war. I thought the story ended just when it was getting interesting. The story looked promising but in the end I feel it fails to deliver.

A Matter of Traces is an important story to Herbert's career. This story introduces Jorj X. McKie, the main character in his later novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment. The ConSentiency universe, as this creation is known, is one where government has become so efficient that it rolls right over the individual citizens and has to be slowed down by Saboteurs such as McKie. I found the acceptance of the acts of sabotage committed by McKie as a matter of procedure very humorous. Not sure if this story works for people who don't know a bit about this particular universe though. Which is a bad thing as this is the first story written in that environment.

In Try to Remeber an alien race descends on the earth and demand that humans try to communicate with them. If they succeed the rewards will be great, if they fail the annihilation of the human race is imminent. As a warning they show their considerable power and clear a Pacific atoll off the map. The world panics and sends their best linguists to solve the alien riddle. Language, both written and spoken, the emotions it carries and the influence it has on the human psyche are frequent subjects in Herbert's novels. This story focuses on it entirely on the subject. I liked this one a lot, the conclusion was interesting. It's one of his early works, he obviously built on this idea later on. One of the Highlights of this collection.

The Tactful Saboteur is the second story in the ConSentiency universe. It has McKie as a main character this time and describes how he manipulates the change of power in BuSab, the agency that sabotages government to keep the speed at which is operates manageable. The story cumulates in a high tension scene in court were McKie succeeds in brining about the change of leadership in BuSab. It's not as interesting as the court scenes in The Dosadi Experiment but definitely an interesting story. ConSentiency works are not light reading though, you have to pay attention to what Herbert is saying or you'll get hopelessly lost in the story.

Herbert also includes a short story on his Dune universe. The Road to Dune is written in the form of a guide for visitors to Dune during the years of Paul's reign. The text itself is not remarkable, it takes us along a number of scenes the Dune reader knows from the books. It is marvelously illustrated by Jim Burns though. This story is not to be confused with the book posthumously published by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

By the Book is a story about a troubleshooter. In the far future humanity is trying to expand to other worlds by sending forth containers holding whatever is necessarily to seed a planet. Including human embryos. Now, nine centuries after beginning the program the containers are reaching their destination. Perfect timing for the "Beam", the device that propels them to their target, to fail. Time to bring in troubleshooter Ivar Norris Gump, the best in the history of the project. He soon realizes he can fix the problem but the price will be high. Again the concept of this story is interesting but the story didn't really satisfy me.

Seed Stock may well be related to By the Book in some way. It is set on a planet recently settled by humans. They are putting all their effort in transforming the ecosystem into something inhabitable but for some reason all their efforts are failing. The colony is struggling to survive. While the scientists and leaders of the colony struggle in vain, the solution appears to be coming from an unlikely source. I liked the way Herbert deals with intuition a lot. The colony has to overcome what is has accepted as the way of the world to survive in this hostile environment.

In Murder Will In we meet a alien species that inhabits the body of sentient races and completely takes over the mind of it's host. The host has no control but it does live considerably longer. When the host body is approaching the end of it's lifespan the alien entity jumps to a new host, discarding the dying body. New hosts are only susceptible when experiencing strong emotions. A favoured method is having the new host kill the old one. Unfortunately for our alien society has progressed a lot since his lost move and appears able to predict violence before it actually takes place (interesting concept, Herbert uses something like it in his novel The Godmakers). The alien's manipulation of his old and new host was not predicted and thus brings unwanted attention. To keep himself hidden he is forced to make an unprecedented compromise. Very good story but you do have to pay close attention to what you are reading. Herbert packs a lot of ideas in 20 or so pages here.

How do you smuggle a Steinway grand piano aboard a spaceship where every ounce of weight is carefully rationed? This is the central question in Passage for Piano. Again this is a story dealing with the colonization of other planets. A group of colonists is in the final stages of preparing for an interstellar trip to their new home. In the family of the colony's ecologist a problem arises though. His son is very attached to the Steinway his grandfather played. The boy has a gift for music and is depressed about having to leave the instrument behind. So depressed in fact he may not survive. His mother is not about to let that happen and thinks of a way to get the Steinway on board. A very moving story, not at all what you'd expect of Herbert really.

Death of a City leans on another concept Herbert developed aimed at keeping a society healthy. A City Doctor is a person responsible for keeping the development of the human species on the right track. The powers of a Doctor include forced relocation and obliteration of cities if they deem that to be in the interest of the species. The city Bjska is looking at is not doing well. He is about to make a decision that will influence the lives of countless people. I didn't really like this story. The concept seemed a bit far-fetched and how Bjska reaches his decision remains nebulous.

Frogs and Scientists is a very short story about two frogs observing a human female bath. One tries to explain her behaviour in a scientific way to the other and he reaches some interesting conclusions. Very funny story, required reading for all scientists.

