HELLSTROM'S HIVE

Rating:
Summary: A forgotten masterpeace
Review: Almost as good as the one and only Dune (but not related at all). What higher compliment is there?

Rating:
Summary: Just a great book
Review: Hellstom's Hive is one of my favorite Herbert books. The premise of the story is a human hive that has been in existence in North America for centuries. Its current hive leader is Dr. Hellstrom , hence the name Hellstrom's Hive. Possesing greater technology than ours the hive has been working on a secret weapon, but when the Federal Goverment finds out, all hell breaks loose. Fun and exciting is what Hellstrom's Hive is.

Rating:
Summary: Just a great book
Review: Hellstom's Hive is one of my favorite Herbert books. The premise of the story is a human hive that has been in existence in North America for centuries. Its current hive leader is Dr. Hellstrom , hence the name Hellstrom's Hive. Possesing greater technology than ours the hive has been working on a secret weapon, but when the Federal Goverment finds out, all hell breaks loose. Fun and exciting is what Hellstrom's Hive is.

Rating:
Summary: Scary, disgusting, yet compelling
Review: I love science fiction that proposes "what if..." and takes that "what if" to a logical conclusion. In "Hellstrom's Hive", Herbert asks "what if humans were genetically engineered to be an insect-colony organism?"

This book, written long before genetic manipulation and cloning was a reality, is scarier than ever. The insect-humans in this novel are cunning yet totally without the human reactions we would consider "normal." This makes for some very disgusting scenes in "Hellstrom's Hive" and is possibly why this book has not yet been re-released along with the other Herbert novels that were out of print.

But if you can get past some of the more chilling aspects of "Hellstrom's Hive" you are in for a real thriller. No one can write about smells, sights, tastes, and all aspects of the senses, combined with exciting action better than Frank Herbert. This book will stay with you. If you like a bit of horror in your sci-fi, this is for you.

Rating:
Summary: An Intriguing Book
Review: In this book we see Frank Herbert from his best side. A conflict between two societies - the Outside, which is our society, and the Hive, a human termite hill of gigantic proportions. Herbert lets you see the inside view from both sides in this fundamental battle over human nature, and he presents it so without prejudice that you can truly wonder which society Frank Herbert himself would have preferred.

The human characterizations are wonderful: Herbert lets his characters live through all 5 senses in such a way that you will feel immersed in the universe of this book. You will smell fear, sexual excitement and hopeful wafts of fresh air. He also hits it right with his characters observational abilities in this book, and makes the reader wish to keep his own observations equally keen.

The plot is rich, and the tension escalates all the way through the book. Who will survive? Who will escape? Who will be caught out? A surprise ending has you feel the book end with a spasm of tension rather than the release you would have expected.

Rating:
Summary: Hellstrom's Hive is ingenious, and a precursor to Dune !
Review: Incredible. How imaginative for Frank Herbert to take a popular documentary movie of the late 60's about insects, the famous "Hellstrom's Chronicles", and turn it into a science fiction novel ! In this story, the movie-making lab of Dr. Hellstrom is just a cover for a more sinister plot to overtake the Earth with humans bred with a hive mentality... human insects ! For Dune fans, the connection will be immediate: Dune's Bene Jesserett sisterhood could well have been forming in Frank's mind when he wrote Hellstrom's Hive. The engineering of the human species is the basis for this novel and Dune (not to mention other Herbert novels). I couldn't help but feel that Hellstrom's Hive was the embryonic stages of Dune coming to life. For a true Herbert fan, this book is a blessing. Oh, the ending is not your typical fairy-tale ending either ! Quite scarey actually. Good luck finding a copy.

Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL idea, great story, disappointing ending
Review: This was the second Herbert book I'd ever read - the first being, not surprising, Dune. I was already in love with Herbert's imagination and development as he crafts a story. When I heard about this book - a group of humans with a Hive-insect mentality, I HAD to read it, the mere idea just seemed so cool. As with Dune's "Writings of Princess Irulan", parts of the book are divided by excerpts from characters journals, notes, reports, or what have you. I always thought that was a cool way of doing it. Herbert quite convincingly creates his Hive world, with it's superior technology, emotional stoicism, and hard insect drive for survival, which is neither cruel, nor kind, just based on what it takes to survive. The book is definitely a good read, I love the introduction of "stun wands", although I had read in a previous review of a "surprise twist ending" and man, was I looking forward to it. However, I didn't find the ending to be particularly surprising or even very good really. The whole book was enjoyable, but the ending was a bit of a predictable letdown, I thought.