The Heaven Makers by Frank Herbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While this doesn't reach the heights of Dune, nor does it really overlap at all, this novel closely follows the classic's publication, so it bears mention.

Here's the skinny: it's a novel about immortality, boredom, and the draw that us short-lived mortals hold for the long-lived.

Granted, I've read an armful of books about this subject and have watched many movies that do the same, but this IS Frank Herbert. His take on it is not only solid -- but complicated. One of the main characters is a psychologist, after all, and this isn't a stylistic fluke. Herbert prods and pokes at everything, not just psychosis and murder investigation, but the hindbrain stuff that spreads across species and race. This is still the '60s-level science, mind you, but it reads like a psychological thriler.

It's fun and fast and obviously of heavy interest to us mortals. It's no simple cash grab despite the short length. Murder mystery? Immortality? Boredom? Sex? Yes.

Definitely worth the read, and if it hadn't been by this master writer that people have been fixated on for Dune, this one might have been heralded as a classic in its own right.

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