All in all quite a few ups and downs in this collection. I suppose The Tactical Saboteur was the highlight for me but Try to Remember, Seed Stock and Passage for Piano are also strong stories. On the other hand there are quite a few stories that are not all that great. If you are familiar with Herbert's work you will enjoy this collection for the way he tries out various concepts and themes he uses in his novels. In general though, I think he needs a little more space than a short story offers to really do his writing justice. I enjoyed reading this but I don't think it'll be up for a reread in the near future. It has reminded me I really need to get my hands on a copy of the first ConSentiency novel Whipping Star though. Eye is for the real fan only. Which is probably just as well, I don't think it is currently in print.

Book Details
Title: Eye
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 328
Year: 1986
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-575-03906-X
First published: 1985

The Lazarus Effect - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

This is one of a handful of Frank Herbert's novels I haven't read before. It wasn't particularly easy to come by. I ended up buying a second hand copy. It is a very nice fist print hardcover by Putman but it did cost me. The Lazarus Effect (1983) is the second book in the WorShip trilogy written with Bill Ranson. The series has its origin in Herbert's 1966 novel Destination: Void, of which he published a revised edition in 1978, prior to the release of The Jesus Incident (1979), his first collaboration with Ransom. The Jesus Incident was rough around the edged, mostly because a copyright issue came up that required lots of last-minute rewriting. This was written in a less frantic fashion. Interesting enough, The Jesus Incident turned out better.

The sentient kelp is dead and it's stabilizing influence on Pandora's oceans is sorely missed. All land surface has disappeared under the waves and humanity has devised two ways of surviving in a place that is, if possible, even more hostile to human life. Part of the population, the Islanders, lives in huge, crowded floating cities but the majority, the Mermen, moved beneath the waves. Kelp DNA has been stored in humanity's own gene pool through the experiment of the geneticist Jesus Lewis, cause a whole string of genetic defects in large parts of the population. Now, some seek to harvest the rewards of Lewis' foresight and reintroduce the kelp. Some even believes that this will bring back Ship, who seems the have abandoned his worshippers. Reintroducing will mean the end of a way of life however, and not everybody is pleased about this decision being taken by a small group of people on behalf of the whole of humanity. Tensions run high when the first signs of Avata's return become apparent.

One thing that immediately struck me about the writing was that it is a  much smoother read than The Jesus Incident. The writing is much more polished, more uniform. It also misses the poetic flourishes that Ransom added to the previous book. Give the history of these two volumes, some difference was to be expected but I was surprised by how much the prose had changed. The Jesus Incident is not an easy read, and the prose certainly contributed to that but I think Herbert and Ransom lost something in the polishing as well. It makes me wonder how The Ascension Factor (1988) the final novel in the trilogy has turned out. It has largely been written by Ransom due to Herbert's sudden and untimely death in 1986.

Thematically, tyranny is very much at the forefront of the story. Some pretty draconian rules have been put in place regarding children born with very serious birth defects. Deviate too much from what is considered normal - which, it must be said, is quite a stretch from what we would recognize as a normal variation of the human body - and the child is not allowed to live. One of the main characters is a judge on the panel deciding on such cases on one of the floating cities. He is a very interesting character in a way, feeling completely justified in deciding over life and death based is such a way and on the other hand highly suspicious and dismissive of the Mermen project to bring back the kelp, feeling the Merman are forcing a decision on the Islanders without taking their interests into account. His reaction to the kelp and the cults is has inspired among the Mermen is, if possible even more interesting.

Mermen and Islanders don't always seem to be at odds though. Part of the story is made up of a romance between and Islander boy and a Mermen girl, who set aside all preconceived notions and ignore blatant prejudice after she saves him from drowning. An interesting reverse of the damsel in distress I suppose but I thought the whole thing was a bit cheesy to be honest. As this love story is the backbone of the plot, the novel as a whole doesn't seem quite as intellectually challenging as most of Herbert's other novels. There is plenty hiding under the surface but not nearly as much going on at the forefront as what I've come to expect from Herbert.

In terms of the challenges presented to Pandoran society it definitely is classic Herbert. His motto 'the only constant is change' clearly shows through in this novel. Herbert and Ransom describe a society that had to adapt to radically different environmental conditions and is now on the verge of reversing some of that change. It is these moments of punctuated equilibrium if you will, that fascinates Herbert and this novel is a good example of that. Change is imminent in many areas, a species is being brought back from extinction (the title of a novel is a reference to Lazarus of Bethany, a figure from the gospel of John restored to life by Jesus), environmental changes on a large scale are taking place dooming a way of life and the culture built upon, religions convictions are challenged by the rebirth of the kelp and regaining access to orbital space flight. Change is rapid and profound in this novel.

I must admit I found the premise of the novel and the large scale developments Herbert and Ransom describe fascinating but I didn't care for most of the characters. The judge is mildly interesting, the lovers are not. There are a few other characters I haven't mentioned thus far, including a terrorist, a diplomat and ridiculously stupid historian none of whom were really engaging. Most of them seem to miss the sharpness, awareness and deep insights Herbert's more interesting characters share. Ship's unpredictable presence is also sorely missed in this novel. In short I have to really dig to find things I like in The Lazarus Effect. It is there for sure but buried a somewhat unfocussed plot, featuring bland and largely uninteresting characters. Add to that the unremarkable prose and you end up with a novel that readable but certainly not memorable. I'm hoping for better things from the concluding volume of this trilogy.

