The other Frank Herbert books

The Sons of Idaho · Post by **The Sons of Idaho** » 24 Feb 2008 16:12

So i've never read any other Frank Herbert books, and I kinda want to check some out.

Not sure where to start though.

Can you guys give me some recommendations?

Post by **Freakzilla** » 24 Feb 2008 17:03

I liked The Jesus Incident, but I didn't care much for the sequels. It gives some insight on FH's idea of AI.

All his books were good but to me they all seemed like he was testing ideas for his Duniverse.

Tleszer · Post by **Tleszer** » 24 Feb 2008 17:07

I enjoyed "The Eyes of Heisenberg" and "The Santaroga Barrier;" elements of both can be seen in Dune. "Heiesnberg" deals with an aftermath of a long past cyborg war, the ruler-ship of supermen, and the idea of inducing or taking away certain genetic factors in an embryo in the process of creating humans and possibly supermen (but not like the BG breeding program).

"Santaroga" deals with the seemingly innocent, but also fanatic, people of a town whose society revolves around a substance that creates a sort of mass-hypnosis/enlightenment-feeling amongst its people. Problems arise when an outsider tries to enter into the town's "barrier" to learn about the town's secrets.

Both novels are fairly short. I bought them for about $6.99 at a Borders Books. Although I enjoyed them, "Heisenberg" has an ending (which is very Dune-like imo) that could have used a little bit more clarification and "Santaroga" seemed to be slow in the beginning to me but picked up about halfway through.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » 24 Feb 2008 19:11

Freakzilla wrote:I liked The Jesus Incident, but I didn't care much for the sequels. It gives some insight on FH's idea of AI.

All his books were good but to me they all seemed like he was testing ideas for his Duniverse.

I thought the Void "trilogy" was really good.

I'm still looking for the The Ascension Factor, I read the first three thinking it was a strict trilogy and found out a few months later that there was a fourth book, I can't find a copy ANYWHERE!

Nekhrun · Post by **Nekhrun** » 24 Feb 2008 19:14

Eyes of Heisenberg was good. I really enjoyed Hellstrom's Hive. Godmakers, Whipping Star, and the Dosadi Experiment are all interesting reads as well. Heaven Makers was a let down.

Post by **Freakzilla** » 24 Feb 2008 19:18

Maybe when I get finished with the last few chapters of the Dune books I'll start doing his "other" books in the reading group.

Post by **Omphalos** » 24 Feb 2008 20:30

Eyes of Heisenberg is pretty good. If you want to try something else, get a hold of his short story books. Eye is one. The Book of Frank Herbert is another, and there are two others, IIRC. Look on Amazon.

Post by **Freakzilla** » 24 Feb 2008 21:10

I enjoyed Eye, there's great artwork in it too.

SimonH · Post by **SimonH** » 24 Feb 2008 21:22

Nekhrun wrote:Eyes of Heisenberg was good. I really enjoyed Hellstrom's Hive. Godmakers, Whipping Star, and the Dosadi Experiment are all interesting reads as well. Heaven Makers was a let down.

I second all of the above

My favourites are Dosadi and Godmakers. Hellstrom's Hive is not far behind.
I liked the Green Brain - would have liked a continuation of this as a series.

I'm half way through the Pandora series. Not sure on it yet. Destination Void was enjoyable, but I think I may have missed the point of the Jesus Incident. A bit more thinking time required maybe...

Post by **Freakzilla** » 24 Feb 2008 21:36

SimonH wrote:
Nekhrun wrote:Eyes of Heisenberg was good. I really enjoyed Hellstrom's Hive. Godmakers, Whipping Star, and the Dosadi Experiment are all interesting reads as well. Heaven Makers was a let down.
I second all of the above My favourites are Dosadi and Godmakers. Hellstrom's Hive is not far behind.
I liked the Green Brain - would have liked a continuation of this as a series.

I'm half way through the Pandora series. Not sure on it yet. Destination Void was enjoyable, but I think I may have missed the point of the Jesus Incident. A bit more thinking time required maybe...

Oops! I meant to say I liked Destination: Void, I didn't care much for TJI.

The clones creeped me out I guess.

SimonH · Post by **SimonH** » 24 Feb 2008 21:43

the scream room got me

and yep - the clones were pretty out there...

I just wasn't sure if the goals/directions indicated at the start of the book were achieved? did thomas successfully complete Ship's challenge? Did the visit to the hill of skulls do anything significant to Waela? Maybe that needs another thread

Robspierre · Post by **Robspierre** » 24 Feb 2008 22:35

Freakzilla wrote:I enjoyed Eye, there's great artwork in it too.

Its in my to read pile. Sigh, probably this summer so much to bloody read for school.

Rob

SimonH · Post by **SimonH** » 25 Feb 2008 00:28

Simon wrote:
Freakzilla wrote:I liked The Jesus Incident, but I didn't care much for the sequels. It gives some insight on FH's idea of AI.

All his books were good but to me they all seemed like he was testing ideas for his Duniverse.
I thought the Void "trilogy" was really good.

I'm still looking for the The Ascension Factor, I read the first three thinking it was a strict trilogy and found out a few months later that there was a fourth book, I can't find a copy ANYWHERE!

Simon - I just found a heap of copies on http://www.abebooks.com.au when looking for myself.

Phaedrus · Post by **Phaedrus** » 25 Feb 2008 01:35

Soul Catcher is excellent.

