Customer Reviews

The Eyes Of Heisenberg

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Yes, the great author behind the Dune series also wrote other books. In The Eyes of Heisenberg, he investigates a world made up of normal humans and eternal beings.

This was an earlier work, so you can see a number of themes that Dune explored so well in their infancy here. Normal humans are being genetically manipulated by scientists to help keep society running smoothly. Occasionally a 'super human' is created who can live forever. It is these "optimen" who really control society.

Everybody thinks the optimen are naturally intelligent and wise - but they are actually no smarter or dumber than normal humans. They simply have thousands and thousands of years with which to refine their points of view and educate themselves as they wish.

Of course normal humans begin to rebel against the restrictions in their life and by the end of the story, a male and female want to have a baby the "old fashioned way".

I found a number of flaws with the story, and the ending was rather abrupt and made you feel like it was rushed. The beauty of the story is with the character development and the interactions. Having worked for a biotech, the techno-babble about the DNA was interesting, but it unnecessarily confused things for most readers, and the intriguing events brough up are never resolved. It's as if Herbert originally intended to make a hard core story, but then wandered off into a personality drama and at the end wasn't sure what to do so sort of tied everything up randomly.

If you're wondering what Heisenberg had to do with all of this, he's the Quantum Mechanics physicist who came up with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa." In essence, when you try to focus too closely on one thing, you aren't able to focus on other things. You can only give a probability of WHERE something is if you're focussing on HOW FAST it is going.

Another way of looking at this is that by focussing on something, you are altering it. So while you then may figure out what it is you are examining, you have changed other aspects of it. If you bounce a light beam off of something to see how far away it is, you might actually move it or alter its course with that bounce.

In any case, a good story to see more of Herbert's work, but not a classic like Dune.

This book, as others here have said, is not on the same scale and not the same quality that Herbert's Dune books are. It is a very interesting book, though, that deals with several themes that Herbert would later revisit. The strongest point in the book is the characterization. It is very complex for most of the characters, especially, to me, the Optimen, the governing immortal races in the novel. There is a mix of playfulness and disinterestedness about them that is unusual, especially when they gradually and then suddenly shift late in the novel. I will not disagree that the ending is rushed and there is almost too much technical talk in the book, but to me it kind of represents the aspect of being shown this world and revelling in it, for only a short amount of time and then being whisked away again. You can see in the references to the past in the novel that there was quite a lot of backstory that we will never know and that kind of makes it more interesting and distant. But it is enough to take the themes and questions in the novel about genetic manipulation and immortality and apply them to ourselves in our own age with history and backstory each alike.

This book takes place in the distant future, tens of thousands of years from now. It is a grim look at a world shaped by genetic engineering which is run by the Optimen, sterile humans whose genetic makeup supposedly allows them to live forever though pharmacology. Even "meres"--"normal" humans live for hundreds of years, so to control the population various things such as contraceptive gas are used, and breeding is strictly controlled. Against the regime of the Optimen are the Cyborgs and a group of humans supporting natural birth, and a mysterious outside force--could it be Nature itself, or perhaps God? One of the major resolutions smacks of a Greek Deus ex machina, and the very ending stuck me as pretty horrifying, but Herbert didn't really explore the ethical consequences of his "solution." However, it was a pretty good, albeit quick read--it's a slim volume. Worth a look if you run across it, not really worth going out on a hunt for.

What with the stem cell-cloning debate raging Herberts (1965) EYES OF HEISENBERG might find some new readers. Interesting that it took but 40 years for the authors old material to hit our front pages. Now that genetics is catching up with Franks tale we should give him credit for what he got right. Exogenesis (growing embryos in a vat) could be right around the corner. Certainly there is much talk of modifying the morula (those first dozen or so germinated cells) while it still lies fertilized and growing in the petri dish. Herbert lists a dozen enzymes used by his genetic engineers to cut the DNA-RNA in a proper fashion. This is all standard practice today. The long living masters, the Optimen, in this tale, set millenniums in the future, have conditioned their genetic engineers to kill any embryo who may be immune to death. This is to maintain absolute control over their subjects, the Folk. Two of their subjects, the Durants, are a couple who are given the precious right to reproduce (to allow their sperm and egg to unite in a vat). But when their geneticist, Potter, sees a new mutation in his microscope, one that would produce immunity to death, he refuses to follow the Optimen rule. He says, I cannot kill it. It is too beautiful. What Potter sees in the Durant embryo is one who could father a new race of long livers outside the Optimens control--the perfect baby. The origin of the flash of mutating energy is left to the readers imagination. Where Herbert must get the real credit is for reinforcing the role evolution has played in the development of mankind. Unlike todays neurophysiologists and geneticists who see the brain as a bag of neurons and the genome as a twisted loop of genes, Herbert presented the Durant morula, as floating in the quantum sea of energy. It must be from the quantum jitters that all change in the species arises. The Optimen sought to eradicate Heisenbergs uncertainty and evolution from the species. This tale tells us that attempts to fool mother natures plan for mutation & evolution are, indeed, foolhardy.

Yes, this is not one of Fank Herbert's best non-Dune books. But, it does once again display the man's wonderful insights into the human mind and the possible evolution in store for us because of this. Take a minute and think about some of the genetic discoveries that are unfolding today. Now with that knowledge jump thousands of years in the future. Although the storyline is average and the book seems too short to truely develope the characters, it still will make you think about the possible repercussions of discoveries today.

P.S. If you really want to read some work By Frank Herbert but don't want to read a long series like Dune, try one of the books listed below. Everyone of these are as good as any fiction your likely to find.