Book Details
Title: The Jesus Incident
Author: Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom
Publisher: Putnam
Pages: 381
Year: 1983
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-399-12815-8
First published: 1983

The Dragon in the Sea - Frank Herbert

Past time to make some more progress on my project to read and review all of Frank Herbert's books not set in the Dune universe. The Dragon in the Sea is Herbert's first novel. It first appeared as Under Pressure in serialized form in Astounding in 1955 and 1956. A slightly reworked novel version appeared in 1956. To make matters confusing, there are also novel editions with the title Under Pressure and in 1961 someone thought it was a bright idea to rename the novel 21st Century Sub. I sincerely hope they fired whoever was responsible for that disaster. My copy is the 2008 Tor reprint with the original title, which I snatched up and read just as soon as it became available. The Dragon in the Sea was quite well received back then and it always remained a bit of a mystery why Herbert struggled for another ten years before his career as a writer really took off with the publication of Dune in 1965. His published work in the years between these two releases consist of a handful of short stories. The Dragon in the Sea is usually considered one of Herbert's better novels, an opinion I share completely.

In the mid 21st century, the world is locked in a never ending war between the West and the East. With oil resources becoming increasingly scarce, the west have developed a technique to steal oil from the Eastern Powers using nuclear powered submarines leeching oil from existing wells and dragging it back to the west in huge bags referred to as slugs. The submarines play a cat and mouse game with the enemy and right now they are loosing. Of the last twenty ships sent out, none returned. It is up to psychologist John Ramsey to find out why. He is to join the crew of one of the subs to monitor events. To put even more pressure on the mission, one of his crew members is suspected of being in infiltrator and the captain's mental stability is questioned. Four men in the confined space of a submarine, cut off from the outside world and surrounded by enemies and the hostile environment of the deep sea. Ramsey is under pressure indeed.

Although the conflict between East and West didn't quite last as long as Herbert imagined (mind, he never once refers to communism in the book), it is a prophetic work in some ways. Scarcity of resources such as oil is not something that turned up too often in science fiction back then. The consequences of a serious lack of oil would not be felt in the west until the oil crisis of 1973 and the theory of Peak Oil, proposed by M. King Hubbert, was published in the same year as the novel. Although the theme of dependence on a single, increasingly scarce resource does occur in other novels, I've never found a link between Peak Oil and Herbert's novels. It would have been interesting to find out what he thought of it.

The concept behind the story may be fascinating, the novel shows it's age in the details. The submarine for instance, which would have been stacked with all kinds of digital technology from one end to the other these days, seems to be filled with 1950s technology. Everything is controlled manually, with old fashioned meters, valves and electronics. It runs at a depth that not many subs could take even these days, but other than that, it didn't strike me as particularly 21st century. There is a fair bit of technobbable in the book about how the submarine works but most of it serves to emphasize the pressure the crew experiences.

Psychological pressure is the main theme of the novel I suppose. Herbert describes a world where tensions run high but no real release can be offered. Being stalked by an enemy you can't see, in a vessel from which there is no escape. Submarines are a claustrophobe's nightmare and more than one novel has made use of that particular fact. The Dragon in the Sea takes that theme into a direction I haven't come across before. It examines the adaptations of the crew that allow them to operate in such an environment. Again a theme that Herbert would use in later books. Adaptations to pressure in The Dragon in the Sea, the adaptations to the highly toxic environment on Dosadi or the presence of spice and the absence of water on Dune, they are all driving human development or sometimes human evolution into realms that we can scarcely imagine. Herbert's belief in what the human mind can accomplish with the right pressures and motivations show in most of his work but The Dragon in the Sea is a particularly fine example.

Herbert had many interests and psychology is one of them. In this novel it is almost as apparent as in The Santaroga Barrier (1968), which deals with the effect of a mind altering substance on an isolated population. I must admit I'm not familiar enough with the field to point out Herbert's influences here. He names Jung, there is probably some Freud as well and I would be very surprised if there were not a few more. There is an obvious link between psychology and religion in this book, again an element that will show up in his later work. The title is a reference to the bible, Isaiah 27:1 to be exact, and religion comes up more than once as the thing that holds the crew together and offers a way of dealing with the unceasing pressure the men are under. It's role in keeping the crew operating is examined from a psychological point of view and Herbert points out the links between the two in various places. The psychology is definitely the most complex part of the story. One may wonder how well the theories that are the inspiration of the novel hold up these days, they do make for a very good story.

Herbert's first novel shows a lot of elements that he would return to in his later work. It is not as complex or conceptually rich as Dune or The Dosadi Experiment but it is certainly a novel that is still well worth reading. It's fairly short but very intense and more action packed than many of his later novels. Quite a few later novels by Herbert don't hold up as well as The Dragon in the Sea does. If anything I like it even better after this reread. There are a few books by Herbert I would rate higher but not many. One warning though, if you do decide to read it try not to think too much of the unfortunate choice of name for the Captain. Herbert really could not have known.

