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The Santaroga Barrier
  
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The Santaroga Barrier (Paperback)

by Frank Herbert (Author) "The sun went down as the five-year-old Ford camper-pickup truck ground over the pass and started down the long grade into Santaroga Valley ..." (more)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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The sun went down as the five-year-old Ford camper-pickup truck ground over the pass and started down the long grade into Santaroga Valley. Read the first page
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3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, important for some, Feb 5 2004
By G. C JONES (Somerville, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Santaroga Barrier (Mass Market Paperback)
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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3.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating read., Mar 17 2003
By David Rasquinha (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Santaroga Barrier (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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3.0 out of 5 stars WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW ABOUT JENNY?, Sep 27 2002
By Thomas E. O'Sullivan (Knoxville, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Santaroga Barrier (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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5.0 out of 5 stars One of Herbert's best novels outside the Dune Series
I loved "Dune" of course, but Herbert's other novels are often less know, but really are interesting, too. Read more
Published on Sep 26 2002 by Joanna Daneman

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