Rating: 
Summary: "Santaroga" predicts the net.
Review: "The Santaroga Barrier" predicts the net and
goes far toward explaining government's endless
hostility toward cults and individuals. Cults
and individuals are hard to predict and market
to. This is as political a book as "1984" and
"Animal Farm". This is a political allegory
for the net and the results it'll bring about.
Rating:
Summary: Santaroga CA is more than just a remote little town.
Review: "The Santaroga Barrier," is one of Frank Herberts greatest works. It has all the scope of, "Dune," without some of the wierdness that crops up now and again in Dune. There is also an intriquing and easy to follow plot that can really grip you. I highly reccomend it to anyone who likes Frank Herbert's, "The green Brain."
Rating: 
Summary: A disturbingly chilly tale of life in the hills of CA
Review: Frank Herbert weaves a wonderful tapestry of psychological misdirection and science fiction uneasiness in this short book about life in a rather isolated valley in California. Published in 1967, this book plays on the theme of rampant fear associated with the development and use of psychodelic drugs, especially LSD. In the book, the community of people living in Santaroga, CA, effectively isolate themselves socially and economically from the outside world. An outsider, a psychologist from UC Berkeley, is offered the chance to go there and learn about Santarogians and how they manage to keep themselves separate from everything else in the world. With some reluctance and a great deal of hesitancy, our hero(?) enters the town and is greeted by some, including an old flame, with great enthusiasm. Others are not so welcoming..in fact, did they try to kill him just then, or was that an accident? In this chilling tale of consciousness-expanding food additives and crossed messages you will find yourself wondering about what IS going on in the book. This is a grand tale. Too bad it's not in print, but sci-fi fans out there will benefit from the effort of rounding up a copy of their own to read. Though not in the same class as sci-fi classics such as "Dune" or "Foundation" this is a worthy tale...and if you don't watch out it may just give you nightmares...it did me once! But I survived and finished the book... Have fun and be careful out there...was that JUST an accident? Alan Holyoak P.S. Another great out-of-pring Frank Herbert classic -- even better than this one -- is "White Plague" give it a look! It's worth 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: A disturbingly chilly tale of life in the hills of CA
Review: Frank Herbert weaves a wonderful tapestry of psychological misdirection and science fiction uneasiness in this short book about life in a rather isolated valley in California. Published in 1967, this book plays on the theme of rampant fear associated with the development and use of psychodelic drugs, especially LSD. In the book, the community of people living in Santaroga, CA, effectively isolate themselves socially and economically from the outside world. An outsider, a psychologist from UC Berkeley, is offered the chance to go there and learn about Santarogians and how they manage to keep themselves separate from everything else in the world. With some reluctance and a great deal of hesitancy, our hero(?) enters the town and is greeted by some, including an old flame, with great enthusiasm. Others are not so welcoming..in fact, did they try to kill him just then, or was that an accident? In this chilling tale of consciousness-expanding food additives and crossed messages you will find yourself wondering about what IS going on in the book. This is a grand tale. Too bad it's not in print, but sci-fi fans out there will benefit from the effort of rounding up a copy of their own to read. Though not in the same class as sci-fi classics such as "Dune" or "Foundation" this is a worthy tale...and if you don't watch out it may just give you nightmares...it did me once! But I survived and finished the book... Have fun and be careful out there...was that JUST an accident? Alan Holyoak P.S. Another great out-of-pring Frank Herbert classic -- even better than this one -- is "White Plague" give it a look! It's worth 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: One of Herbert's best novels outside the Dune Series
Review: I loved "Dune" of course, but Herbert's other novels are often less know, but really are interesting, too. In particular, I admire "The Santaroga Barrier" because it is set, not in the future, but in a town that could be anywhere today. "The Santaroga Barrier" is set in a valley town in California. It looks completely normal--life is typically small-town, with small businesses and farms run by the locals. But for some reason, big merchandisers outside the valley cannot sell there. In an age where marketing demographics can tell precisely what brand of car, cigarette, cola or watch you are likely to buy by where you live and your age cohort, this is astounding. What's also astounding is how Herbert forsees the age of online data-gathering (think, cookies on your browser) and huge mega-merchandisers like W*-mart who control huge blocks of buying power and who drain small towns of dollars that used to circulate and support local businesses. But that's not the only threatening situation in Santaroga. What is with the "Jaspers" Cheese Co-op (is it a cult?) and why did the previous marketing investigators sent by big business meet with unfortunate accidents? The story that unfolds is fascinating--are the Santarogans just minding their own business, or are they evil in some way, and whose side will you end up on at the end of the book? I really recommend this novel even if you don't like science fiction. It's one of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: One of Herbert's best novels outside the Dune Series
Review: I loved "Dune" of course, but Herbert's other novels are often less know, but really are interesting, too. In particular, I admire "The Santaroga Barrier" because it is set, not in the future, but in a town that could be anywhere today. "The Santaroga Barrier" is set in a valley town in California. It looks completely normal--life is typically small-town, with small businesses and farms run by the locals. But for some reason, big merchandisers outside the valley cannot sell there. In an age where marketing demographics can tell precisely what brand of car, cigarette, cola or watch you are likely to buy by where you live and your age cohort, this is astounding. What's also astounding is how Herbert forsees the age of online data-gathering (think, cookies on your browser) and huge mega-merchandisers like W*-mart who control huge blocks of buying power and who drain small towns of dollars that used to circulate and support local businesses. But that's not the only threatening situation in Santaroga. What is with the "Jaspers" Cheese Co-op (is it a cult?) and why did the previous marketing investigators sent by big business meet with unfortunate accidents? The story that unfolds is fascinating--are the Santarogans just minding their own business, or are they evil in some way, and whose side will you end up on at the end of the book? I really recommend this novel even if you don't like science fiction. It's one of my favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT JENNY?