Book Details
Title: The Dragon in the Sea
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 268
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1774-2
First published: 1956

Direct Descent - Frank Herbert

One of the projects I've been working on pretty much from the start of this blog, is reading and reviewing all of Frank Herbert's novels not set in his Dune universe. Last year, for reasons not quite clear to me, I didn't get around to reviewing a single one. Very strange considering the trouble I went through, to acquire some of the less well known novels. Direct Descent (1980) is one of the novels I haven't read before. It hasn't been reprinted in ages, the most recent edition I could find dates from 1988. Given the quality of the work, I am surprised it got reprinted at all. It is by a fair margin the weakest novel by Frank Herbert I've read.

In the far future the whole of Earth's interior has been taken up by a gigantic library. Ships travel the known universe to collect information about just about everything and bring it back to Earth to archive it and make it available to the entire galaxy. The first and foremost rule of this organization is the always obey the government whomever that may be. A rule meant to underline the institutes strict neutrality. But what if the government sends its warships at you? How can you defend yourself armed with archives full of useless knowledge and a policy of strict obedience?

Direct Descent is expanded from the short story The Pack Rat Planet, which first appeared in Astounding in December 1954. It is one of Herbert's earliest science fiction stories, published before his first novel The Dragon in the Sea (1956). It's not the only short piece Herbert expanded to a novel. He did the same with the Lewis Orne stories which were turned into The Godmakes (1972) and The Green Brain (1966) was originally a shorter piece too. I've tried to find the text of the original story but apparently the copyright on this one hasn't expired yet. My guess would be that the original story is part one of the novel, with a part two added later.

Although this work is usually listed as one of Herbert's novels, I doubt it actually exceeds forty thousand words. My mass market paperback edition has 186 pages, of which at least 80 are taken up by pencil drawings credited to one Garcia. Name doesn't ring a bell with me but given the absolutely dreadful cover (that poor fellow looks like he is about to throw up), perhaps that is for the best. I didn't think any of the interior illustrations were particularly inspired work either.

To be hones,t I am amazed that Herbert published this. Or that it was the same man who wrote The Dosadi Experiment just a few years prior, and went on to produce three more popular Dune novels. It simply lacks just about everything that makes Herbert's work interesting. Besides the idea of the gigantic library, which apparently came to Herbert after visiting the Library of Congress, there is very little in the way of worldbuilding or interesting scientific or philosophical concepts present in the novel. Where Herbert's works are usually filled to overflowing with ideas, for some reason he doesn't use the main strength of his writing in this novel. It brutally exposes how little is left when you take that away.

The two parts of the novel are only very loosely connected to each other. Other than the setting and the nature of the threat (government trying to pull the plug on the Library) there isn't a whole lot that connects the stories. Herbert made no attempt whatsoever to turn this into one novel, he just added a second story. I don't think it ever appeared in a magazine but it could be read independently. Both plots are pretty straightforward and in both instances the policy of strict obedience serves the library well. I guess you could see this work as satirical, a government not in control of it's own creation. If satire was what Herbert intended, the Jorj X. McKie stories succeed a lot better in that.

This novel is without a doubt the worst think I've read by Herbert. It's a very weak attempt at expanding a short story that barely had enough body to make it work in the short format. Some people feel that Herbert's skill as a writer usually cannot keep up with his insights and ideas, a few even go so far as to declare anything beyond Dune unreadable. Personally I am a bit more tolerant of what are usually considered flaws in his writing. In this novel however, I have failed to find anything that usually appeals to me in Herbert's work. I guess the completist will want to read it anyway, but if you are not, don't feel bad about skipping it.

Book Details
Title: Direct Descent
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Ace Books
Pages: 186
Year: 1981
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0-441-14903-0
First published: 1980

The Godmakers - Frank Herbert

The Godmakers (1972) is probably one of Herbert's harder to find work. I don't know of any recent publications in English. I got my hands on a Dutch language copy December 2001 and I've been looking for a reasonably priced English copy since. A couple of weeks back I managed to get my hands on a 1973 paperback edition. It's in reasonably good shape, not bad considering it is older than I am. When I first read The Godmakers in 2001 I was quite impressed with some of the ideas Herbert used in his work. It was the first book other than the Dune series I'd read by him. After this reread, having a few more book by Herbert under my belt, I'm afraid it is not one of the better ones.

A great war has left the galaxy reeling. Contact with many words was lost in this era of violence and humanity is still trying to pick up the pieces. Determined to prevent another outburst of war, each rediscovered world is thoroughly checked for signs of warlike activities. Re-education is imposed on those deemed salvageable, in some cases, al planet buster is the only known cure. Field agent Lewis Orne is sent out to newly rediscovered planets to judge is superficially peaceful societies are what they appear to be. Orne is soon noted for his unusual observations and deep insights. As he is sent more challenging assignments, is soon becomes clear that he is on a path that may take him beyond humanity, to godhood itself.

