HERBERT, Frank (Patrick)

1) (1920-1986)

   US writer born in Tacoma, Washington, and educated at the University of Washington, Seattle. FH worked as a reporter and editor on a number of West Coast newspapers before becoming a full-time writer. He lived in Washington State.He began publishing sf with "Looking for Something?" for Startling Stories in 1952. During the next decade he wasan infrequent contributor to the sf magazines, producing fewer than 20 short stories (which nevertheless constituted a majority of his short fiction; he never made a significant impact with work below novel length). At this time he also wrote one novel, THE DRAGON IN THE SEA (1955 ASF as"Under Pressure"; 1956; vt 21st Century Sub 1956; vt Under Pressure 1974), a much praised sf thriller containing complex psychological investigations aboard a submarine of the future. His emergence as a writer of major stature commenced with the publication in ASF in 1963-4 of "Dune World", the first part of his Dune series. It was followed in 1965 by "The Prophet of Dune"; the two were amalgamated into DUNE (fixup 1965), which won the first NEBULA for Best Novel, shared the HUGO, and became one of the most famous of all sf novels.DUNE is a novel of extraordinary complexity. It encompasses intergalactic POLITICS of a decidedly feudal nature, the development of PSI POWERS, RELIGION - specifically the reluctant but inevitable evolution of its protagonist into a MESSIAH - and WAR. Its primary impact, however, lay in its treatment of ECOLOGY, a theme which it brought into the forefront of modern sf readers' and writers' awareness. The desert planet Arrakis, with its giant sandworms and its Bedouin-likehuman inhabitants, the Fremen, clinging to the most precarious of ecological niches through fanatical scrupulousness in water conservation, is possibly the most convincing PLANETARY-ROMANCE environment created by any sf writer. With its blend (or sometimes clash) of complex intellectual discourse and Byzantine intrigue, DUNE provided a template for FH's more significant later work. Sequels soon began to appear which carried on the arguments of the original in testingly various manners and with an intensity of discourse seldom encountered in the sf field. Dune Messiah (1969) elaborates the intrigue at the cost of other elements, but Childrenof Dune (1976) recaptures much of the strength of the original work and addresses another recurrent theme in FH's work - the EVOLUTION of Man, in this case into SUPERMAN; both these novels, along with the original, were assembled as The Great Dune Trilogy (omni 1979 UK). God Emperor of Dune (1981) followed, then Heretics of Dune (1984 UK) and Chapter House Dune(1985 UK; vt Chapterhouse: Dune 1985 US), these three being assembled as The Second Great Dune Trilogy (omni 1987 UK). The last volume of the sequence is comparatively desultory, but God Emperor of Dune and Heretics of Dune, like the enormously extended development section in the first movement of a great symphony, work and rework the initial material into more and more elaborate presentations of the initial themes. As a whole, the sequence almost fully justified FH's decision - certainly astute in marketing terms - to so comprehensively draw out his original inspiration. Although Dune dominated his career from 1965-much later a film based onit, DUNE (1984), was released - FH began in the mid-1960s to publish other novels and series with admirable regularity. The Green Brain (1966) features mutated insects which achieve corporate intelligence (HIVE-MINDS). Destination: Void (1966; rev 1978), a clotted novel on aCYBERNETICS theme, concentrates on the construction of an AI aboard a starship, where it comes to the conclusion that it is God (GODS AND DEMONS). The Pandora sequence, all written with Bill RANSOM - The JesusIncident (1979), The Lazarus Effect (1983) and The Ascension Factor (1988) - follows on from Destination: Void, exploring in exhaustive detail the implications of the earlier book while placing in a PLANETARY-ROMANCE frame the complex and developing relationship between God-"protected" human stock and the natives of Pandora. The Eyes of Heisenberg (1966) is about GENETIC ENGINEERING and IMMORTALITY, and The Heaven Makers (1968; rev 1977) again copes with immortality. The Santaroga Barrier (1968), describing a higher order of INTELLIGENCE evolved within an isolated, near- UTOPIAN community, served to emphasize the thematic centrality of intelligence throughout FH's work, in which consistent attempts are made not only to suggest different, or evolved, types of intelligence but to describe them in detail. Among contemporary sf writers only Ian WATSON has addressed this theme as frequently and as convincingly. ALIEN intelligence (see also LIVING WORLDS) is examined in Whipping Star (1970; rev 1977)and, more searchingly, in its sequel The Dosadi Experiment (1977) which, while orchestrating a plot of multi-levelled intrigue, describes several different alien species in detail, examines the effect of an experiment in extreme OVERPOPULATION, and gifts its hero and heroine with advanced PSI POWERS, including total mind transference.FH's other sf novels include:The God Makers (1960 Fantastic as "The Priests of Psi"; exp 1972), in which a god is reified through human endeavours; the rather surly The White Plague (1982), in which a man driven into mad misogyny destroys thewomen of the world; and the minor Man of Two Worlds (1986) with his son Brian HERBERT. More important than any of these, however, is Hellstrom'sHive (1973), which derives its title from the film The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) but otherwise has little connection with it. Arguably FH's most successful novel after DUNE, this presents in persuasive detail an underground colony of humans selectively bred, on insect-hive principles, into various specializations. In this society the individual's existence is of minor importance; the continuation of the hive as a functioning entity is paramount. The novel points up the contradictions of a society which in its own terms is a successful utopia, but which from an outside human viewpoint is horrific.Much of FH's work makes difficult reading. His ideas were genuinely developed concepts, not merely decorative notions, but they were sometimes embodied in excessively complicated plots and articulated in prose which did not always match the level of thinking, so that much of his writing seemed dense and opaque. His best novels, however, were the work of a speculative intellect with few rivals in modern sf.

   MJE/JC

   Other works: The Worlds of Frank Herbert (coll 1970 UK; with 1 story added 1971 US); Soul Catcher (1972), a non-sf novel; The Book of Frank Herbert (coll 1973); The Best of Frank Herbert (coll 1975 UK; cut vt The Best of Frank Herbert: 1952-1970 1976 UK; text restored vt in 2 vols as The Best of Frank Herbert 1952-1964 1977 UK and The Best of Frank Herbert 1965-1970 1977 UK); Direct Descent (fixup 1980); The Priests ofPsi (coll 1980 UK); Eye (coll 1985).Nonfiction: Survival and the Atom (coll 1952); New World or No World (anth 1970), an environmental anthology; Threshold: The Blue Angels Experience (1973); Without Me, You're Nothing: The Essential Guide to Home Computers (1980) with MaxBarnard; The Maker of Dune: Insights of a Master of Science Fiction: Frank Herbert (coll 1987) ed Tim O'Reilly; The Notebooks of Frank Herbert's Dune (1988) ed Brian Herbert; Songs of Muad'Dib: The Poetry of Frank Herbert (coll 1992), ed.

   About the author: Frank Herbert (1980) by David M. Miller; Frank Herbert (1981) by Timothy O'Reilly; The Dune Encyclopedia (anth 1984) ed Willis E. MCNELLY; Dune Master: A Frank Herbert Bibliography (1988) by Daniel J.H. Levack.

   See also: ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION; COMMUNICATIONS; COMPUTERS; ESP; FANTASY; FORCE FIELD; GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION; GAMES AND TOYS; HISTORY IN SF; LINGUISTICS; LONGEVITY (IN WRITERS AND PUBLICATIONS); MUSIC; PARANOIA; SPACESHIPS; UNDER THE SEA.

2)   See:Bill RANSOM.