Tag Archives: Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert vs. Isaac Asimov

Frank Herbert

Today (October 8) marks the birth of Frank Herbert (1920-1986).  Herbert wrote a number of novels and short stories, but he will always be known as the author of DuneDune was originally serialized in Analog (formerly Astounding) starting in December 1963.  It was published in book form in 1965.  The original publisher was Chilton.  You know, the one that does the auto manuals.

Dune is set in a galactic empire, which is of course ruled by an Emperor.  Herbert wrote a number of sequels, and his son Brian has coauthored additional sequels and prequels with Kevin J. Anderson.

John W. Campbell, Jr.

Herbert wasn’t the first, nor was he the last, to use a galactic empire in a work of science fiction.  One of the most prominent people to do the same was Isaac Asimov (who also wasn’t the first).  Asimov started his Foundation series in the pages of Astounding roughly two decades earlier.  It’s interesting to note that John W. Campbell was the editor for the original appearances of both series.  I’m not going to go there in this post, because that sounds like a Ph.D. dissertation in Literature.

While comparisons have been made between the Dune series and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Asimov intentionally patterned the Foundation stories after Gibbon’s work.  Several novels were set in the same universe before the time of the Foundation. Asimov would later go on to write additional novels in the last decade of his life and tie the series in with his robot stories, both the short stories concerning Susan Calvin and the detective novels starring Elijah Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw.  There were also a few sequels coauthored and/or authored by other writers.

Isaac Asimov

Both Asimov and Herbert have been dead for a number of years.  The influence of these two works has been tremendous.  If you go into any bookstore today, most of the books by Asimov will be from the Foundation series, and most of the books by Herbert will be from the Dune series.  Few, if any, of the titles you find by these authors will be outside these series.

Dune seems to be the more popular of the two at the moment, in part because new Dune titles are regularly being published, and also because there’s another film in the works.  Foundation seems to be languishing a bit in comparison.

I read all the Foundation books Asimov wrote, although not all the galactic empire novels and none of the sequels.  I’ve only read the original DuneDune Messiah and Children of Dune are in the TBR pile.  I intend to reread Dune later this year; I first read it about 15 years ago.  I read the original Foundation Trilogy…much longer ago than that, like in high school.

So I’m toying with the idea of reading the first three Dune books and the original Foundation Trilogy.  This will be over the next year or three.  I’ve got some other things to get through first.  It will be interesting to see how they have stood the test of time from when I was younger.

As for what prompted this idea, well, that’s the topic of an upcoming post.

 

When the Void is Your Destination

Destination: Void
Frank Herbert
ebook $7.99

A few months ago, I posted about Frank Herbert’s birthday and read a couple of his short stories.  I’ve had a few of his novels sitting around for, well, quite some time.  So I started reading Destination: Void.

I finished it two days ago.  Up until a few years ago, I wouldn’t start another book until I had finished the one I was reading.  Lately, I’ve started reading whatever is at hand resulting in a number of books lying around in various stages of completion.  Destination:  Void was one of those.

Before I review the book, I want to say that this was the revised edition.  The novel was originally published in the 1960s.  A revised edition was published in the late 1970s, shortly before Herbert and Bill Ransom collaborated on a sequel, The Jesus IncidentContinue reading

Two Shorts by Frank Herbert

So I actually had some time last night to sit and read.  I read two short stories by Frank Herbert since yesterday was his birthday.

The first one I read was “Encounter in a Lonely Place”.  The ISFDB lists it as having first been published in The Book of Frank Herbert.

It’s short tale about a man who gets into a conversation with the village bachelor.  The bachelor had looked over the man’s shoulder and seen him reading an article on ESP.  (This was published in the 70s, remember.)

The bachelor tells the man about his ability to read minds, or rather one mind, that of the woman he loves.  This freaks her out, and she flees.  Of course she turns up before the story ends, but as to whether the ending is happy, well, that I ain’t gonna tell.

I quite enjoyed this tale.  There’s not a lot to it, but it was well done.  I have a fondness for science fiction that takes place in ordinary settings and involves ordinary people.

The other story I read was “Operation Haystack”, the third of four about a special agent named Lewis Orne.  He’s an operative for the Bureau of Investigation and Adjustment.  It was published in 1959.

In other words, he tries to help the government control things from behind the scenes.  In this story, he’s not the only one manipulating things.  Orne has only a few hours to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the stability of the galactic empire.  It’s not called an empire, but that’s essentially the role of the government in this story.

This one had some gender politics in it that would be politically incorrect today.  (No, that’s not the reason I enjoyed it.  Well, not the only reason.)

I enjoyed this story enough to want to give the other Lewis Orne stories a try.

Herbert also has a short series about a government agency that is sanctioned on sabotaging other government agencies.  This series is set in a multi-alien galaxy.  It consists of the short stories “A Matter of Traces” and “The Tactful Saboteur” and the novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment.  I’m looking forward to reading them as well.

Frank Herbert at 98

Frank Herbert was born on this date, October 8, in 1920.  He passed away in 1986.

Herbert was the author of Dune and a number of sequels.  (Note to self:  reread Dune and read the sequels written by Herbert.)

But he wrote a number of other novels, including The Santaroga Barrier, The Dosadi Experiment, and Under Pressure, to name a few.  His collected short fiction was published about five or six years ago.

Today, though, Herbert is remembered primarily for Dune.  I suspect that’s because Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have turned it into a franchise.

The influence of Dune cannot be overstated.  If it’s been out of print since it was first published, I’m not aware of it.  The book is rightly considered a classic.

Herbert should be remembered for the other work he did, though.  I’ve only read a few of his other books, and those were years ago.  I enjoyed them and have several novels of his novels that I haven’t read sitting on the shelves.

In honor of Herbert’s birthday, I’ll try to read a short story this evening.  I’ve been reading some older science fiction over the last few months, although I’ve not blogged about any of it.  I’ll try to include one of Herbert’s novels in the mix.