The Green Brain

 

By Frank Herbert

What if you could get rid of all the nasty bugs and replace them with "better" bugs? That is the idea behind The Green Brain. 

So the Chinese are the first to embrace the idea and are eager to spread the effort to the rest of the world. But what they are not revealing is that their effort to rid China of "bad" bugs and replace them with modified bees has resulted in massive crop failures. 

So Brazil has been implementing the Chinese plan and wholesale extermination of insects has been undertaken. But the insects seem to be fighting back. Deep in the jungle, the insects have created a brain, a brain to guide them in their fight to survive against the poison onslaught from the human world. 

A group of investigators enter the jungle trying to track reports of giant insects and of organized attacks by insects. But it doesn't go well for them at all. Almost everyone at their camp gets killed when the insects launch an attack against the camp. Three of them manage to get to an amphibious vehicle and land it in a river they hope will get them back closer to civilization. The vehicle was seriously damaged in the insect attack and is nearly defunct. The three people have to cope with the muggy heat, the lack of food, the dangers of the river and continuing attacks by the organized insects. But all the insects want is to bring the people to the green brain so it can try to talk sense to the humans, that their wholesale insect slaughter is endangering all life on the planet.

This book dates from the 1960s. Hopefully we now know that insects are vital to the ecology of the planet and an attempt to exterminate them all is just foolishness. So the whole premise of the book is rather silly. But besides that, most of the story is concerned with the three survivors traveling down the river and that part of the story was boring. So all in all, not a great read.

Hellstrom's Hive

By Frank Herbert

A well-know but eccentric filmmaker, Hellstrom, who specializes in nature films, has come to the attention of a nameless government agency. One of Hellstrom's workers left a few papers lying in a college library and the papers were seen by the Agency, papers that hinted at a new and profitable method of metallurgy or even a powerful new weapon. Agents who were sent to snoop at Hellstrom's private compound in rural Oregon have gone missing.
More agents are sent in to snoop. They find a peaceful but unnaturally quiet farm surrounded by hills and ranch land. A few people are observed coming and going from the barn occasionally. Hellstrom is interviewed and claims no knowledge of the missing agents who visited his valley posing as birdwatchers and tourists.
Hellstrom is a liar. He knows exactly what happened to the agents. They were grabbed, interrogated and tortured and their dead bodies consigned to the vats. The vats in which Hellstrom and his 50,000 strong hive of specially bred humans brew their disgusting mush, which goes to feed the worker class. And all this is going on under this peaceful rural valley containing this nest of repulsive semi-humans who are also brewing a powerful weapon with which to subdue the rest of humankind.

This was a weird story. The author's sympathies seem to lie more with the Hive than with the outsiders. I found the whole Hive community gross and repulsive. Actually, no one in the story is really sympathetic. The hivers and the government people are equally vile. Still it made for a fairly interesting if extremely unlikely story.

The Dosadi Experiment

By Frank Herbert

Jorj X McKie, from Herbert's novel The Whipping Star, is back to solve a new mystery: Dosadi. Dosadi is a toxic planet where a group of humans and Gowachin were confined within a rift valley.  They are trapped in the valley and along the rim by what they call the God Wall. The God Wall is maintained and powered by a Caleban, celestial beings who appear to be actual stars. No one may exit through the God Wall except via one method, which McKie discovers after he arrives in the valley. 

McKie has a close relationship with one particular Caleban, Fannie Mae. In the past, he rescued Fannie Mae from torture and certain death. Fannie Mae reveals that the only way to leave Dosadi is in a different body: "McKie cannot leave in his own body/node." Eventually McKie figures out that Dosadi is being used as a source of youthful bodies into which older beings have their minds transferred. Using the power of the Calebans, one person's mind can be transferred into the body of another person, no matter their species. This is being used by the rich and powerful as a way to have eternal life. The person whose body is used is transferred into the old person's body and then killed to keep the whole process secret.

The population of Dosadi has to cope with a very hostile and dangerous environment. It has made them the ultimate survivors. They have become a threat to the rest of the civilized universe and they are determined to break free of their prison. The wealthy cabal is now fearful of the result if these people manage to gain their freedom. Their solution is the destruction of the entire planet of Dosadi and its captive population of humans and Gowachin. McKie only figure this out once he is on Dosadi. When he reveals it to the warring factions in the rift valley, it brings the conflict to an end as they come together to face this terrible threat.

This was, frankly, a rather boring read. The characters spend most of their time together trying to read each other's body language. The Dosadi are so adept at reading body language that non-Dosadi are an open book to them. Which makes it easy for them to spot non-Dosadi. So a lot of the story is about various Dosadi reading each other and reading McKie and other non-Dosadi. Kind of boring. 

McKie's love interest in the story is a Dosadi woman, Jedrik, leader of one of the warring factions. She reminded me of the bitch mothers of Dune, those austere and cruel women trying to build a better society.