The White Plague, Hellsrtom's Hive, The Green Brain, The Santaroga Barrier, Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment

This book was a good read for me, but was not without flaws. The most enjoyable aspect was the conflicted characters, their dialog and their ability to change. The tale is short, so not all interesting ideas are explored, and the ending was not overly satisfying for me. One particular mystery, the "outside influence", was discarded pretty quickly in a single brief quote by a character, and I'd rather it have been a more interesting revelation.

Heisenberg, as in uncertainty, starts this story off and becomes the rationale for all the subsequent actions.
In this far future society, there are grades or castes of people. They are arranged by their genetics: the top are immortals, next come, the almost immortal, at the bottom are the ordinary people. The story starts with some lab preparing to process a zygote for a couple who were lucky enough to be chosen for having a baby. The zygote is examined by the doctor and he sees some unexpected change happen that makes this little one special, even more special than the immortals. He and the technician silently agree to keep the knowledge secret so the zygote will be allowed to grow up. Thus starts the chase for growth and development in this stagnant society.
The immortals are forty thousand (40,000), or more, years old. This age is inconceivable to us, and for most of that time they have ruled and do not allow any change. Anything that reminds them of death or decay is not recognized or spoken of. They are separate from everyone else. They rule by fear and from their little Olympus encampment. They think very little of destroying everyone in an area, they can be replaced, even if it takes a thousand (1,000) years, it is only a little inconvenience to the immortals.
These immortals have a tribunal that rules daily life, and as they come to understand that the zygote is special and try to find it, etc., they bring about their own destruction. You never find out quite what is so special about the little one, but the parents and attending doctor protect it, and, in the end, implant it in the woman for carrying. This becomes the seed for the new society that will be born from all this destruction. (Puns are wonderful, eh?) Everyone has hormone treatments to help them live life to the optimum best. Carrying a baby to term is a natural way to adjust and control hormones in a human, so everyone gets to have a baby to this end.
This is an interesting story because you never know what causes all the commotion (the zygote change), but everything turns out for the better.

I enjoyed this book, though I wish more had been given for the history of this world. It seems entirely plausible that this is a future planet in Frank Herbert's Dune, one of the societies founded in the Scattering. The ideas presented in this book are engaging if sketchy. Overall 4.5/5 stars.

Frank Herbert is undoubtedly one of the better known science fiction authors. When I stumbled upon this small novella I was eager to read it. A few pages in, though, I knew that it would be a quick and uninteresting novella.

Pros: There really wasn't many pros, with the most obvious one of how Herbert writes and describes the scenes.

Cons: As a literary device Herbert had to have Harvey and Lizbeth communicate without being detected. So he had the two talk to each other by pressing their fingertips into the others hand and, voila, they can now hold entire conversations by the slightest press of their fingertips. This is highly unbelievable even when suspending reality. Add to that that the only way for this to work is that they must always hold hands, no matter the situation, otherwise they couldn't communicate. Beyond the fact that holding hands always is not feasible, whoever they are with would most certainly be suspicious if two "humans" always held hands everywhere they went in a world where touching is frowned upon.

Another con: there is absolutely no history developed at all regarding the Optimen, Cyborgs and humans. We have no clue about anything regarding the Cyborgs, or the Optimen or how the humans came to be where they were. Even the slightest development of each faction would have enhanced the book to a somewhat enjoyable read. Did the book take place on Earth, 40,000 years in the future? After all, most of the cities were spin off names of cities on Earth. Or did this have absolutely nothing to do with Earth and took place on a fictional planet?

When you get to the end you find that the whole novella was written for the express purpose of the final few pages (spoiler alert) as the Optimen experience change and, what do you know, they start to drop dead. The only saving grace was Herbert's writing, which is why I give it 2 stars. Would not recommend.

2 stars.

(This was the first Herbert novel I had ever read. So, in writing this review, know that I took the book for what it was and that I am not making any comparisons with his "Dune" series.)

His presentation at the beginning reads like many sci-fi novels: assigning labels to various groups, depicting society as a regimented perversion of control via technology, addressing some sort of ethical issue or issues (in this case, genetic engineering), etc. These devices tend to work for sci-fi and create a sort of natural appeal by tapping in to the subtle emotions anyone feels who has ever felt that society was attempting to "regulate" them in some way. Add to these devices some half-way decent character development and you have yet another sci-fi novel hot off the press and ready for mass consumption. Herbert fulfills his role by providing such character development but fails in his wrap up of events. Typical sci-fi endings are either preceded with some sort of major plot twist (like Ender's Game) or conclude with the protagonist(s) evoking some sort of mass "awareness" by removing a social illusion that has preserved control in the past for the current ruling body, class, or person in power. Without giving away the ending, this novel concludes in a way that does not translate into emotional sense. The events surrounding the conclusion are hinted at as the story progresses but that does not make up for the fact that they are not congruent with the way certain characters (or groups of characters) are portrayed during the journey. Rather, it is almost as if Herbert worked on this story as a side project, grew tired of it, wanted to end it simply to be done with it, and did so without concern for providing any pay-off for the reader.

Further, typical sci-fi novels have some sort of "point" or agenda they are attempting to address by raising ethical issues of any kind (the various Star Trek series have made their living on this). Thus, when an ethical issues is raised, one comes to expect that the author will attempt to persuade the reader towards a certain viewpoint. In such cases, appreciation of the story tends to depend on the relevence or the power of the argument made regardless of whether or not you happen to agree with the premise. This is not so with this story. It does attempt to portray attempts to control nature on a basic level as having negative consequences but the ending does not successfully resolve the issue. Thus, one feels somewhat cheated for having invested time in hopes of coming to a satisfying conclusion.

Overall it builds some momentum and you do find yourself investing some emotion in the main characters but ultimately it leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled.