The attraction of SF books is that they are like telescopes, looking at some point into the far future. They aren't hemmed in by the here and now, instead, in that tiny piece of glass at the very end, you get to see myriad possibilities tinted with a hint of reality, with some futures, of course, being far more realistic than others. SF books come in different genres. You have military, political, biological, psychological, mystery, romance, etc, one common point being they are based on a futuristic society. Many elements are necessary for the creation of an SF book, however, one of my personal favorites is the ability of the author to create either a being, or a society, so alien that I find myself hard put to understand it. However, despite this communication gap, I still find myself immersed just enough that I cannot let go of said book. Knowing how to achieve such a fine balance between creating too much, or too little, induced confusion, is a difficult talent to cultivate. And yet, despite the difficulty, some books have achieved the ability to walk on such a thin tightrope, and one of them is certainly Whipping Star by Frank Herbert. To understand the book, one must first look at the society on which it is based. A society composed of myriad planets, inhabited by several different sentient life-forms. Aliens are a norm of life. They may not be well understood by the humans, but they live among them, work with them, and even form friendly, sometimes sexual, relationships with them. To lessen the chances of spoilers, I'll only give a tiny look at the plot. The main protagonist, McKie, elite operative of the Bureau of Sabotage, is chosen to solve the problem of the dying Caledans and the subsequent deaths or insanity of sentients connected to them. Caledans are the masters of the S'eye, jumpholes from one location to the next, enabling real-time travel from planet to planet. Sentients can go from one planet to the next as easily and speedily as walking from your house, to your neighbor's. The universe has been made tiny. However, Caledans die one after another, until only one is left among the sentients. As McKie learns that one Caledan is the only entity separating him and all the other races from certain death, he realizes that the only way to save everyone, is to understand one of the most un-human races of them all.Transportation and communication are now available for usage in immediate time, no longer needing FTL drives and message lasers which may take hours or years depending on the distance, and this has come with the assistance of aliens, specifically the Taprisiots and Caledans. There are other sentient races as well, such as the Pan Spechis, Palenkis, Wreaves, Beautybarbers, Gowachin, etc. All these are races with their own set of rules and understanding. As is most obvious in such relationships between species, misunderstandings do occur, sometimes with grave results. This book plays exactly on that premise, blowing up the grave results that can come out of miscommunication into magnificent proportions. Misunderstandings between human and human, that's small potatoes. But between alien and human, aaah...that's truly where great potential world destroying results lie. Here's an example of a human and Caledan conversation. McKie talks first."What is a connective?""That which extends from one to eight, that is a connective. Correct use of verb to be?""Huh?""Identity verb. Strange concept?""No, no! What did you mean there one to eight?""Unbinding stuff.""You mean like a solvent?""Before solvent.""What the devil could before have to do with solvents?""Perhaps more internal than solvents.""Madness...Internal?""Unbounded place of connectives.""We're right back where we started. What's a connective?""Uncontained opening between.""Between what?""Between one and eight.""Ohhh, no!""Also, between one and x."...And it just goes on from there. Infact, I find it quite amazing that I kept on reading the book. Something about it made me keep on reading, and I'm glad, because the ending was worth the headache I had trying to make sense of the dialogue.Cheers!
The ultimate SF wordsmith, Frank Herbert takes on an ambitious project with the classic book Whipping Star. In a universe made smaller by instantaneous travel, a mystery unfolds as the creatures who make such travel possible are disappearing. In fact, many have transferred their "connectives" such that there is just one, the Caleban named Fannie Mae. Jorj X. McGie of the Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab), an agency responsible for slowing down a hyper-efficient universal government, is specifically called to investigate. McGie uncovers a plot to kill the last Caleban which would trigger the "discontinuity" of all thinking beings (sentients) who have used the services of the Calebans. The means for Fannie Mae's "dissolution" is via a ritual flogging (the "whipping" part of the book title) whose nature McKie must understand in time to prevent the end of sentient life. If this sounds like a big pill of disbelief, it is, and needs much of the unguent of Herbert's story-telling ability for readers to swallow.Although the overall framework of the book is that of a mystery, the bulk of the narrative focuses on the development of communications between McGie and Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae can perceive McGie only as the smallest component, an accelerated molecule. McGie must recognize the true nature of Fannie Mae despite the strange use of jargon by the alien (leaving readers with new appreciation for the use of "connectives", "discontinuity" and "dissolution"). Herbert shows great skill in depicting the growing understanding between the two. The topic of alien communication is seldom tackled well in SF. I would put forth as examples of good effort Sagan's Contact (using math as language) and Miéville's Embassytown (using action as language). The preceding is perhaps the only part of the book which succeeds. The mystery, presented with Herbert's flair for the dramatic, is not as compelling as the villains are stock characters. The resolution seems abrupt and telegraphed. However, I say bravo for bravado. Herbert goes for yard and just misses. A high 3.5 stars. This book heightens the expectation for its sequel, The Dosadi Experiment, which I look forward to re-reading next.
What do You think about Whipping Star (1986)?
I'd rate this story a clear "five" except for it's treatment of women who are always one of the "bad guys." While a central character calls herself "Fanny Mae" she's so alien that the concept of gender does not apply."Whipping Star" is set in a far future and is about humans and a Caleban named Fanny Mae. They are trying to communicate to solve the problem that nearly all sentient beings in the universe about to experience the ultimate discontinuity. The Caleban are extra dimensional and simply don’t seem to understand concepts we take for granted such as time or space. We can’t see, hear, nor feel them. We apparently are even more unsubstantial to them than they are to us. The Caleban largely deal with “connectives” which they explained as “uncontained opening between” and elaborates on that with “Open-ended concept. Nothing contains everything. Everything contains nothing.” The phrase “no common referent” was used frequently as human and Caleban struggle to find common ground. Much of the humor in the book revolves around the resulting misunderstandings.
—Marc
I read Herbert's Dune Messiah when I was 11 (it was what I could afford at a school book fair), not realizing it was a sequel. It was confusing to a 5th grader. A few years later, I read The Dosadi Experiment, also not realizing that it was a sequel...of sorts. Also confusing. What a Mind Herbert had! Creating the alien concepts...alien interactions .. much more challenging than straight up human-only science fiction. I wish he had written more of these rather than churning out the drivel of the later Dune chain, which jumped the shark for me halfway through God Emperor...
—Jim Razinha
This book probably only deserves one star. It's really bad in some respects and pretty much the paragon of bad science fiction. There's really no plot. Herbert gives a crisis, which seems completely unmotivated, like the actions of most of the characters, that you just can't seem to care about. Some stuff happens, then some poorly conceived mystical / quasi-scientific revelation unsatisfyingly solves the crisis in the last dozen pages. A bunch of nonsense mathematical sounding terms get thrown around despite having absolutely no meaning. The few good ideas which seem to be floating around the book never break their way out of the background and ultimately go unexplored by a book which seems simultaneously too short and abounding with verbiage.At the same time though, I kept reading it. And I kept wanting to read it. Because it's Frank Herbert and because I need to read all of those quotes that begin the chapters, and for some reason all of those reasons listed above seem detract less in his writing than they would with other authors.
—Pat
