Literateur: "Heaven Makers" is for Real

(WARNING! This review contains spoilers for Stephen King's Under the Dome and Joe R. Lansdale's The Drive-In. Go read those books now and then come back so I don't ruin their endings for you!)

As you long-time readers know, I like Frank Herbert because he wrote Dune. I like his weird books that no one's ever heard of, too. I reviewed two of them here.

And this is another book of his that you and I never heard of!

This is another book of Herbert's that I grabbed at our beloved twice-yearly library book sale. I had no idea what it was about, just thought the title was cool and the cover illustration was fun. (That's right- I judged a book by a cover. No regrets. I'm a bad boy.)

Even though it was written decades before Under the Dome or The Drive-In, The Heaven Makers starts where those books end.

Allow me to ruin the ending for both those books now! They're very different stories, but they're both about a group of people confined in an isolated location. Both books detail their adventures in trying to survive and figure out who/what's causing their isolation. And the answer:

Yep, aliens.

Heaven Makers reveals right off the bat that aliens are watching and manipulating events on Earth. Now they're not supposed to be manipulating us, but...well, they're bored.

These aliens are lost souls. Immortal, existential creatures watching us for the entertainment value we provide. Our lives, loves, deaths, triumphs, and losses are all just a show for them. The aliens want to feel something after existing for so long and doing everything everywhere. And thus the randomness of our lives on Earth is the only thing left that interests them.

Until one day, that stops being enough. And some rogue aliens begin to intervene directly in Earth affairs and even interact- and possibly mate?- with Earthlings.

This is a big no-no and causes much dissension in the alien ranks.

There's a nice showdown at the end where the immortal aliens come face-to-face with the concept of mortality for the first time. Good philosophical dialogue, always a strength of Herbert's.

Now this book's biggest weakness is the human characters. They're annoying and overly melodramatic and not very well-drawn. They're treated like pieces on a chessboard by the aliens, but Herbert isn't treating them much better as their author and creator.

But if you liked Under the Dome or The Drive-In and always wanted to get to explore the motivations of the meddlesome aliens in those stories better, this is a great read for you. Herbert takes on the Big Questions of life and storytelling and God-like responsibility with ease, getting you in and out of his world in under 200 pages.

-Phony McFakename

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