Whipping Star
Ratings6
Average rating3.5
In the far future, humankind has made contact with numerous other species: Gowachin, Laclac, Wreaves, Pan Spechi, Taprisiots, and Caleban, and has helped to form the ConSentiency to govern among the species. After suffering under a tyrannous pure democracy, the sentients of the galaxy find the need for a Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby preventing it from legislating recklessly. BuSab is allowed to sabotage and harass the governmental, administrative, and economic powers in the ConSentiency. Private citizens must not be harassed, and vital functions of society are also exempt. Jorj X. McKie is a born troublemaker who has become one of BuSab’s best agents. Drafted for the impossible task of establishing meaningful communication with an utterly alien entity who defies understanding, McKie finds himself racing against time to prevent a mad billionairess from wiping out all life in the ConSentiency.
Series
Featured Series
1 primary book2 released books#1 in ConSentiency Universe
ConSentiency Universe is a 2-book series with 1 primary work first released in 1964 with contributions by Frank Herbert.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
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This is a truly bizarre story set in a future containing various weird phenomena that people have had to get accustomed to by then—although the phenomenon that's causing a big problem is new and mostly not understood.
The story spends much of its time dramatizing the difficulty of communicating between different intelligent species who perceive the world in completely different ways.
I find it all quite interesting and entertaining, a good enough story to reread occasionally, although Frank Herbert as an author is something of a conjuror. Superficially, his plots seem to make sense and his heroes seem to be intelligent, but I suspect that they wouldn't stand up to close examination.