Review: It's important to note that this re-issued Herbet novel was first published in 1968, and new readers can be forgiven if after the set up of the story presented in its opening pages, they find themselves asking: "Haven't I read/seen/heard all this before"? The answer would be yes, we've been here before. A small, isolated community, strange happenings, odd deaths, and a big secret (JASPERS) which may or may not destroy the hero/world. Nothing new here, and surprisingly, not that gripping either. Herbet spends much of this story trying to build a mystery, but neither the town, its people or our hero, really hold much water. The text is often stiff, the dialouge daytime soap opera quality (at best) and it isn't until the last third of the book that we finally get down the root of the mystery, only to find that Herbert has nothing up his sleeve (there is no shocking TWILIGHT ZONE twist her, nor even a thoughtful OUTER LIMITS musing, the book simply coasts to a idle and then a stop... almost as if it was meant to be part of a large work, which this book was part one in). All THE SANTAROGA BARRIER seems to offer is a extended study into another book, published in 1965, DUNE. The relationship between Jaspers and the spice Melange is direct, their effect, the same, and Herbert tries to tie this into college counter-culture, LSD experiments and some tossed off and dated (even for 1968) ideas about the US government and the corporate world. Not the best from Herbert here, but behind it all there is a gem of an idea that just before the book ends almost gets going and is worth pondering. For fans of Herbert, these re-issued books are a must for the library, as for the casual reader, there is some reward for those who stick it out.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read.
Review: The fame of Herbert's Dune series has sadly obscured some of his other science fiction - Santaroga is a prime example. A valley town in California appears to be not just different from the rest of the world around it, but practically on a different planet. It's residents have no interest in the external world or the products it offers - almost an autarky. Driven by a corporate marketing assignment combined with the lure of an old (but strongly flickering) flame, Gilbert Dasein visits the town and finds a bizarre degree of contentment and unity. On the face of it, it is the mysterious Jaspers (akin to the mélange of Dune) that is responsible but Herbert is driving at a larger picture here. Santaroga is almost a collective mind, or a community with a group consciousness. One that thrives in its little pond and fears the vast ocean outside which it strives to hold at arm's length - the barrier of the title. A fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, important for some
Review: This short early (1968) novel of Herbert's looks upon a man's investigation into a strange world. Unlike most of his other novels, this one is set quite concretely on earth, within driving distance to Berkeley, CA. The first half is quite freaky and exciting; the second half (typical of Herbert) turns into drudgery with a lack of action and too much emphasis of philosophy; characters talking to themselves, characters giving long-winded speeches, characters dreaming, and characters in drug-induced states. Along the way he raises charges against our modern world, which seem trumped-up even in the fictional version. At the end, the main character seems to lose his willpower, and makes a mind-change which seems unjustified. The love story is not developed at all -- yet it seems strangely realistic. In fact this reader found a strange parallel in this story to his own life, given a choice to enter a world alluring yet terrible. The climax and ending to this novel are, IMHO, rather ambiguous.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, important for some
Review: This short early (1968) novel of Herbert's looks upon a man's investigation into a strange world. Unlike most of his other novels, this one is set quite concretely on earth, within driving distance to Berkeley, CA. The first half is quite freaky and exciting; the second half (typical of Herbert) turns into drudgery with a lack of action and too much emphasis of philosophy; characters talking to themselves, characters giving long-winded speeches, characters dreaming, and characters in drug-induced states. Along the way he raises charges against our modern world, which seem trumped-up even in the fictional version. At the end, the main character seems to lose his willpower, and makes a mind-change which seems unjustified. The love story is not developed at all -- yet it seems strangely realistic. In fact this reader found a strange parallel in this story to his own life, given a choice to enter a world alluring yet terrible. The climax and ending to this novel are, IMHO, rather ambiguous.
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