I wasn't crazy about this story - and when I finished the book I really wasn't sure exactly what happened. It is a story about a very independent, self surviving town that doesn't like outsiders and the citizens go out of their way to make them leave.

The citizens leave to go to college, serve in the military and do what other civil minded people do. But, everyone comes back to the town where they were raised....all of them!! I can't give a spoiler if I wanted to because I still don't know why they came back. Plus I don't understand......

Okay, evidently I am not smart enough to read and understand this book. I hope you are.......good luck.

I am going to try Dune........

Correcta novela con mensaje de bastante actualidad (se publicó en 1968).

Me ha gustado el simbolismo lisérgico y cómo una sociedad con sus propios patrones hacen que todo tenga sentido hasta en aspectos que la percepción no es capaz ni siquiera de intuir.

Un libro correcto.

The longer introspective sequences towards the end dragged for me. The lead is the only character that gets much development. The creeping dread of Gil getting sucked further in is carried off pretty well.

I liked it better than Dune, but may just be because The Santaroga Barrier doesn’t hit you with the pseudo religion right off the bat (and is mercifully shorter).

im not a huge frank herbert/dune/sci-fi fan, so my review may not be so helpful. i enjoyed the premise of the book, but i found herberts writing very telling. personally, i prefer writing that lets me think for myself, as opposed to being told exactly the way things are. i normally wouldnt have even read book like this, but my boyfriend is a huge dune/herbert fan, i had no new books left, and i needed something to read on the train. if youre into this kind of writing, its a good one.

Letto in italiano, nella versione dell'Editrice Nord.

Scritto da Herbert pochi anni dopo il celeberrimo "Dune", è completamente diverso da esso sia per ambientazione (in America a fine anni '60), che per tipo di fantascienza, che per mole (molto più breve di "Dune").

Il romanzo parte bene, tanto da ricordare un po' i telefilm tipo "Twin Peaks" o "Eureka", con lo straniero che arriva in un paese di provincia dove gli abitanti nascondono "un segreto". Si legge spedito e con interesse fin oltre la metà, poi qualche lungaggine di troppo ne rallenta l'azione, e il finale purtroppo non è così convincente come dovrebbe essere.

Fantástico. É tudo.

Herbert's tribute novel to The Puppet Masters and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Is the invader a parasite or a symbiote? Is it of Terran origin? Do the positive effects outweigh the negative effects? Do you really want to be part of hive mind? 1 in 500 have a bad reaction and are damaged. The characters are a bit thin, and there are some race and gender issues, but that might be a side effect ;)

An interesting read, should make for a good discussion.

A psychologist is sent to a peaceful but introverted California valley on a market study to investigate why the residents refuse to participate in the modern mass-market economy. He finds a community so intriguing but disquieting that he's torn between an equal desire to stay or to flee.

In contrast to Herbert's tendency to tell the narrative from several points of view at once (The White Plague, Dune, etc), The Santaroga Barrier finds him focusing on the main character alone. This approach puts the reader on equal footing with the confused and inquisitive narrator, moving with him and discovering as he does. The narration style fit the plot. It draws you in and forces you to consider your own alignment along with the narrator.

It's a quick and somewhat unsettling read. The unease comes from Herbert's striking ability to paint a picture of an insular community that is equally idyllic and also creepy. Herbert mentioned in an interview that he wrote the story envisioning a divisive readership with half seeing a paradise and half seeing a hell.

The premise is not new. The Santaroga Barrier shares common ground with the utopian novels of Butler, Huxley, Orwell, et al. However Herbert sets a unique scene that relies not on a possible future or an entirely different world but on the more real setting of a small town already extant within our present day nation. The story is a critique of the drug and hippie culture that was sweeping the US at the time of his writing and also strikes at the perceived ideal of suburban and small town life, what it means to be an individual, and the direction that our society is moving.

Recommended for fans of utopian literature and those who want to question their own faith in modern society.

Jedna z těch čtivějších knih F. Herberta. Za mě to byla supr knížka, jen jsem očekával závěr příběhu trochu živější/nečekaný

Pure pulp, from my perspective. The writing was pedestrian, and characterization shallow and unbelievable. Dasein acted like a tantrumy toddler, Jenny was an early version of a manic pixie dreamgirl, and most of the rest of the characters were cardboard cutouts. Plus, I just never could get past the thought that the real threat, in this story, is the idea that people have no right to refuse to buy commercial products, or to reject their marketing efforts. Both the "market study" that Dasein was undertaking, and the reaction of a traveling salesman who had been unable to make sales in the valley struck me as exemplary of the evil sense of entitlement that corporations seem to feel they have to our collective dollar.

Really liked this sci fi mystery,easy reading.

Look, Frank Herbert's written some spectacular works of fiction. This isn't one of them. He's also written a few outright duds. This isn't one of those either. This is Herbert writing a tight, suspenseful little mystery well, playing with some ideas and a paranoid tone that will bloom for him later (in the latter Dune books, for example). For the real Herbert fans, it's a worthy read as long as you aren't expecting another Dune, but for the uninitiated, it may be best to start elsewhere.