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A review by larsinio
Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert
4.0
4 stars, because i really liked it. more 3.5, but rounding up because Frank is the man.
Herbert nerds it up with secret government organizations, and weather underground meets 60s sex cult meets insects meets James Bond villain meets ant colony. Characters are , of course, thinking about thinking about thinking about what the other side is going to be doing. Lots of thinking - lots of narrative perspective shifting, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. Seems like some editing could have been used here.
In some ways this is a spiritual sequel to the green brain . The green brain had insects adopting human like characteristics. HH has humans adopting insect like characteristics.
Lots of interesting ideas on how to self organize, and societies built around genetic manipulation.
However it gets a bit too fantastic sometimes - it gets rather hard to believe that the hive was able to independently develop all this tech without the larger world noticing. The sex "hype" drugs - 18 times.... come on.. Too fantastic to believe , given the semi-realistic nature of the story.
Theres a wide cast of characters, however theres really no development - characters have a specific function they play and thats it. But given the action/thriller type story, i guess its ok.
The third act is a non stop action sequence, which i thought was rather well done.
I rather enjoyed the twist ending, pretty bleak - rather fooled me given the direction of the third act.
Herbert nerds it up with secret government organizations, and weather underground meets 60s sex cult meets insects meets James Bond villain meets ant colony. Characters are , of course, thinking about thinking about thinking about what the other side is going to be doing. Lots of thinking - lots of narrative perspective shifting, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph. Seems like some editing could have been used here.
In some ways this is a spiritual sequel to the green brain . The green brain had insects adopting human like characteristics. HH has humans adopting insect like characteristics.
Lots of interesting ideas on how to self organize, and societies built around genetic manipulation.
However it gets a bit too fantastic sometimes - it gets rather hard to believe that the hive was able to independently develop all this tech without the larger world noticing. The sex "hype" drugs - 18 times.... come on.. Too fantastic to believe , given the semi-realistic nature of the story.
Theres a wide cast of characters, however theres really no development - characters have a specific function they play and thats it. But given the action/thriller type story, i guess its ok.
The third act is a non stop action sequence, which i thought was rather well done.
I rather enjoyed the twist ending, pretty bleak - rather fooled me given the direction of the third act.