knudsen@ihnss.UUCP (01/11/84)
I bought Herbert's The Jesus Incident to take on a vacation for beach
reading. I "cracked" it a couple days early and it never made it to the
airport. Then I got "Destination: Void," which sets up the conscious Ship
and some of the characters for TJI. What I want to know:
*Are there other books of his in between these two? Seems there could
be any number of "replays" of humanity before TJI.
*Any books \after/ TJI, which ends open-endedly ("Surprise me, holy void!")
*Do any of his other novels deal with similar topics (artificial consciousness,
God, etc.?)
*Since I liked these, should I like "Dune" and its sequels? mike krpw3@fortune.UUCP (01/12/84)
#R:ihnss:-186700:fortune:9900025:000:2148
fortune!rpw3 Jan 12 01:44:00 1984
As far as I know, the "(void)Ship" trilogy is:
(1966) "Destination Void", Frank Herbert. Old book. Still my favorite
of the three, for its "hard science" speculations of consciousness.
Revised and re-issued (1978) with extended chapter headings (to make it
easier to understand?). I think the revisions have too much "spoiler".
The very first chapter has a head that says "We call it Project
Consciousness...(Morgan Hempstead)" a fact that in the original version
you gain only by implication much later in the book. [The very first
version was in "Galaxy" magazine (1965), as "Do I Sleep or Wake".]
(1979) "The Jesus Incident", Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom. Takes place
MANY "replays" after DestVoid. For my taste, weaker than DestVoid;
however Ship has matured considerably since we saw him (it?) last.
The only character from DestVoid is the Chaplain/Psychiatrist.
(1983) "The Lazurus Effect", Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom. Takes place
about 450 years after JesusInc, but is a strict sequel. O.k., good
resolution, neither closed permanently nor hanging unresolved.
As far as other "religious" or "consciousness" books, may I recommend
Herbert's "The Godmakers" (1972). Same quasi-Frankenstein hints as DestVoid,
but no computers, just a planet full of priests who occasionally risk it
all and "make a god", and an investigator who bears more than a passing
to Jorj X McKie (see below).
As far as exploring consciousness in general, there are the four Dune books:
Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune.
And finally, let us not forget "Whipping Star" and "The Dosadi Experiment",
with "saboteur extraordinary" Jorj X McKie, with its sentient stars, telepathic
interstellar telegraph-trees, frog-like Gowachin and their cruel court:
"Justice belongs to those who claim it, but let the claimant beware lest
he create new injustice by his claim and thus set the bloody pendulum of
revenge in its inexorable motion. -- Gowachin aphorism"
Rob Warnock
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