Book Review: The Eyes of Heisenberg

It's been awhile since I've done a book review. A girlfriend can really eat into your reading time. Poor me, right?

This weekend I finished reading a couple of books that I was close to the end of for awhile. One of those being "The Eyes of Heisenberg" by Frank Herbert.

Frank is an... interesting writer. He likes making these elaborate worlds and complex plots. But all too often he writes in such a way as to make it difficult to read. The first two "Dune" books were good. The later books became a real struggle. His son, Brian, writes much more readable prose with Frank's notes than Frank ever did.

This is not a book of Frank's that I suggest starting with. It was hard to keep paying attention to the story. Either I kept mixing up characters or he kept changing scenes without warning.

In the way distant future the Earth is controlled by immortal humans formed through careful breeding programs and Orwellian government. They continue to run these programs to keep humans nice and average and docile. But something happens with one of the zygotes to allow it to resist the contraceptive drugs in the air. Instead of executing it the doctor saves it and the nurses erase the data from the procedure. But the Optimen, the immortals, suspect and come after the doctor. He soon gets mixed up with the cyborg underground. They almost manage to wipe out the Optimen but in the end the doctor manages to save most of them, too. Some dramatic change in the government of Earth is planned before the book ends.

It's really not worth bothering with.