Reviews for Hellstrom's Hive

The average rating for Hellstrom's Hive based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-20 00:00:00 Mr. Uwe Matschke As with most works from Frank Herbert, Hellstrom's Hive is not only very good on the surface, it also works well on many different levels. And like most of his writing, all excellent, it is difficult to assess this work without references to his greatest work, Dune. First published in 1973, four years after Dune Messiah and three years before Children of Dune, many themes of Herbert's Dune series can be seen in Hive, particularly a fascination with genetics and a dynamic econo-socialization. A fan of Dune will recall that the Bene Gesserit were particularly adept at arranged breeding patterns and the Bene Tleilaxu have a hive mentality, de-emphasizing individualism. The contrast between individualism and a group consciousness is a major theme in this work. Herbert has created a world (presumably modern day / current time United States) where a centuries old movement to replicate insect "hive" organizations in a human society have evolved to challenge the "wild" human population for dominance. In Herbert's present day, though, America has become a police state and government agencies exist atop the country's power structure. Most interestingly, and representative of his genius for writing, Herbert tells the story from the perspective of the hive and the American police state is the "outside" enemy. In his own words, this created a "peculiar kind of tension". This may also be seen as an allegory about communism. At the time of the writing, the U.S. and USSR were gripped in the global stalemate of the Cold War. Herbert's Hive resembles an autocratic society by its genetically manipulated, highly specialized caste worker system. But here is where Herbert's genius transforms this simple metaphor into something much more interesting as he describes similarities between our police state society and a hive like insect inspired one. Hellstrom's Hive then can also be seen as a statement that not only could a police state be seen as a insect like drone system, but our reliance on "elite" leadership of such a state may not even be the most successful model. Taking his inspiration from the Hellstrom Chronicle, a 1971 film describing a Darwinistic struggle for survival between humans and insects that has elements of satire and sci-fi horror; Herbert makes use of his exceptional ability to produce well-crafted characterization to further create a first rate science fiction novel. Readers who enjoyed Dune will be pleasantly surprised to see that Herbert's non-Dune writing was also first rate.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-06-12 00:00:00 Kiersten Marcos Three and half stars. As I mentioned earlier, in my poor ignorance, I thought that Frank Herbert was a "one success man". That is: Dune and the sequels. Fortunately, I was curious about this novel when I found it in the prestigious SF Masterworks collection. Now I know that this author has other interesting novels that I have added to my list of pending readings. Hellstrom's Hive is a good classic (1973). An entertaining novel about genetics and social experiments, so the novel is also a bit speculative. It is also a critique of secret agencies: those in which the left hand does not know what the right is doing (and vice versa). The main characters are the agents of an unknown secret organization, each one with their own peculiar vision of how the problem they face should be dealt with according to their interests. And, of course, there's Mr. Hellstrom, a kind of entrepreneur with ... a hidden agenda. As I say, a good science fiction novel, which deals with a little-treated subject in the genre. And about this, it reminds me, have you read Stephen Baxter's Coalescent? (another good one)