The Race for God, by Brian Herbert
Posted: 22 Dec 2013 11:48
Review: The Race for God, by Brian Herbert
Morbid curiosity. That's the reason I started on this book. The hope that I could make fun of the book here was the only thing that made me continue. In the end, I neither my curiosity or this hope was satisfied. The Race for God is a story about representatives from all world religions commandeering a starship to the center of the Galaxy to meet God. If this sounds familiar, it's because he cribbed the idea from a story conceived by William Shatner. It takes some skill to steal a story idea from William Shatner, yet not improve on it. I'm not sure if it was because of legal concerns about plagiarism, or if he was frightened of angry followers of the world's religions knocking at his door, but this story doesn't actually take place on Earth.
It takes place on D'Urth.
If you just cringed--congratulations. That emotion summarizes the entire book, you don't need to read it anymore. The world religions aren't Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, but Krassianism, Isammedanism, Hoddhism and Nanduism. Each religion is obfuscated in detail, of course. Not Catholic Christians, but KathoLu Krassians. The holy book of Isammed is the Kooraq. The Reborn Krassians swear by the holy writ of the Babul.
The novel tries to explore the differences between the world's religions with witty, subtle humor. The best thing about witty, subtle humor—in Brian Herbert's case—is that it's less embarrassing when it doesn't work. Herbert doesn't add the literary equivalent of a drumroll or a laugh track to his prose, so the humor isn't actually a source of annoyance. A less pleasant thing is that it puts the focus on what remains. In the absence of a gripping plot (Brian Herbert manages to make a subplot about a murderous cyborg that can reform itself after being destroyed—that way—positively yawn-inducing), what remains is his intelligent commentary about the commonalities between the world's religions.
Oh dear.
Let's forget that Brian Herbert doesn't display deep knowledge about the world's religions in this book—not far past what you would learn reading the first paragraph of an encyclopaedia. But in his criticism, his analysis, he doesn't improve much upon the Golden rule. Which is not surprising, better men than him or me have debated the relative merits of religions to death. But by making his characters 'observe' this over and over again, it becomes sanctimonious and condescending.
The good parts
It's fairly clear that Brian Herbert doesn't write the Dune Pre-/Se-/Interquels. His style of writing prose is so much more palatable. Exposition isn't repeated ad nauseam, characters have actual thoughts and personalities. He has a talent for writing trippy scenes that's eerily reminiscent (in a good way) of his father.
This suggests to me that KJA and BH could achieve a better division of labour. KJA thinking up fastl-paced plots, BH doing the actual writing. I'd still prefer it if they confined themselves to the Hellhole universe, though.
The characters are fairly interesting. Herbert shoots for (and achieves) a band of merry eccentrics. There's the opium-addicted necrophile, the insecure trigger happy bible-thumper, and a morbidly obese schizotypical prophet. None of these manage to actually save the novel from being a snooze-fest, but it's certainly a more diverse group than you'd ordinarily find in a sci-fi novel.
In summary, yes, it was about as unpleasant as I expected it to be. But I've read worse.
Morbid curiosity. That's the reason I started on this book. The hope that I could make fun of the book here was the only thing that made me continue. In the end, I neither my curiosity or this hope was satisfied. The Race for God is a story about representatives from all world religions commandeering a starship to the center of the Galaxy to meet God. If this sounds familiar, it's because he cribbed the idea from a story conceived by William Shatner. It takes some skill to steal a story idea from William Shatner, yet not improve on it. I'm not sure if it was because of legal concerns about plagiarism, or if he was frightened of angry followers of the world's religions knocking at his door, but this story doesn't actually take place on Earth.
It takes place on D'Urth.
If you just cringed--congratulations. That emotion summarizes the entire book, you don't need to read it anymore. The world religions aren't Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, but Krassianism, Isammedanism, Hoddhism and Nanduism. Each religion is obfuscated in detail, of course. Not Catholic Christians, but KathoLu Krassians. The holy book of Isammed is the Kooraq. The Reborn Krassians swear by the holy writ of the Babul.
The novel tries to explore the differences between the world's religions with witty, subtle humor. The best thing about witty, subtle humor—in Brian Herbert's case—is that it's less embarrassing when it doesn't work. Herbert doesn't add the literary equivalent of a drumroll or a laugh track to his prose, so the humor isn't actually a source of annoyance. A less pleasant thing is that it puts the focus on what remains. In the absence of a gripping plot (Brian Herbert manages to make a subplot about a murderous cyborg that can reform itself after being destroyed—that way—positively yawn-inducing), what remains is his intelligent commentary about the commonalities between the world's religions.
Oh dear.
Let's forget that Brian Herbert doesn't display deep knowledge about the world's religions in this book—not far past what you would learn reading the first paragraph of an encyclopaedia. But in his criticism, his analysis, he doesn't improve much upon the Golden rule. Which is not surprising, better men than him or me have debated the relative merits of religions to death. But by making his characters 'observe' this over and over again, it becomes sanctimonious and condescending.
The good parts
It's fairly clear that Brian Herbert doesn't write the Dune Pre-/Se-/Interquels. His style of writing prose is so much more palatable. Exposition isn't repeated ad nauseam, characters have actual thoughts and personalities. He has a talent for writing trippy scenes that's eerily reminiscent (in a good way) of his father.
This suggests to me that KJA and BH could achieve a better division of labour. KJA thinking up fastl-paced plots, BH doing the actual writing. I'd still prefer it if they confined themselves to the Hellhole universe, though.
The characters are fairly interesting. Herbert shoots for (and achieves) a band of merry eccentrics. There's the opium-addicted necrophile, the insecure trigger happy bible-thumper, and a morbidly obese schizotypical prophet. None of these manage to actually save the novel from being a snooze-fest, but it's certainly a more diverse group than you'd ordinarily find in a sci-fi novel.
In summary, yes, it was about as unpleasant as I expected it to be. But I've read worse.