The Godmakers is a fixup novel, consists of four short stories: You Take the High Road (Astounding, May 1958), Missing Link (Astounding, February 1959), Operation Haystack (Astounding, May 1959) and The Priests of Psi (Fantastic Science Fiction Stories, February 1960). Of two of these stories to copyright has apparently expired. Missing Link and Operation Haystack are available on ManyBooks. They've also been recently published as a paperback by Phoenix Picks. One or more of these stories also appear in the various collections of Frank Herbert's short fiction that have been published over the years. Again, these are not easy to come by, all of these collections are decades out of print.

The novel clearly shows that the book indeed consists of four separate pieces. Personally, I think some more effort to bridge them smoothly would have done this novel a world of good. Perhaps this was a bit of a rush job, In 1972, Herbert's ambitious mainstream novel Soul Catcher appeared as well and the first instalments of Hellstrom's Hive, serialized in Galaxy in 1972 and 1973 and published as a novel in 1973, were also in the works. The stories offer brief snapshots of Orne's development but sometimes the jumps can be jarring, particularly between the Operation Haystack and Priests of Psi sections of the novel. I thought the last section of the book, which relies much more on religious themes had a decidedly different tone than the other sections.

The part of the novel I most enjoyed was the first section. In You Take the High Road Herbert examines how there are clues of military activity in the most basic elements of our lives. Orne sees hints in the way roads are constructed, the way production is organized and what kind of games and sports we play, to name a few things. Much more subtle signs than political power structures, fortifications or standing armies. Another interesting thought is the hoe and handle argument. I'm not entirely sure who thought of this but I've seen it before in various guises. Basically it states that by creating interdependency, with one side specializing in, and only able to, produce the hoe, and the other the handle, war is much less likely to occur. Now keep in mind that these stories were written in the late 1950s, a time when WWII was a fresh memory and the great political experiment that resulted in the European Union took off, which is partially bases on the same idea. In a way, Lewis Orne is the personification of the cry "Never again!"

Later on in the novel, Herbert leans more on the idea that it is not god who made man but man who makes gods. Orne, on his way to become a man-made god, is put though a number of spiritual tests in order to show him his true power. The text becomes increasingly philosophical here, with passages that will no doubt offend the more dogmatic believers in a number of religions. Another idea that is shows up in more of his works, is the creation of religions for specific purposes. It's a theme that shows up in Dune for instance, but also in the Destination: Void series. The concept is an interesting one but I think the way he uses it in his other novels works better.

The Godmakers is not a great novel, I consider it as something of a study for Herbert's later works. The concepts that show up in Dune are the most obvious but I also think Orne is something of a proto-Jorj X. McKie, the main character in the novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment. A lot of the short fiction Herbert produced where his sandbox. He played around with ideas that would later develop into his strongest novels. Trying to patch four of these stories together and calling it a novel has not worked particularly well in this case. Still, in Herbert's oeuvre as a whole, these short stories were a significant step in his development as a writer. From that angle, they are still more than worth reading.

Book Details
Title: The Godmakers
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Berkley Medallion Books
Pages: 221
Year: 1973
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0-425-02344-3
First published: 1972

The Jesus Incident - Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

In 1966 the novel Destination: Void was published. The story was about an experiment to create artificial intelligence, a crew sent out into space with only two alternatives. Succeed or die. In the late 1970s, Herbert would return to the Destination: Void universe, with a new novel co-authored by Bill Ransom. Herbert rewrote parts of the original novel which he felt were dated, and the new version was published in 1978, slightly before The Jesus Incident. According to Dreamer of Dune, Brian Herbert's biography of his father, the writing of this new novel was not without its challenges though. They based the story on a shorter piece named Songs of a Sentient Flute. When the first draft for the almost completed, copyright issues arose. The planet they set the story on could not be used. With a deadline fast approaching, whole sections of the novel had to be rewritten. As a result the authors were not entirely happy with the final product. It did well enough though. In fact, there would be two sequels.

Ages has past since Voidship Earthling issued his first command after gaining conciousness. You must decide how you will WorShip me. The echoes of this question can still be heard when one of the original creators of Ship is woken again from hybernation. Chaplain/Psychiatrist Raja Lon Flattery finds things quite different from when he went to sleep. The ship has expanded and is supporting a large populations of humans. Or at least, humanoids sufficiently alike Flattery that he could breed with them. They are currently engaged in a desperate attempt to colonize the planet Pandora. Only with employment of a large number of clones, genetically engineered for fast responses, has humanity managed to gain a toe hold on the hostile planet. Nightmarish predators roam what little dry land is available, humanity takes staggering losses to just hold on to what little has been gained. Food shortages, brutal treatment of clones and the high casualty rate ensure that the colony is always on the edge of violence. To make matters worse, Ship has lost patience with the feeble attempts at WorShip that have evolved in the time Flattery was asleep. He is sent out by to rectify the matter. Failure is not an option, Ship will terminate the human race if its demands are not met.

