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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting study in symbiosis/parasitology , 20 Oct 2007
Written in the usual Herbert style, part scientific investigation, part thriller and extremely effective as both. I first read this about 30 years ago and along with 'The Green Brain', 'Eyes of Heisenberg', and 'Hellstroms Hive' it's really stuck in my memory as being among Herberts best work.
Another reviewer has made comparisons between Jaspers and the Dune spice melange and said that they're one and the same thing. I'd have to disagree. Melange was a drug that had psychotropic effects while Jaspers is actually (as I read it) a living organism.
It's a good read and poses some interesting questions about what it is to be human, the extent to which we have free will, and how sometimes, the decisions we make may not be in *our* best interests. The whole area of parasites that change the behaviour of their hosts is something I've found to be particularly fascinating.
David Cronenbergs 'Shivers' deals with similar issues but with a good deal less subtlety (well, all right, no subtlety at all :-)).
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT JENNY?, 7 Nov 2003
It's important to note that this re-issued Herbet novel was first published in 1968, and new readers can be forgiven if after the set up of the story presented in its opening pages, they find themselves asking: "Haven't I read/seen/heard all this before"? The answer would be yes, we've been here before. A small, isolated community, strange happenings, odd deaths, and a big secret (JASPERS) which may or may not destroy the hero/world. Nothing new here, and surprisingly, not that gripping either. Herbet spends much of this story trying to build a mystery, but neither the town, its people or our hero, really hold much water. The text is often stiff, the dialouge daytime soap opera quality (at best) and it isn't until the last third of the book that we finally get down the root of the mystery, only to find that Herbert has nothing up his sleeve (there is no shocking TWILIGHT ZONE twist her, nor even a thoughtful OUTER LIMITS musing, the book simply coasts to a idle and then a stop... almost as if it was meant to be part of a large work, which this book was part one in). All THE SANTAROGA BARRIER seems to offer is a extended study into another book, published in 1965, DUNE. The relationship between Jaspers and the spice Melange is direct, their effect, the same, and Herbert tries to tie this into college counter-culture, LSD experiments and some tossed off and dated (even for 1968) ideas about the US government and the corporate world. Not the best from Herbert here, but behind it all there is a gem of an idea that just before the book ends almost gets going and is worth pondering. For fans of Herbert, these re-issued books are a must for the library, as for the casual reader, there is some reward for those who stick it out.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good example of a psychological based thriller, 9 Mar 2006
Frank Herbert is undeniably one of the greatest authors, and certainly my favourite. The Santaroga Barrier is an excellant read, it is not a difficult book (some people have found his fantastic and extensive epic Dune to be very hard to read) and is gripping all the way through. The central concept behind the book is the collective sub-conscious. The above reviewers statement is inaccurate in my opinion it is not just an alternative study that is based on the spice in Dune. The book delivers an excellant and gripping thriller that explorers a psychological concept, in a similar vein to dragon in the sea which looked at the psychosis that develop in confined conditions which would be familiar to submarine crews, and other similar environments such as oil rig where people have to work under pressure in a closed in environment seperated from the outside world.If you want a gripping and exciting thriller to read that is very intelligently contrived then this is a book for you.
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by Frank Herbert
by Frank Herbert
by Frank Herbert
by Frank Herbert
by Frank Herbert
