The eyes of Heisenberg
A New World in Embryo Public Law 10927 was clear and direct. Parents were permitted to watch the genetic alterations of their gametes by skilled surgeons... only no one ever requested it. When Lizbeth and Harvey Durant decided to invoke the Law; when Dr. Potter did not rearrange the most unusual genetic structure of their future son, barely an embryo growing in the State's special vat-the consequences of these decisions threatened to be catastrophic. For never before had anyone dared defy the Rulers' decrees... and if They found out, it was well known that the price of disobedience was the extermination of the human race...
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3recommend
6mentions
3people
2008–2024years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I like the Dosadi books, Whipping Star, the short stories in Eye, Eyes of Heisenberg, Destination: Void, The Santaroga Barrier (which my wife hates), Under Pressure and Hellstrom's Hive. If I had to pick just one it might be Whipping Star but maybe Under Pressure is the hardest sci-fi.
- I see overread books like Dune and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Back in the 1980s there were so many "sci-fi fans" who had read Hitchhiker 20 times but never read Asimov or Heinlein or Dick or Smith or LeGunn or Pohl or...
I am a big fan of Frank Herbert's other books, particularly The Santaroga Barrier, Under Pressure, Destination Void, Eyes of Heisenberg, Whipping Star and the Dosadi books. I can't stand Dune but for some reason people read it over and over again and don't get into the rest of Herbert never mind any other authors.
I'd also blame Tor press for the downfall of sci-fi. Some of their books were groundbreaking like Ender's Game and Forge of God but because they represented a counter-reformation to the "new wave" which made Smith look cool again (great!) but really diminished the range of stories people would tell instead of expanding it. There was also the expansion of fantasy megaseries like Xanth (way too squicky for visual adaptation) and Discworld (too bad visual adaptations stopped when Pratchett passed away, but at least I can go to a Hogfather showing on the epiphany and cosplay as Twoflower)
I kinda feel about Vinge the way I feel about Niven, he didn't quite continue the promise he showed in his early career in his late career. Same with Charlie Stross, who became as bad a left wing nut (sees a fascist under every rock) as Niven was a right wing nut and gave up on the promising Eschaton series for just plain tiring series like The Merchant Princes (Xanth envy without the notes at the end about how much the author hates writing them?)
I liked the self-published We are Legion (We are Bob) which I found at the Salvation Army. Also
https://www.amazon.com/Terraformers-Annalee-Newitz/dp/125022...
for a very recent book.
- I know I'm weird because I absolutely despise Dune the book and the movies but I like everything else Frank Herbert wrote including Destination Void and its sequels, the BuSab stories, Eyes of Heisenberg, etc.
- #1. A 10 part mini-series of Frank Herbert's "Dune" (finally done right by HBO). And after that, the rest of Herbert's Dune saga.
#2. Frank Herbert's "The Eyes of Heisenberg".
#3. Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination".
#4. "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller.
#5. Arthur C. Clarke's "The City and the Stars".
- Someone please quote The Eyes of Heisenberg by Frank Herbert! In fact that book is a take on living for, well, ages. :) I enjoyed it.
- I pulled the lever. It said "eternity" and I couldn't possibly condemn the passengers to eternal life. Maybe it's because I read The Eyes of Heisenberg by Frank Herbert [0]