This is a second reading for me. I picked up this copy on a trip to Gothenburg, Sweden in 2005 (a memorable party it was) for 110 Kr. No idea how much that is but thinking back on it, it sounds expensive. I had read a number of his non Dune works at that time and since some of them were pretty hard to come by, bought this copy. It then spend almost a year on the to read stack until I finally read it in the summer of 2006. One of my reactions to this book back then was that I probably should have read Destination: Void first. Having read both now, I guess that reaction was correct. It is possible to read this book without having read Destination: Void, but certainly early on in the story there are a lot of references to to events in the previous book. I also think the reader appreciates the move of Ship to wake up Flattery a bit more. The Jesus Incident has seen publication more recently though, it may not be easy to get your hands on either book.

Herbert did not make a habit of collaborating with other authors. Besides the three books in this trilogy he co-authored only one other novel. Man of Two Worlds (1986), written together with his son Brian. I own a copy of that book but I haven't read it yet. The Jesus Incident reads like a real Frank Herbert novel but in some places the touch of Bill Ransom does appear to shine though. Besides writing novels, Ransom is a poet as well and the poet's view on the world is quite important to this novel. Bits of poetry are scattered throughout the text. There's no telling who wrote what of course, but on the whole the novel seems a bit concerned with images. Not images as a tool to influence others but as a way of better understanding the world. The poet's view is a bit more spiritual than what one would expect in a Frank Herbert novel but definitely worth paying attention to.

Thematically this book is linked to just about everything Herbert has written before. Pandora is just as demanding an environment as Arrakis or Dosadi, driving the inhabitants to extreme adaptations, both psychologically and physiologically. The ecological component of this problem doesn't receive a lot of attention though. Understanding of the environment is minimal and Morgan Oakes, the man currently in charge of the colony, is not about to waste any more resources on researching it. Even the hints that the kelp that inhabits much of the planet's oceans may be sentient does not change that. It is a pest to be eradicated, not an object of study. The repercussions of this decision are hinted at in the final part of the novel, where Pandora or the kelp take on Gaia-like qualities. The fate of this creature and it's control of Pandora's environment is vital to the plot of the second book, The Lazarus Effect, but I felt they didn't really receive the attention this issue warranted. Perhaps one of the elements that suffered from a rushed rewriting.

As the title suggests, religion is another major theme in the book. Or religious violence to be more precise. Hali, one of medical staff on board Ship, is shown the crucifixion of Jesus. The scene itself is pretty much what what one would expect, although from a far future perspective it makes less sense than it would through our eyes. The interpretation is what matters though. Ship is trying to teach Hali something of human behaviour. The kind of cruelty religion can inspire people to. To drive this home the actual scene is, how shall I put it... quite direct, not overly dramatic or tragic. Hali is mostly trying to stop herself from interfering, something Ship tells her, will have dire consequences, and wondering why this act of cruelty is necessary. It's definitely one of the more interesting scenes in the book and another expression of a theme found in his other books, Dune in particular.

The third major thematic link with Herbert's other work is the way he tackles leadership. In this book two very different personalities go up against each other. There is no way Flattery and Oakes are going to be able to coexist. Ship is steering towards a confrontation and expects the fallout of this conflict to carry the seeds of humanity's salvation. The leaders in most of Herbert's works often feel themselves at the mercy of an unruly universe but rarely are they so openly manipulated by another intelligence as in this book. Without giving too much away, the final confrontation between the two doesn't turn out like one would expect.

The Jesus Incident is a curious book. It is clearly a little rough around the edges, not quite as good as it might have been. On the other hand, it is a book that contains a lot of ideas that are key to Herbert's writing. Apart from the works in the Dune universe this book is probably the most ambitious project in his oeuvre. It is clearly recognizable as a novel by Herbert but the collaboration with Ransom does steer a number of familiar themes in a different direction. This new angle makes it a very interesting read. It's a shame the two didn't get the opportunity to do the rewriting in less of a hurry. I think it could have been a marvellous book then. As it is, it's a very interesting piece in Herbert's bibliography and certainly hints at much more. It'll be interesting to see if The Lazarus Effect is a bit more polished.

Book Details
Title: The Jesus Incident
Author: Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 405
Year: 2000
Language: English
Format: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 1-85798-945-7
First published: 1979

Whipping Star - Frank Herbert

I'm currently reading Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, which is a monster of a book. Looks like I need a few more days finish it. In the mean time I have dug up an older review. The original turned out to be rather sloppy so it needed a bit more editing that I would have liked. Hope to be back this weekend with a fresh review.

Whipping Star is the last of Frank Herbert’s non-Dune books Tor has been reprinting in recent years. This 1970 novel is the fist full novel in the ConSentiency universe, which up to this point consisted of only two short stories. Both of them are contained in the collection Eye and may very well be included in other short fiction collections. Like these short stories, Whipping Star has the unusually observant BuSab agent Jorj X. McKie for a main character. This universe is also the setting of what I consider to be Herbert’s best non-Dune book: The Dosadi Experiment.

