Having never read any of Herbert’s work besides Dune, I was very surprised (and a little disappointed) to find that he had written such a generic example of period science fiction as well. I always sort of imagine Dune springing forth fully-formed from his head, but it’s obvious just from reading this that he had a career as a sci fi author, and that much of the work he published was simply not of the same caliber. This one could almost have been re-written as an episode of “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” without any serious changes in the plot, just by toning down the kinkiness of the “whipping” part of the story.

The themes Herbert works with here are primarily: faster-than-light travel (both in its psychological and energy-requirement aspects), the possible sentience of stars, and the transcendent power of love. The three do not sit entirely comfortably with one another, and only at the end do we see how Herbert has intended to wed them. The resolution is reasonably clever, but the book as a whole leaves one feeling unsatisfied.

In order to make certain that the concepts are clear to the audience, Herbert uses the familiar formula of making his characters stupidly resist the obvious, so that it has to be spelled out over and over again. While I’ve seen this done worse, it does get annoying after a while. He also stretches out the plot by making the primary information-provider obscure and largely incapable of expressing ideas in humanoid language. This also gets annoying, although it’s clear enough that Herbert is trying to examine to limitations of linguistic communication and the possibility of sentient beings that exist without it. He does introduce an important concept through this convention, and by withholding the answer of its meaning until the end, effectively raises suspense and foregrounds the mystery.

Overall, this book reminds me of other alien-contact books that were in circulation at the time, and if 60s/70s sci fi is your thing, it’s quite possible you will like it. On the other hand, if you think Frank Herbert is a genius, this may take him down a notch in your estimation.

I bought this because I've had Dorsadi on my self for years, but learned that it was a second part of a series. This is the only other Herbert I've read after the first three Dune books. I'd give Dune and Children of Dune 5 stars with Messiah a 4.
What can I say about Whipping Star?
The premise is absolutely bonkers. I'm not giving anything away by say that the premise is that a person who want to flagellate and alien being risks the entire universe by doing so. You lean this pretty much straight away . Eh? Really? This is the story? THe hole book is basically a confusion of jargon words and unexplained notions.
Oddly it is still quite readable and the story progresses nicely. Towards the end, the story drifts gently {spoiler} in to a love allegory, but concludes rather unsatisfactorily.

One day I’ll finish a Frank Herbert book without feeling like an idiot

Se numea Furuneo, Alichino Furuneo. Aşa îşi tot repeta în gînd în timp ce vehiculul intra în oraşul unde urma să transmită mesajul la mare distanţă. Înainte de un astfel de apel era bine-venită o întărire a eului propriu. La cei şaizeci şi şase de ani ai săi, Furuneo cunoscuse numeroase cazuri de pierdere de identitate datorate plytotransei care însoţeşte comunicările între sistemele stelare. Erau puţine convorbiri la acest nivel şi asta nu atît datorită costului operaţiunii şi senzaţiei de greaţă provocată de contactul cu un emiţător taprisiot, cît din cauza unui anumit procent de nesiguranţă. Din nefericire, Furuneo nu putea delega pe nimeni pentru a stabili contactul cu Jorj X. McKie, Marele Sabotor.
Ora locală: opt şi opt minute. Se afla pe o planetă a sistemului Sfich numită Cordialitate.
«Am impresia că nu va fi deloc uşor», murmură încet, mai mult pentru sine decît pentru cei doi rechizitori pe care îi adusese cu el pentru a-i asigura un plus de linişte.
De altfel, nici unul dintre ei nici măcar nu clipea, ştiind că nimeni nu aştepta vreo reacţie din partea lor. Aerul dimineţii era încă încărcat de răcoarea nocturnă a brizei ce sufla dinspre piscurile înzăpezite ale munţilor Billy spre ocean. Pentru a ajunge din fortăreaţa lui alpină în Divizion City, Furuneo preferase un vehicul obişnuit de suprafaţă, fără semne distinctive. Şi nu pentru că ar fi fost obligatoriu să se ascundă sau să-şi disimuleze apartenenţa la Biroul de Sabotaj, ci pentru că, pur şi simplu, nu avea nici un rost să atragă în mod inutil atenţia. Cu atît mai mult cu cît destul de multe persoane aveau motive întemeiate să urască acest Birou.
Furuneo parcă maşina la intrarea în Zona Pedestră şi îşi continuă drumul pe jos, ca toţi cetăţenii obişnuiţi.
Zece minute mai tîrziu, se prezentă în holul de primire al imobilului. Era în centrul taprisiot de reproducere, unul dintre cele aproximativ douăzeci de centre din întreg universul, ceea ce reprezenta, pe drept cuvînt, un motiv de mîndrie pentru o planetă secundară cum era Cordialitatea.

