The Eyes of Heisenberg (Mass Market Paperback)

His presentation at the beginning reads like many sci-fi novels: assigning labels to various groups, depicting society as a regimented perversion of control via technology, addressing some sort of ethical issue or issues (in this case, genetic engineering), etc. These devices tend to work for sci-fi and create a sort of natural appeal by tapping in to the subtle emotions anyone feels who has ever felt that society was attempting to "regulate" them in some way. Add to these devices some half-way decent character development and you have yet another sci-fi novel hot off the press and ready for mass consumption. Herbert fulfills his role by providing such character development but fails in his wrap up of events. Typical sci-fi endings are either preceded with some sort of major plot twist (like Ender's Game) or conclude with the protagonist(s) evoking some sort of mass "awareness" by removing a social illusion that has preserved control in the past for the current ruling body, class, or person in power. Without giving away the ending, this novel concludes in a way that does not translate into emotional sense. The events surrounding the conclusion are hinted at as the story progresses but that does not make up for the fact that they are not congruent with the way certain characters (or groups of characters) are portrayed during the journey. Rather, it is almost as if Herbert worked on this story as a side project, grew tired of it, wanted to end it simply to be done with it, and did so without concern for providing any pay-off for the reader.

Further, typical sci-fi novels have some sort of "point" or agenda they are attempting to address by raising ethical issues of any kind (the various Star Trek series have made their living on this). Thus, when an ethical issues is raised, one comes to expect that the author will attempt to persuade the reader towards a certain viewpoint. In such cases, appreciation of the story tends to depend on the relevence or the power of the argument made regardless of whether or not you happen to agree with the premise. This is not so with this story. It does attempt to portray attempts to control nature on a basic level as having negative consequences but the ending does not successfully resolve the issue. Thus, one feels somewhat cheated for having invested time in hopes of coming to a satisfying conclusion.

Overall it builds some momentum and you do find yourself investing some emotion in the main characters but ultimately it leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

This was an earlier work, so you can see a number of themes that Dune explored so well in their infancy here. Normal humans are being genetically manipulated by scientists to help keep society running smoothly. Occasionally a 'super human' is created who can live forever. It is these "optimen" who really control society.

Everybody thinks the optimen are naturally intelligent and wise - but they are actually no smarter or dumber than normal humans. They simply have thousands and thousands of years with which to refine their points of view and educate themselves as they wish.

Of course normal humans begin to rebel against the restrictions in their life and by the end of the story, a male and female want to have a baby the "old fashioned way".

I found a number of flaws with the story, and the ending was rather abrupt and made you feel like it was rushed. The beauty of the story is with the character development and the interactions. Having worked for a biotech, the techno-babble about the DNA was interesting, but it unnecessarily confused things for most readers, and the intriguing events brough up are never resolved. It's as if Herbert originally intended to make a hard core story, but then wandered off into a personality drama and at the end wasn't sure what to do so sort of tied everything up randomly.

If you're wondering what Heisenberg had to do with all of this, he's the Quantum Mechanics physicist who came up with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa." In essence, when you try to focus too closely on one thing, you aren't able to focus on other things. You can only give a probability of WHERE something is if you're focussing on HOW FAST it is going.

Another way of looking at this is that by focussing on something, you are altering it. So while you then may figure out what it is you are examining, you have changed other aspects of it. If you bounce a light beam off of something to see how far away it is, you might actually move it or alter its course with that bounce.

In any case, a good story to see more of Herbert's work, but not a classic like Dune.

There are only so many themes and I believe that it is not WHAT the writer is writing about as much as HOW he writes it. I reprove the arguements about the book's hackneyed BNW theme because its a different world, different society with different characters and ultimatly - a different story.

On to the disappointments. He never expounded at all on the unexplained influence that produced a potential optiman. This was admittedly annoying - as in the last dune book before he could finish the series he hinted at the two old people in the garden of duncan's dreams that somehow influenced the universe.
Ok one less star for that.

The ending - hmmm, very odd and not too satisfying. The last 20 pages I was wondering if there was a second book that continued the story because of where he was going. At the climax it went 90 degrees in the down direction as if he chose an ending out of a hat because he was interested in something else - maybe a similar theme he could use in another book. Subtract star here.

All in all, I would still recommend reading it because its just fun most of the time and a quick read.