Whipping Star is a far-future science fiction. The universe contains many intelligent species and to govern them the ConSentiency has been created. This intergalactic government evolved into something of a nightmare. It grew to be frightfully effective, laws were conceived and passed at such speed that no proper though could be given to their need and the effects. To slow down to machinery the Bureau of Sabotage, or BuSab, was created. Their motto: “In Lieu of Red Tape”. A quite unorthodox approach to checks and balances but for the ConSientients it seems to work.

At the opening of the novel, McKie is called in to work on the case of the Calabans. Calabans are a rather mysterious group of sentient aliens but also of vital importance to the ConSentiency. When they first appeared in the ConSentiency they introduced jumpdoors. These jumpdoors allow almost instantaneously travel between two points in the galaxy, making even the fastest spaceships obsolete. Unfortunately the mind of the Calaban seems to be beyond human comprehension, and that of any other ConSentient for that matter. Nobody knows how the jumpdoors work or why the Calabans do what they do.

Now the Calabans are disappearing and they are leaving a trail of destruction behind. Every Sentient who has ever used the services of a Calaban either goes mad or dies when the Calaban disappears. With the ConSentiency completely dependent on their jumpdoors that means just about anybody is at risk. The crises reaches a climax when the last Calaban around is found to be in the service of one of the richest women in the universe. Bound by a legal agreement it serves as a subject for torture for its mistress’ entertainment. The Calaban, the creature introduces itself to McKie as Fanny May, is, in her own words, headed for ultimate discontinuity. Not that anyone really understands what that means but if the most obvious meaning is correct, the universe is in trouble. It is up to McKie to figure out what makes the Fanny May tick, and how to prevent ultimate discontinuity.

Herbert usually puts a lot of scientific and philosophical ideas into his stories. This one, somewhat atypically for Herbert's work, is mostly focussed on communication and language. How to communicate with an alien who’s view on the universe is completely different from yours? Throughout the novel, agent McKie, who is considered very good at such things, is aware of the subtle differences between the species making up the ConSentiency. Language is a tricky thing, translating one culturally loaded concept into another culture’s framework is never a precise fit and the problems these differences cause can be lethal in some situations. Of course McKie’s problems with Fanny May go way beyond that. One fine example of the problems McKie faces:

“About time you called,” McKie said. “About time I called?”
“Well, you certainly must’ve gotten Furuneo’s message quite a …”
“What message?”
McKie felt as though his mind had touched a grinding wheel shooting off ideas like sparks. No message from Furuneo?
“Furuneo,” McKie said, “left here long enough ago to …”
“I’m calling,” Siker interrupted, “because there’s been no sign form either of you for too damn long, and Furuneo’s enforcers were worried. One of them… Where was Furuneo supposed to go and how?”
McKie felt an idea blossom in his mind. “Where was Furuneo born?"

McKie realizing what the Calaban’s interpretation of 'going home' is.

The conversations between McKie and the Fanny May are probably the best part of the book. The reader has to work hard to follow them though. Herbert managed to describe an entity who’s thoughts are so alien that one wonders if Fanny May really is the creation of a human mind. I thought these passages where fascinating. There are readers who think the novel spends too much time on these matters but as far as I am concerned Herbert put in enough adrenaline-fuelled, race against the clock type of action to balance the more thoughtful parts of the novel. With Herbert’s focus on the communication/language theme it is not quite as dense in ideas as some of his other books, making it a good place to start if you consider reading Herbert’s none-Dune works. I would recommend reading it before The Dosadi Experiment in any case, even though they can be read independently the fist McKie novel gives away the ending of the second book. Besides, Whipping Star is a good way to ease into the the ConSentiency universe, not a bad thing considering the The Dosadi Experiment is a more densely written and challenging read.

I thought Whipping Star is one of the more interesting novels by Herbert I have read. It is not a very heavy read like some of his other works, but definitely worth my time. The short tempered McKie makes for an interesting character. There are some parallels with Lewis Orne, main character in the novel The Godmakers as well as number of short stories, but McKie is much better developed. His humanity gives the reader a firm anchor in the ConSentiency, with it’s numerous alien characters. This universe may not have the epic scope of Dune but it is definitely worth looking into. It's a shame Tor didn't reissue The Dosadi Experiment in the more durable format of this edition of Whipping Star.

Book Details
Title: Whipping Star
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 255
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-7653-1775-9
First published: 1970

Soul Catcher - Frank Herbert

Soul Catcher is one of Herbert's books that has been out of print for quite a while. I've been keeping an eye out for this book for over a year and probably ended up paying too much to get my hands on it. I can't say I regret spending that money though, this copy is in very good condition considering it is older than I am. In Brian Herbert's biography Dreamer of Dune, this book is mentioned a lot. It is one of the more interesting works in Herbert's oeuvre, being the only mainstream novel he ever published. This was not his only attempt to break in to he mainstream market but none of the others were successful. Although there are no obvious science fiction elements in this novel, the ecological and mythological themes in the book especially, ties it to a lot of Herbert's other works. It is not easy to come by but if you do find a copy don't hesitate because it is labelled mainstream. If anything this book shows how meaningless the distinction is.