It's not SF, but it's still a really good book.

tanzeelat · Post by **tanzeelat** » 25 Feb 2008 03:00

I've read all of FH's novels, but it was a long time ago. In the last couple of years, I've reread The Green Brain (good), The Santaroga Barrier (good), Whipping Star (okay), The Godmakers (reads like a fix-up), Direct Descent (okay), The Eyes of Heisenberg (didn't like), and The Heaven Makers (not one of his better ones). Plus several collections (stories are variable, and many are badly dated).

The Sons of Idaho · Post by **The Sons of Idaho** » 25 Feb 2008 10:35

Well, I'm hearing recommendations for pretty much all of them.

That's a good thing, I guess.
I still have to figure out where to start though.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Spice Grandson · Post by **Spice Grandson** » 28 Feb 2008 18:48

The Sons of Idaho wrote:Well, I'm hearing recommendations for pretty much all of them.

That's a good thing, I guess.
I still have to figure out where to start though.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Depends on what your tastes are, really. If you don't mind Frank in hard sci-fi mode, Destination Void is pretty good; the ending is practically perfect and makes the entire read worthwhile.

If you want to read Frank's only non-SF title, I'd HIGHLY recommend Sould Catcher. Damn good story.

The rest can be compared with Dune on some level but each is its own animal. My favs are THE GREEN BRAIN and THE SANTAROGA BARRIER, for what it's worth.

Illogical Banana · Post by **Illogical Banana** » 28 Feb 2008 21:53

I would recommend any of the books I've read by Frank Herbert so far.

Whipping Star and Dosadi Experiment - This series is great.

Destination: Void - as Byron said, if you can get past all the technobabble its great. I wouldn't recommend reading a copy from the 60's though. That's the one I read, it was just a continuous book (no chapters or breaks in the text) and had practically no margins. It was a fun experience, which I'll never have to go through again. I have a more recent copy now, plus the old one fell apart as I read it.

The Jesus Incident - I just read this, it was a great book. It hasn't compelled me to read the next two yet, but I'd blame that on myself, not the book.

The Green Brain, Santaroga Barrier, Eyes of Heisenberg, Direct Descent - These are short reads, very interesting stories though. If you like a Foundation type book, you'd probably like Direct Descent.

If anyone is interested to know, the other two short story collections are called The Best of Frank Herbert 1952 - 64 and 65-70. You can also find these two combined into one hardback book, I've only seen it from British sellers though, so it may not have been made in the US. There's also a Worlds of Frank Herbert and Priests of Psi.

I've only read one of his short stories, The GM Effect, but it was a good read. The GM part stands for Genetic Memory, if anyone was interested.

Most of his stories, apart from their standalone quality, will give you insight into Dune related concepts and how they came about and evolved. So that alone makes them worth a read in my opinion.

SimonH · Post by **SimonH** » 28 Feb 2008 22:02

Illogical Banana wrote:Destination: Void - as Byron said, if you can get past all the technobabble its great. I wouldn't recommend reading a copy from the 60's though. That's the one I read, it was just a continuous book (no chapters or breaks in the text) and had practically no margins. It was a fun experience, which I'll never have to go through again. I have a more recent copy now, plus the old one fell apart as I read it.

- my copy is of this era. I didn't mind the structure, but there are so many spelling mistakes (easily 10 or more). And those are just the ones that I noticed (I don't have a particularly great eye for detail)

great story though. will have to re-read as I always seem to plough through the first time with novels

orald · Post by **orald** » 07 Mar 2008 22:22

I've read a few of his other books. Just now I'm in the thick of reading The Dosadi Experiment.

I've read...

The Eyes of Heisenberg: Few years ago, barely remember it, but the impression was ok.
As I remember, it's about the uncertainty of gene manipulation(also a point in the Duniverse, both in BG and BT programs), in this case by gene slicing as we do today, and how life prevails and always find a way to surpass man-made barriers.

Tactful Saboteur&Whipping Star: First is a short story which creates the univere for the later and for The Dosadi Experiment. Both were ok, but frankly, this kind of fantastic-like universe isn't for my liking, not even as a tool to explore different aspects of humanity.
I already suspect Dosadi would fall to that category as well.

Heaven Makers: Ok, the premise is very nice but the execution is...outdated? I don't know...just lukewarm.

The God Makers:(if this is the one where someone becomes a god. i'm not sure if it's The Priests of Psi or this) Weak. Not really worth the read unless you have to read every FH story.

Under Pressure(Dragon Under The Sea): Nice, interesting twists and turns, but it's essetially a murder mistery dressed up as a "psychological novel"(as Wiki' calls the term).

Destination: Void : I know, I know, it's choke-full of bad psychological and technical technobabble, but it's just so fun you'd ignore it to see what happens...and like someone said, the ending, oh, the ending! I just added to my sig a little quote from it too.

The Jesus Incident: You know how when you start reading a new book that is in some universe full of unusual stuff and you have to adapt to it as you read? That's about it for this book. Nice overall.

The Lazarus Effect: About same as TJI but you have alot less to learn before you understand what's going on. I'd say this is more plot centered as supposed to philosophy as TJI.

The Ascention Factor: I've started reading it once but got bored. I'll probably return to it later. I guess it's also going as TLE.

The White Plague: Brilliant idea! A bit less on the execution as it goes quite slowly. But man, I want to grow up to be O'neil.

Man of Two Worlds: Starts very promising...then plumits to mediocrity at best. I'm not sure if it's true, but if my assumption that Brian was the one responsible for the last half of it then it explains the drop.

I have The Ascention Factor, among others, on PDF file if you want it, Simon.