Literateur: "The Godmakers" & "The Green Brain" by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert is best known for "Dune,"¹ so let's see how he handles planets without giant worms or spice!

"The Green Brain"² is a bite-sized environmentalist sf novel that, short as it is, manages to be two books in one.

The first half has people in an overpopulated future South America exterminating insects to make room for more human settlements. The insects either die or mutate, sometimes to enormous and dangerous sizes.³

Now you're probably thinking what I'm thinking- why are they trying to kill all the insects? Don't they understand the fragility of ecosystems?

I have good news for you: that's the point.

This point is made by the titular "green brain," the insects' hive mind that evolves to defend against their pending extinction.⁴ It lectures the humans on environmental issues and explains the concept of intraplanetary interdependence.

It's cool that this finally happens,⁵ but this literally hits on the last two pages. After a ton of suspenseful action, confusion, and twists, you'd expect a cathartic climax of some sort, but nope- just an abrupt tell-don't-show info-dump and you're done.

There's enough other cool stuff going on,⁶ along with trademark Frank Herbert-y philosophizing to make it well worth the two hours or so of reading. And even if it is a bit preachy and obvious near the end, there are worse things than promoting environmental awareness and inter-species empathy.⁷

"The Godmakers"⁸ is the more intellectual of the two.

It's also fun and wacky. We've got a Chosen One who doesn't realize he's Chosen⁹ and he bumbles his way up the ladder of responsibility at an intergalactic company that specializes in...let's call it "urban pacification of alien populations." And one of these alien populations makes gods. It's a thing they do. So he gets chosen as a subject for their god-making and off we go.

Lots of mystical journeying and pontificating on the nature of deity and responsibility, all interesting.¹⁰ And like "Green Brain"- it's short. Like most great sf¹¹ of its time, this one gets in and out of your life in about 200 pages.

And the other great thing is- these are both stand-alone books. Herbert was notorious for not letting the "Dune" series die,¹² and he did another series or two that went on a bit long, but no commitment here.

You read either of these books and you're done. That's the complete experience. And that's great.

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1. I've read it three times. I would not fight you for calling me a fan.

2. Originally titled "Greenslaves," a way less-cool title that only even makes sense in the context of its ending.

3. The second half has a handful of arguing, frequently irrational humans wandering around the war zone on a boat, sometimes getting chased by the insects through the searing jungle. Despite some cool hallucinatory sequences, it's not as interesting. So it only gets a footnote.

4. My favorite quote from the brain, in a command to its insect minions: "If all else fails, kill everything except their heads. Save and maintain their heads."

5. And it's cool how concise this book is- 160 pages!

6. Foam bombs! Jelly flames! Broadcast poisons! Blood roaches! Bandeirantes! Vibration weapons! Formic acid! Sonitoxics!

7. In fact, it even delves into the issue of consciousness in insects, so "Do Greenslaves Dream of Electric Sheep?" would be a passable title. Not "Greenslaves." Seriously- lame.

8. No relation to the ridiculous old anti-Mormon movie "The God Makers"- please find it on YouTube then contact me (because I'm Mormon) and say "Is that stuff REALLY what you believe?" so I can say "Nope" for the thousandth time. Shocking as this may be- sometimes propaganda films made by competing churches lie, kids.

9. These tropes weren't cliches yet at the time, so it's neat to see them used in an innocent and offhand way. There's nothing post-modern or reflexive about it and that's refreshing.

10. I really try not to judge a book by its cover, but this one has a really bizarre humdinger of a front illustration. A giant yellow dragon?! Despite the book's mystical themes, this is very much science fiction throughout, so I wondered what crackhead decided that dragon had anything to do with anything. Then our main character comes along and hallucinates a yellow dragon during his becoming-a-god ritual. And the description perfectly matches the cover drawing. I will reserve judgment on covers until the book is finished from here on!

11. I use "sf" in the Harlan Ellison-ian sense of "speculative fiction"- encompassing both fantasy and science fiction.

12. He lost me on the fifth one, and shame on his son and Kevin J. Anderson for continuing the never-ending stream of "Dune" cash-in books. Does anybody actually like those things? Like if you run out of posthumously-published ghostwritten V.C. Andrews books, do you read these faux "Dune" books next?

13. BONUS FOOTNOTE: For further reading- I just discovered this list, which includes "Godmakers": 5 Essential Frank Herbert Novels That Aren't About Dune

-Phony McFakename

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