After his sister is raped by a gang of drunken lumberjacks and commits suicide to cover her shame, native American Charles Hobuhet plans to take revenge on the white man's society he's been living in. Once a promising student of anthropology and nearly a white man, he returns to his roots and takes the name of Katsuk. He kidnaps David Marshall, the thirteen-year-old son of the newly appointed Undersecretary of State. David is he perfect innocent. Katsuk means to sacrifice him in a ancient ritual to take revenge for all the innocents of his people that died at the hands of the whites. Together they travel into a remote part of the Pacific Northwest, living of the land while evading the search parties sent out after them. As Katsuk prepares for the ritual, a bond between the boy and the man develops. Will this be enough to make Katsuk decide to forgo the ritual?

One of the things that struck me about this particular copy is the text on the back flap. The biography bit starts: "This is Frank Herbert's first major novel. He has written numerous science fiction books, of which Dune...". Apparently someone at Putnam didn't want to mix their mainstream and science fiction. At that point Dune has already sold more copies than most mainstream novelist would dream of but somehow Soul Catcher is his first major novel and Dune a science fiction book (and a minor work at that). How it can be good business to piss of such a large part off your potential readers and insult your author in one careless line is beyond me. They must have seen things differently forty years ago.

Potential readers definitely include the people who enjoyed Herbert's science fiction. Both thematically and stylistically there are clear links with his other books. The book does not have chapters but sections are separated by quotes from letters, news stories and the writings of Charles Hobuhet, a technique he uses in a number of his other novels as well. The story also features the in conversations switches of point of view, although with fewer characters around, it is not so prominent is in, for example, the later Dune novels. Herbert clearly didn't think it was necessary to change his approach to writing to produce a more literary result. Makes me wonder what the critics of the time thought about this book. The mighty Google search engine hasn't been able to answer that question for me.

There is one striking difference with though. Without science fiction plot elements and with most of the novel set in the wilderness, this story is much more character driven than his other works. Katsuk is mostly busy with his ritual, the message he wants to send to the world, his connection with the spirit world. His actions may have far reaching consequences for David and himself, the ritual will not have any major effects on the universe. He intends to send a message but if anybody will listen is doubtful. David on the other hand is mostly thinking of escape. To an extend Katsuk makes him see the world through different eyes (perhaps a touch of Stockholm syndrome there) but he is an remains the innocent Katsuk kidnapped. In fact, his innocence is a critical point in the novel. The way Herbert expresses why David is innocent, how Katsuk views the concept is one of the most interesting parts of Soul Catcher.

The story is mostly set on the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington. A region Herbert was intimately familiar with. In a way this novel is very personal. Although he never mentions the name of the people Katsuk belongs to, I suspect he is Quileute, the people who once lived in the entire area. Herbert did extensive research for this book and delved deeply into the mythology and language of these people. It introduces the reader to a lot of concepts and a world view that, to western eyes at least, is completely foreign. The way Charles, a man quite capable of seeing the world through western eyes suddenly switches to the world view of his people is hard to follow for a lot of people. The sheriff tasked with finding puts it like this:

Sheriff Mike Pallat:
Look, the Indian lost his kid sister a couple months ago. He adored that kid. He was her family, understand? After their parents died he raised her almost by himself. She was raped by a gang of drunken bastards and went out and killed herself. She was a good kid. I'm not surprised Charles went off his nut. This is what comes of sending and Indian to college. He studies how we've been giving his people the shitty end of the stick. Something happens... he returns to savage.

Although the sheriff seems to have a superficial knowledge of the Quileute in the area, there is so much prejudice in this statement and it is so horribly simplified reading it made me wince. Which is probably the response Herbert tried to trigger. Compare this to the highly developed mythological framework Herbert introduces and the intimate knowledge of his environment the world savage is just laughable. There's another word that is bound to set Katsuk off. Indian. He feels he should not be named for a five hundred year old mistake. If I remember correctly this book was written in a time when people were trying to retire word Indian. Although nobody seemed to agree how we should refer to Indians in the future. Maybe it is not such a bright idea to try to catch so diverse a group of people in one word.

The real controversy about Soul Catcher is probably the ending. In Dreamer of Dune (which mentions the end of the novel explicitly so if you don't want it spoiled, read the novel first) Brian Herbert mentions Frank got a lot of responses either confirming the ending as something Katsuk would do or that he got it all wrong. Even the Native American community seems to disagree on it. From a literary point of view I'd say it works very well. It's one of those endings that will stick with you, although I already knew how the story would end it still hit me as emotionally very powerful. Soul Catcher is a very sophisticated piece of writing. It shows Herbert's fabulous capacity to research the topic of his novel but also to write a very intense, character driven story. Herbert shows us a side of his talent the reader doesn't get to see that often. I always considered The Dosadi Experiment to be his best novel but I may have to reconsider. Somebody do us all a favour and bring this back into print!

Book Details
Title: Soul Catcher
Author: Frank Herbert
Publisher: Putnam
Pages: 250
Year: 1972
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: unknown
First published: 1972