In a fit of whimsy, I hereby announce I will give everyone five stars, but the reviews may not reflect it.

Not bad. Reads like an extended old Twilight Zone episode (not a criticism) and is an interesting take on the self with a little Red Menace thrown in for good measure.

Honestly I'm kinda iffy on giving it five stars, just thinking about the narrative alone, but I think that plus my own personal experience really just catapulted it into a really high spot in my list. I would read a major section of the book, micro dose, then reflect on the areas the book touched on in my journal. It was genuinely a great method of putting yourself in the shoes of the characters. Especially considering Gilbert Dasein was an outsider, everyone on the inside of Santaroga barrier may have seemed a bit cuckoo, but that's cuz he wasn't tapped in fully. I liked how the Jaspers allowed everyone to value things other than money. In contrast to the "civilized" world where they can't event conceive of a world where Santaroga doesn't want in on the global economy. It's incredible and really redirects light onto what everyone in this world seems to value the most. They made the Santarogans out to be crazy. Another aspect which was reallyyyy scary and had me thinking for dayssss was the thought of the collective consciousness psychedelics imposed onto those who ingested them. While it may be cool when it's mostly positive, the fact that the Jaspers was compelling its denizens to try and kill Dr. Dasein accidentally was horrifying. None of them were even aware of it. It could be seen as a survival mechanism of the mycelia, but something about its heightened level of intelligence and ability to act simultaneously as one being through multiple people was so frightening. The fact that everyone knew all the happenings of the whole town without witnessing it personally. Like when the mechanic guy exploded in the car. Chills bro. I take back what I said this book definitely does deserve those five stars, wow. I just needed to yap in order to remember parts about it I liked. Wish I could have some Jaspers coffee I bet it would fix me.

Succint and very slightly weird polemic against modern America via a consciousness-enhancing yeast. This book is as if A Scanner Darkly had been stirred in a pot with the Foundation prequel which was obsessed with yeast cultures. It's not that bad a book - but it's not one to go mad for. Doesn't hold a candle to Dune, but not badly put together. I also liked the attack on bad writing and jargon, and the one on advertising.

bit of a weird one overall, don't think I'd recommend but it would be funny to talk about.

gah. i don't know what it is. i read the first twenty pages and after enough torture, i put it down and decided that this is the most boring book in the world. this sucks, because i love frank herbert, and i think that he does have some gems outside of his flagship Dune series. i have a few more unread herbert books. i'll get to them eventually, i guess. i know at least one of those will be great--i hope they're great.

Frank Herbert's seemingly fascination with narcotics continues with this stand alone story. In Dune they used spice, in this tale the mind expands with the use of Jaspers. Despite the futuristic front cover, the story is set amongst a small valley population in present America.
Great story telling which comes to am abrupt end.
This version is the mass market paperback and as such I occasionally wondered if something had been left out at the end.
Given four stars and a worthy read, not just for sci-fi fans but as a 'thriller' in its own right.

2 stars. Nice intrigue with a cool setting, but overall kinda boring and the payoff is underwhelming. Also, the parts dealing with race and gender have NOT aged well.

The Good:
Gilbert's arc of learning that capitalism is bad, actually, is alright. I like the setup of the Jaspers mystery. There's some decent action scenes, especially when Gilbert is sneaking around. The escalating "accidents" are also fine I guess.

The Bad:
Unfortunately, Gilbert's main arc is the only interesting character development. Most of the characters are pretty static and uninteresting. Jenny exists purely to give Gilbert personal conflict, Uncle Larry just dishes out exposition, Selidor is the figurehead of capitalist America, etc. On top of that, despite having a decent arc, Gilbert is overall just painfully obstinate and unlikeable. He is incapable of reading a room, constantly whines about Jaspers, and the way he just sorta repeats phrases over and over annoyed me.

The Ugly:
Whew, I was not ready for the dated portrayal of women and POC here. As a classic sci-fi fan, I am no stranger to being disappointed with representation in the genre (or often, complete lack thereof), but this book has some real... gems. In his first scene, the main black character talks about how the valley is so "accepting" that he gets called the n-word and it doesn't offend him. Gilbert threatens to rape his love interest at some point and its treated as fun and flirty. There's constant reference to the attractiveness of all the women and the skin color of all the POC. So yeah... kinda ruins any enjoyment of the book whenever it comes up. Honestly, all this book needed was an evil gay pedophile (looking at you, Dune....)

6/10. Leído en 2004.

Tras haber leído Dune que duda cabe de que esta novela decepciona.
Tiene "algo" esta historia de una comunidad rural con misterio asociado en el que se mete un psicólogo va a investigar por qué en esa zona el marketing no funciona nada.

The author must have been a tremendous blue cheese lover to write a sci-fi novel about its ban in the USA.

Писана през 1968 г., творбата е остаряла добре (тоест това, че е писана преди почти половин век не �� е проблемът). Поизмъчи ме с мудното действие и езика - не знам дали второто е проблем на превода, но първото - едва ли. За сведение - фантастичното е съвсем малко (не е кусур, просто да се знае). Финалът е анти-климактичен и безинтересен.
Българското издание от 1993 г. е под нивото дори и на деветдестарските издания, включитено на предишните от поредицата. Произволна картинка на корицата (нормално...), но и много правописни и пунктуационни грешки, явно много са бързали... Романът сам по себе си е 3.5, като калпавото издание на български сваля половинка до 3. Ако можете, прочетете го ингилизки.

Really enjoyed this book, it felt like watching one of those old "Invaders" movie where the population is being taken over one by one but no-one believes it. The Firm meets Hotel California. You kind of know where it's all heading but it still manages to maintain a Hitchcock-style tension and with a satisfying conclusion. Very different feel to Herbert's Dune (and a much easier read) but like Dune it deals with the subject of addiction and the fine and hazy line between brilliance and madness. Community spirit at the cost of personal identity.

This book was super weird, and that’s a good thing. Plot-wise, it’s basically about a creepy small town in America that’s super insular and where weird stuff is constantly going on. A dude called Dasein is sent in to carry out an investigation, and he rapidly finds himself on the receiving end of a series of accidents, each of which could have ended his life.

That gives the book a cloying, paranoid kind of feel, a lot of which is due to us following Dasein’s thought processes. At the same time, he’s becoming more and more Santarogan, and he’s well aware of the fact. Due to the fact that there’s a physical substance in the cheese and the beer, something a bit like LSD but which awakens all sorts of weird stuff in the brain, he might never be able to leave.

There were elements here that reminded me of Stephen King’s Desperation, and that’s a good thing. In fact, I think this is the most approachable thing that I’ve read of Herbert’s, and it’s definitely written more simply than his Dune books. I’m glad I read it!

★ - Most books with this rating I never finish and so don't make this list. This one I probably started speed-reading to get it over with.
★★ - Average. Wasn't terrible, but not a lot to recommend it. Probably skimmed parts of it.
★★★ - Decent. A few good ideas, well-written passages, interesting characters, or the like.
★★★★ - Good. This one had parts that inspired me, impressed me, made me laugh out loud, made me think - it got positive reactions and most of the rest of it was pretty decent too.
★★★★★ - Amazing. This is the best I've read of its genre, the ones I hold on to so I can re-read them and/or loan them out to people looking for a great book. The best of these change the way I look at the world and operate within it.