Ahira's Hangar

My two favorite books by Frank Herbert (other than Dune) are Soulcatcher and Whipping Star. I liken Whipping Star to, sorta, a combination of Christopher Priest's (who I personally consider the best British Sci-Fi writer since H.G. Wells) The Inverted World and Indoctrinaire. But, I guess, I mean that more in a "weird new concepts"/emotional sense rather than storyline or device...or anything like that. I've read alot of Herbert's works, in addition to the Dune series, and there are a few I liked alot, like; The Santaroga Barrier, The Green Brain, Destination Void and Hellstrom's Hive, and a few I didn't like.

The Sci-Fi story I like the most by Herbert is Whipping Star with Jorj X McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary, for me, at least, it touched me on some very deep emotional levels as I felt a very strong attachment to sweet, abused Fannie Mae and the other strange alien lifeforms like the Taprisiot--And the way Frank Herbert paints the planetary landscape is very sharp, very distinctive--one can easily find themselves walking the beaches of Division City on Cordiality.

Another thing that REALLY blew me away was the concept of S'eye and interplanetary connectives. You have to realize that I'm as old as snot and first read this book in 1974: generic postulates such as Stargates, Hyperspace, Wormholes and the Manifold really weren't around back then and Whipping Star got me VERY interested in Wormholes, singularities, quantum mechanics and that kinda stuff back then. Heck, Fredrick Pohl's Beyond the Blue Event Horizon hadn't even come out yet! In fact, I'd have to say that The Inverted World and Whipping Star formed the "Stargate" that shot me into the Universe of hyper-intellegent Sci-Fi. Jorj X McKie is in a few other Herbert books and short stories, and many of them are good if not better than alot of stuff out there, but you can never change my opinion that Whipping Star is the best McKie and one of the best Sci-Fi's of all time!

---Like Whipping Star, Soulcatcher is a fairly small book and even though it's Fiction--as opposed to Sci-Fi I believe anyone who reads anything at all should read this book. Soulcatcher takes place in the Oregon woods, near where Herbert (and Ursula K. Le Guin, for that matter) spent most of his life. It's about a disturbed Native American torn between cultures who commits a crime. If I went any futher I'd give it away: it can really tear you up emotionally and make you want to piss on the white man's world! A very heart-wrenching book that I feel should be required reading for all--I was so inspired by this book I named my third collection of poetry after it and wrote a poem in it with a quote unabashedly stolen ripped out of said book! If I ever want to get it published I better pay the Herbert Estate first, if they allow it--

Resisting the Urge

Once again compelled to paper
a tree disturbed by the white man's world
writing on insubstantial almost transparent paper
resisting the urge...

satrically eyeing events as they intersect
impatiently undersexed
smoking cigarettes
pacing about like a matron in a fraternity ward
we're (all) the whackos of the world
creative
insane
intelligent
ignorant
there is only one world

we have to share with it
we may not have asked for it
we have to do the best we can with it
we're (all) the whackos of the world
resisting the urge...-

I am everything and nothing
I am one with all living matter
I am something far more than a sensory system
and it's appetites
I am evolved far beyond you who are called Hoquat
I look backwards to see you
I see your lives based on cowardice
your judgements arise from illusions
you tell me unlimited growth and consumption are good
then your biologists tell me this is cancerous and lethal
to which Hoquat should I listen?

you do not listen
you think you are free to do anything
that comes into your minds
thinking this
you remain afraid to liberate your spirits from restaint

I will tell you why this is
you fear to create because your creation mirrors your true selves
you believe your power lies in an ultimate knowledge
which you forever seek as children seek parental guidance

where is the attonement for your violent acts
throught your histories?
we are born innocent
yet innocense without conscious is a plague upon the earth

I take an innocent of your people to sacrifice
for all the innocents you have murdered
The innocent will go with all the other innocents
into the spirit place
thus will the sky and earth balance-

Must every millenium your cycle be purged?
can you ever, will you ever, think for yourself?
or are you content to perpetuate ignorance
resisting the urge...




*****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 9/15/06 11:59 am
</i>

Great topic danlo.

I first read SoulCatcher...I dunno...15 years ago I guess, and although I haven't read it for a long time, and I don't remember much about it, I'll never forget how it captivated me at the time. A truly great story, and not at all what I was expecting from Herbert I must say.

Although I have a copy of Whipping Star, it's been too long since I read it. I vaguely remember not enjoying it enough to make a lasting impression, but maybe it's due for a re-read.

Hellstrom's Hive is probably my favourite Herbert book apart from Dune. The entire concept of the hive, chilling as it is, is nonetheless beguiling. And like in Dune, I have a special fondness for the quotations that head chapters. I'm always impressed by the realisation of vision, so in general I'm sympathetic to the Hive.

Another Herbert book I'm particularly fond of is The GodMakers, which I was led to by a collection of short stories I have, called Priests of Psi. To my disappointment, it's more like 3 related short stories, of which the title story of the collection was one. (I'd been hoping for a book, damnit. )

A reviewer said this about The GodMakers:

Quote:This is another book that people love or hate; either it's an unreadable mix of religious heresy and nutty politics, or it's a fast-paced and imaginative story with a huge political scope that talks about the infinite potential of the human spirit.

Curious which ones you didn't like danlo?

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

I had trouble following The Dosadi Experiment (which is tough since I love Jorg X McKie) in a couple of spots, but the intrigue was very cool and the ending made up for a hell of a lot--one of the better endings of all time. The Jesus Incident weirded me out--not sure if it had to do with the co-writting or not--but I think that's why I've avoided The Lazarus Effect. I couldn't get into or ever started on The White Plague, even though I thought The Green Brain was awesome and it deeply touched my environmentalist heart (as did Donaldson's the Land). The Green Brain is like Walter Jon William's Metropolitan the main concept is so outlandish you think, "...why the heck am I reading this?" and then it works! And then.. *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 9/15/06 11:49 am
</i>

I quite enjoyed "White Plague", although it's been years since I read it. But then I like apocalyptic sort of "last people in the world" type things. And the method of spreading the plague...brilliant.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>

Haha, no worries. I'll be finished by the time you find it. Anyway, it's been so long since I read The Dosadi Experiment that I barely remember it. The aliens that ate their own young or something wasn't it?

(Anyway, I was wrong, I didn't know where it was, but I found it. Starting it today. ) (Maybe I'll read Hellstrom's Hive next. )

--A

Well, I read Whipping Star yesterday, and can only say that danlo is absolutely right. What a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed. (Amusing reference to South Africa...Heinlein used to do it all the time too.)

Yeah...wow. The Bureau of Sabotage. I like it.

(Now I'm reading The Godmakers. Hellstrom's Hive next...wait...after Priests of Psi. Danlo...you've sent me on a Herbert kick. )

--A

I read the first couple of chapters of Green Brain tonight, and it was weird. Or maybe I just associate wars of humans against ginormous bugs with Heinlein or Orson Scott Card rather than Herbert.

I am trying to read The Santaroga Barrier right now (though reading time is very short). It is promising - mysterious and isolated valley community in California and a researcher heading there to try to figure things out. Looks like someone is trying to kill him right there in the first couple of chapters.

If I find more time, I will try to talk a bit more about The Green Brain.