How many of us have wished we could find a perfect little community to live in? The Santaroga Valley appears to be that. Crime, suicide, and child misbehavior are rare. But the price for this is high, or is it? Residents become addicted to a minorly hallucinogenic spice called jaspers. It makes them healthier, calmer, and very honest and kind to the other members of their community, partially because they become more aware of what everyone around them is thinking and feeling. Indeed, if a stranger comes to the community with an intent to do something that would harm the community, the residents, guided by their hive mind, will subconsciously create deadly accidents for the stranger. Unfortunately, some of the community's children can't handle the drug and become mush-brained. Also, the hive brain would like to take over more of the country.

Herbert masterfully makes you appreciate both sides of the dilemma.

Sobre La Barrera Santaroga desde el principio, mantiene el misterio en torno a qué es realmente el jaspers, ese elemento que hace a Santaroga tan… diferente. La historia avanza con una sensación constante de inquietud, como si algo no encajara del todo, y eso me enganchó.

Uno de los puntos que más he disfrutado es lo ridículo (y divertido) que resulta cómo el protagonista sufre accidente tras accidente, pero nadie parece tomárselo en serio. Es casi como si el pueblo entero conspirara para que todo pareciera normal, aunque claramente no lo es.

El final, en cambio me costó un poco entenderlo del todo, pero creo que ahí está su encanto: es un cierre abierto, que deja espacio para la interpretación y refuerza esa sensación de que en Santaroga hay algo que no se puede explicar del todo.

Herbert tends have major reocurring themes throughout his lesser-known novels that played heavily in the Dune and Destination: Void series. This one encompasses the idea of a consciousness-expanding drug, but takes a much different view on it versus Dune's melange. Not only does this story take place in, essentially, present-day, the drug is a biological that may, as it stands, be hindering consciousness, not expanding it.

I liked the overall idea, the repurcussions of such a system in an essentially-closed commune within a country. The idea was played out to the end, although there are many questions left unanswered, as Herbert typically does.

God damn this book is weird.

I have a tough time admitting I liked a tale. Frank Herbert's Santaroga Barrier isn't a phenomenally well written piece, or an incredibly original idea even back then but it is a well written and fleshed out story that I hope one day I will be able to write myself.

I'd reccomend it easily to anyone that is a fan of these gritty, hard(ish) fiction tales.

Small town hive mind adventure with a (typical for the era) stubbornly individualist male lead and (also typical for the era) misogynistic attitudes underpinning gender interactions. Still, for what it is, a fun read that doesn't outstay it's welcome.

...I guess thematically and stylistically The Santaroga Barrier is a book of it's time. It leans very heavily on the ideas Herbert used as an inspiration. What makes this book stand out is the depth of these ideas. To Herbert they were not merely interesting concepts. He delved deeply and conveyed part of that interest and understanding in this book. It does not have the epic scope and wide variety of themes of the Dune saga but of all his works outside that setting, The Santaroga Barrier is probably the most underrated. It's a short but challenging read. If you are looking to explore Herbert's work beyond Dune, this book would be a good choice.

Full Random Comments review

Another one of my favorites from Herbert. Has been awhile since I read this one...don't remember too much, except that it revolves around an isolated community where things have gone very very wrong...I do remember the very pleasing taste it left in my mind. Thinking of going through this one again soon.

'The Santaroga Barrier' is as little Science Fiction as possible - no spacecrafts, no aliens, no other planets but earth - it doesn't even play in the future. It's a classical piece of Soft Science Fiction which examines the society of today, or, more precisely, of America in the late Sixties. A psychiatrist is sent to some remote valley in California to investigate why the people there don't consume as much goods as the rest of the country and why they almost never leave their valley. He discovers that the inhabitants expose all food to some drug which sharpens their senses, making it possible to realize all the flaws of the modern capitalist world (excessive TV consumption, money rules everything, false values et cetera) in a very precise way.

On the one hand, the scientist feels quite attracted to this community setting it's own values, on the other hand, he fears to get addicted to the drug and to loose his personality. The book is a discussion about the false gods of the modern world and possible ways out - ways which might lead to some totalitarian community where the crowd counts more than the individual. I really liked the book - it is well written, the protagonist has an interesting development, there is some action. But mainly, I loved the philosophical questions the work raises, especially regarding society, capitalism and absorption by the mass. If this sounds boring to you, I can just repeat myself - this is a classical piece of Soft Science Fiction.

Some truly dated and narrow thinking in race and gender in Herbert's "closed community" novel, none of it, unfortunately, ironic. Even so, a quick and fascinating mystery into the paranoia of mind control in the time following the Leary Age of hallucinogens. How do we know when we've crossed over between a "healthy" mind and an enlightened one, a healthy and delusional one? Where (or in what) does consciousness reside? (And, a fun sidebar for which Herbert is well-known, when a community dispenses with religious ideas of judgment, what acts won't it commit for its own survival?) Worth the read only if you can willfully shrug off its dated morality, this claim itself noted ironically to its theme.

It’s quite ironic when someone becomes the very thing they set out to destroy.

All in all, the Santaroga Barrier left me with a number of unanswered questions, but I think that’s part of its charm. Sometimes, it’s okay not to have everything neatly resolved. Overall, it was a compelling and enjoyable read—definitely worth the time

Another one of Frank Herbert's lesser known works, but well worth the read. Once again Frank Herbert explores some interesting ideas such as the concept of a Utopian society vs the 'outside world'; mind altering substances and the concept of a Hive society. Well written and a page turner, and ahead of its time; it is excellent in its own way. Highly recommended. If you're a Frank Herbert fan, be sure to check out some of his other non-Dune masterpieces (Hellstrom's Hive and The White Plague).