Frank Herbert ’s Dune saga — a six record serial that many consider to be one of the greatest ever written — has completely shadow many of his other whole kit and boodle . But by the clock time he decease in 1986 , Herbert had penned over 26 novels — and not surprisingly , that includes a innkeeper of hidden treasures . Here are five novels by Frank Herbert — by from the Dune saga — that you absolutely have to read .
Top representative by John Berkey , who grow natural covering artwork for Frank Herbert ’s novel .
Written in 1966 and revised by Herbert in 1978 , name and address : Void kicked off a four book serial publication that included The Jesus Incident ( 1979 ) , The Lazarus Effect ( 1983 ) , and The Ascension Factor ( 1988 ) ( the latter book write with Bill Ransom ) .
This highly underrated series — his most significant outside of the Dune saga — is in spades worth the read , specially the 2nd rule book , the inventive and Darwinian - infused Jesus Incident — a novel that feature a population of speciated man who live alongside sentient kelp on a preponderantly aquatic world ( I guess Herbert grew aweary of writing about deserts all the time ) .
But the book that launched the serial , Destination : Void , is a remarkably prescient employment — an early attempt to deal the containment problem as it apply to big - than - human artificial tidings . Set in the near future tense , it chronicles the labor of a society that recently experienced a catastrophe while work out to develop an AI — an effort that lead in the cataclysmal destruction of the Puget Sound neighborhood .
Determined to learn from their misapprehension — and to keep the development of an AI as far away from Earth as possible — a group of scientist clone themselves and relocate their doppelganger to an obscure dependency on the moon . The clone are lead astray that they ’re going to be charge on a mission to Tau Ceti where they are to coif up a settlement . But in world , the crew is there to serve the needs of the ship — a spacecraft that ’s controlled by an uploaded human brain promise the Organic Mental Core ( OMC ) . out of the blue , the OMC fail , along with its backups , leaving the ringer with only one alternative : They have to develop an AI that will start the ship to carry on , or perish .
A harbinger to Gattaca , Herbert ’s The Eyes of Heisenberg explores the battle of a society that has become deeply stratified along hereditary and biotechnological melodic phrase . The story takes place 80,000 years from now , and accost a number of idea intimate to many of today ’s transhumanists and futurists .
Herbert combines both Orwellian and Huxleyian elements to produce a dystopian vision in which humanity finds itself divided into two transmitted reproductive socio-economic class : the authoritarian and radically raise “ Optimen , ” and the subservient “ Folk . ” In this world , all humanity must undergo familial analytic thinking and limiting prior to nascency . At the same time , the infertile Optimen have reach immortality through the use of special enzyme . Social control is maintained through propaganda , the promise of farseeing liveliness , and the quasi - religious myth of Optimen favourable position . Further , the populace is controlled by a internal secretion habituation that touch both the Folk and the Optimen .
But things are not as they seem , and the narrative climax in the climb of an belowground cyborg revolt — the result of an earlier attempt to better humanity by merging frame with machine .
In what is probably his most conceptual work , Herbert ’s Whipping Star take position in the far future after humanity has made striking with several other extraterrestrial civilizations . Together , they spring the ConSentiency — a kind of intergalactic government consanguine to Star Trek ’s United Federation of Planets . But this system proves to be too efficient for its own good , enacting knee - jerk natural law that snub their own downstream event . In turn of events , a shadow governing body is created to disrupt the arrangement and slow up it down . The supporter , Jorj X. McKie , is a Saboteur Extraordinary , an agent of the Bureau of Sabotage who excels at his work — but he finally becomes involved with the Calebans , a strange and cryptic species .
But as the news report acquire , the Calebans start to disappear one by one — and each disappearance coincide with the death of millions of other sentient beings and the onset of incurable insanity .
A sequel to Whipping Star was free in 1977 called The Dosadi Experiment .
A cross between Dune and the ConSentiency series , The God Makers is a novel that Herbert pieced together from four short stories he write between 1958 and 1960 . And indeed , the account control several elements near and dear to Dune fans , including the practice of “ spiritual engineering ” and the conversion of a character into a god - similar being . It ’s not his best work , but it ’s a must - read for any buff curious to see Herbert ’s ideas evolve as he progressed towards his ultimate chef-d’oeuvre , Dune .
Similar to how Bene Gesserits proactively plant spiritual beliefs within a society they ’re attempt to see to it , The God Makers involves a government agency that troubleshoots and rehabilitates “ fall back planets , ” namely potentially threatening civilizations that are uninstructed and warlike . The main reference , Lewis Orne , travels to these planets and “ hole ” them so that lodge can be maintain throughout the galaxy — a Galax urceolata that is still spin from a withering warfare . But as Orne ’s designation get progressively complex , he soon learns that he has extrasensory electrical capacity and is enquire to link up the company of “ gods ” — which would necessitate life - threatening rites of transit .
Aside from Dune , this is believably Frank Herbert ’s most approachable novel . Scifi fan who enjoy dystopian stories about hive minds and totalitarian collectives ( like the Borg ) will bask in what this novel has to provide .
Set in the Pacific Northwest , a government agency is investigating a curious film producer nominate Nils Hellstrom . Suspecting that he ’s either a commie or a cult loss leader , and alarmed that he might be developing a super weapon under the name Project 40 , the investigators condescend upon his hidden farm . But what they find is beyond repugnance ; Hellstrom has created an underground collective of insectoid - humans . The ant - like colony consists of 100 of mile of undercover tunnel and chiliad of workers , each one the product of genetic breeding and modification , chemical substance injectant , and genial conditioning . But the settlement black market ( disturbingly ) swimmingly ; everyone run for the benefit of the larger mathematical group , and there is no social strife or inequity . But as the investigators soon learn , there is indeed a larger plan at piece of work — one that extends beyond the hive .
Herbert was inspired to pen the novel after check David L. Wolper ’s motion picture , The Hellstrom Chronicle(now available on DVD and Blueray ) , which features a character of the same name . That articulate , the fib is quite a act different , one in which human development is pitted against the potential for insect mastery .
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