Destination: Void

Not very readable at all - one of Herbert's most impenetrable novels.

I wouldn't say that that this late series by Frank Herbert (and subsequently, with Bill Ransom) are anywhere near his best, but the other 3 novels are at least reasonalbly readable. You could well read the latter 3 novels of the series and just skip this one with no loss whatsoever. In fact, you should!

There is a very considerable amount of turgid prose here, followed by pointless repetition of that same prose. I kept reading on, assuming that the assorted mysteries presented so far would be explained - but what I got was more meaningless insolubles. If you have the imprseesion that this was a very frustrating book - which it waas - then I have achieved my goal.

It is my impression, not based on much other than a hunch, that the "co-author" Bill Ransom wrote a consideralbe proportion (perhaps most???) of books 2 and 3 of the series (The Jesus Incident and The Lazarus Effect). By the time we get to the last book, Ascension Factor, it was pretty well entirely Bill Ransom.

My rating system: I begin with one star being equivalent to a rating of "C -". Progressing upwards, I add ½ star for each step, up to the maximum 5 stars, which is equivalent to a rating of "A"+. I reserve ½ star for BOMBS, there being no option of zero or negative stars.