Plays well with this Herbert fan's mind. Front to back. Now I need to start at the beginning!

Instead of a sand filled “dune” world…it’s water-world ppl. Instead of Fremen…it’s Mermen. 10/10

I don't know that I *liked* it, but it was interesting, and compelling; I think of it at random sometimes. Best of the Dune series.

Not Herbert's finest hour, but a solid continuation. Lucky it got a 3., but i really enjoyed it in the beginning 1/3.

TLE is the third book in the destination void series, and a direct sequel to the Jesus Incident. The balance between philosophy and ecological and biological directive plot that made TJE great was broken. TLE maintains great world building but focuses far too much on active plot that ultimately doesnt go anywhere much at all.

I really liked getting to know the Islander and Merman societies. Distinct cultures and characteristics. The book contains quite a bit of worldbuilding setup that one think will get leveraged, but its a bit thrown away. The book is almost entirely centered on merman spaces. I think this points to a lack of man plot character still on the islands. We get snapshots from Vata/Duque which is interesting, but the CP would have been character aboard the Islands themselves.

This leads to the problem with characters. Theres a teenage romance thing in this. Its not too bad, but the problem is the most fleshed out characters in teh entire book are the tropey teenagers. This understandably makes others furious.

Quisp is a great character but doesnt get leveraged enough. Others are just a bit thrown away.

CP is just referred to as being important for some reason, but not actually shown. Almost just a throwaway reference to the previous novels.

Some reviewers are annoyed by the lack of Ship, and i could see that, but for me that is enveloped in the sanctification of hte limited intellectual / philosophical depth.

The plot has a lot of action sub elements but overall everyone is just waiting for deus ex machina to happen. The only plot is that its kept from the reader fully. Kinda cheap storytelling.

Its a bit like a YA book, but doesnt quite fit that mold either. its a mess, but theres a good book someplace.

Very little thinking about thinking. And certainly no thinking about thinking about thinking.

I hope The Ascension factor is better.

Although not a brilliant book, it adds a lot the the story, continuing the ideas from the first book in the series.

7/10. Los humanos intentan conquistar Pandora, un planeta hostil eminentemente oceánico …. Y con sorpresas.

Aderezado con inteligencias planetarias y luchas internas, la trilogía se deja leer de forma regular, bajando bastante la cosa según se avanza en los tres libros.

Even better than the first one. This trilogy is almost as good as the Dune trilogy. Pure Herbert.

The Lazarus Effect continues the story of the planet Pandora set forth in The Jesus Incident, At the end of The Jesus Incident, the sentient kelp had been obliterated. The Lazarus Effect is set several centuries later; the entire world is covered by ocean and the descendants of Jesus Lewis' genetic manipulations are working to restore the kelp.

As is typical in a Herbert novel, The Lazarus Effect explores various ideas and themes: humanity, survival, evolution, leadership, psychology, politics, ecology, and religion.

As with Destination: Void and The Jesus Incident, the formatting of the Wordfire Press ebook edition of this novel is pathetic. Broken paragraphs, multiple paragraphs merged into one (particularly in dialogue sequences), a couple instances of several words strung together without a space between...etc. It's certainly not unreadable, by any stretch of the imagination, just disappointing (although some of the joined paragraphs in dialogue can be slightly confusing).

This was an amazing book with many interesting concepts and insights. I love learning how Ship becomes intelligent and I love it when the Pandorans meet their ancestors or "original" humans.

excellent, creative

I would have given this a solid 4/5 stars if not for the frequent weird musings on women’s hard nipples. The setting is interesting, the cultures of the two main groups are interesting, the plot developed well, and there are perfect turns of phrases and foreshadowing that I expect from Frank Herbert books. There’s a chapter that just so perfectly made me care about a previously background character that I marveled at the great writing that went into that chapter.

And then you get this: “Her nipples pressed like children’s noses against his ribs.” Who the hell writes something like that, and why are they thinking about children’s noses during sex?

I previously had a Stephen King quote as the most outrageous “male author writing about women’s nipples” quote but this one takes the cake. I can only hope it’s Bill Ransom’s contribution and not Herbert’s.

That wasn’t the only instance in this book, but the others were mild enough to brush over. The weird obsession drops my rating to a 3/5 - I wish the authors could have left those lines out (and this is coming from a male reader, too).

Possibly one of the most underrated Herbert books in my opinion