I'm not sure what I thought of this book? I think I really liked it....but the language...I got so confused at times. I wasn't completely sure what was going on at times? I had to reread things a bit. Fannie Mae, really. Almost everything she said confused the shit out of me and I had to keep rereading all of her "dialogue".

I guess that was kinda the point? The characters struggled to communicate with Fannie, and I suppose I struggled right along with them.

Also, the title. I honestly didn't realize that whipping star was literal until nearly the end. I feel stupid.

This book made me feel stupid, I guess that's why I'm not sure what I thought lol.

This is the first non-Dune Herbert book I have read. Going in I had practically no expectations and thought it was a fairly decent, quick little read. The Caleban are an interesting idea and the communications barrier between them and the humans is fun but sometimes a little tiring to read. The characters are pretty straightforward, serving the simple story and little else. There's no Leto II here, unfortunately.
Overall an interesting but not particularly remarkable novel.

I've only read some of his Dune books, so I thought to expand a bit. This wasn't really worth the effort. I think it's supposed to be a farce about communication. If so, the humor part mostly passed me by. What was left seemed more mental masturbation than story. There were some ingenious aliens, but that was about it.

Something of a difficult read Whipping Star has interesting ideas, but understandably hasn't obtained the same attention as Dune.

At the crux of the novel is the difficult communication with the Caleban. This is made difficult both by the alien nature of the Caleban which makes it hard for each side to understand the concepts the other is expressing, and manifests in turn in the strangeness of speech. Irregular speech, strange concepts, a spoonful of mathematics and the readers confused, pair this against a backdrop of strange aliens, living chairs, and whatnot and you'll find careful readings required. Or to rephrase matters, the book is continually novel and interesting; there's difficulties of communication with the alien, interesting logical construction, a reckoning with the difficulties of acting when action is pivotal and information scarce, and a setting that is original and detailed albeit only seen through a pinhole.

Regrettably I feel that Whipping Stat didn't quite stick it's landing. But while I think it unbrilliant, I think my dissatisfaction stems from personal quibbles. I've every intention of reading The Dosadi Experiment in due course.

I just finished Whipping Star by Frank Herbert, and I can’t believe the kind of mind capable of thinking up such wild, intricate concepts. Herbert weaves a mind-bending plot that explores communication, consciousness, and interstellar politics in ways I hadn’t imagined possible. His ability to create complex, multi-species civilizations and make you question everything about language and perception is nothing short of amazing.

Jorj X. McKie is such a unique character, and the mystery surrounding the Caleban is gripping. Herbert's imagination shines here, he makes the abstract and otherworldly feel almost real. The tension of trying to avert disaster in the ConSentiency kept me hooked from start to finish. I don't know how he dreams up these ideas, but Whipping Star is another example of why he remains one of the most fascinating authors in science fiction. Truly an amazing read.

Enjoyable, easy read, yet also difficult.
It's enjoyable because of the many varied aliens and ideas, and an interesting plot. It's also interesting as Herbert portrays the difficulties of conversing with aliens really well. This means conversations with the main alien are frustrating, as meaning is evasive. I found this enjoyable, especially when I thought I understood the alien better than the protagonist, but others might not.
It's also 'difficult' because of the ideas about time and space, but you don't really need to follow that too closely.
And the ending perhaps stretches credulity a bit far, but what else do you expect from Frank Herbert?

Pro:
Weird, in a good way.
Fun wordplay

Cons:
Utterly failed the Bechdel test
Several moments of cringe around the few (human) female characters (no more than 3 had names?!?).
Characters using too many words like 'gibberish'

A kalebánok koncepciója, ami csak a könyv vége felé bontakozik ki, tetszett. Ám az, ahogy az egész történetet felépítették, és maga a SzabIr léte, szükségessége és működési módja egy hatalmas katyvasznak bizonyult. Megvannak annak a módja, hogyan lehet kapcsolatot felvenni egy idegen faj képviselőjével, és azt nem egy mit tudom én milyen hátterű ügynök fogja sikeresen megvalósítani, azt garantálom.
Az olyan sci-fiket, ahol egy kupac idegen faj között az ember az ász/vezető, képtelenségnek tartom. Igen, itt töltöttek be vezető tisztséget nem emberek is, de a fizikai jellemzőik eltérősége ellenére olyan emberi a viselkedésűek és felfogásúak, hogy felmerül bennem a kérdés, ennyire nem tud egy ember elvonatkoztatni a saját fajától, vagy szándékosan lettek ilyenek, hogy lehessen velük együttműködni illetve lehessen őket prezentálni egy regényben anélkül hogy félrevinné a figyelmet?

Évszázadokkal dobálózunk, közben a érdekes Mliss személyisége végül egy síró picsogó némberré fokozódik le. Aligha a tartalommal bíró személyiségek megalkotása a szerző erőssége, és sci-fiben, főleg ha férfi írja, ez igen gyakori hiányosság. Amennyiben ez szexista kijelentés, vállalom.