Four Unpublished Novels: High-Opp, Angel’s Fall, A Game of Authors, A Thorn in the Bush

by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert will forever be known as the "author of Dune," the science fiction masterpiece that made his career and made his name. But he was an exceptionally diverse author who wrote in numerous genres. Even at the beginning of his writing career, Frank Herbert wrote whatever inspired him, irrespective of genre, market, or audience tastes. After the success of his first novel The Dragon in the Sea (1955), Herbert wrote numerous novels and short stories that failed to find a market. He persevered until finally, seven years later, he wrote the most unpublishable novel of all, Dune-which, once it finally found a home with an obscure publisher, finally made Frank Herbert a household name synonymous with science fiction. This volume collects four of those complete, never-before-published novels written before Dune: High-Opp, a dystopian science fiction novel; Angels' Fall, a jungle survival adventure; A Game of Authors, a Cold War thriller; and A Thorn in the Bush, a mainstream novel based on some of Herbert's experiences in Mexico.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

570 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2016

About the author

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. was an American science fiction author best known for the 1965 novel Dune and its five sequels. Though he became famous for his novels, he also wrote short stories and worked as a newspaper journalist, photographer, book reviewer, ecological consultant, and lecturer.
The Dune saga, set in the distant future, and taking place over millennia, explores complex themes, such as the long-term survival of the human species, human evolution, planetary science and ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, economics and power in a future where humanity has long since developed interstellar travel and settled many thousands of worlds. Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and the entire series is considered to be among the classics of the genre.

Reviews

[Alyssia Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Frank Herbert... I have never read Dune or any of his published works before. I didn't even recognise his name. If it says anything at all, I had bought Dune before I even finished High-Opp. Herbert's writing style is fantastically real - whether he is writing Indiana Jones or Orwell dystopia, he drags you into the world he creates.

I am quite literally shafting my reading schedule. Having finished A Thorn in the Bush, all carefully laid plans are going to hell. Hell if this is the quality of his work outside his known genre and publishers willingness, I need to read his published science fiction. I had a schedule. Dune is now my schedule.

The four unpublished novels here are of varying genres and styles and yet all of them somehow caught me. If I had not known I was reading words written the better part of half a century ago, I would have assumed most of this to be relatively contemporary. There are some moments in Angels' Fall which more than hint at the place of women in the 50's and yet for all that, Herbert writes strong female characters with real passion and ire. There are few wilting pansies here. But more than that, nearly every character in these novels has energy that all but crackles off the page. Considering the breadth and depth of the varying characters proffered here, that is impressive.

Are there faults? Obviously. All of these pieces end too suddenly and in some cases unrealistically. High-Opp goes from a realistic dystopia to something akin to satire, Angels' Fall spends ages on the river only to finish the moment there is a hint of closure, A Game of Authors stops without the story being told and A Thorn in the Bush just... stops. It's unfinished. On top if that, I found Angels' Fall to be unnecessarily bloated, with a lot of words essentially describing a tumultuous trip down a river with random philosophical rants. And A Game of Authors is very James Bond-esque... but without the secret spy bit. Eh... you know what I mean.

But let's be fair here. Herbert did not publish these works. They are unfinished. Even the ones Herbert thought were complete never went through the critical eye of an editor. They have been published 'as is'. And every single one of these demonstrates an exceptional writing style and talent. I am only sad that the publishers did not take these up, for the polished versions would have been nothing short of spectacular.

[GRAESPACE · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why these were unpublished. An easy read but not very good

[Costin Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all know Frank Herbert for his science fiction work, mainly Dune, but before he became famous by publishing that, he wrote may short stories and novels. This collection published in 2013 holds four of the pre-Dune novels he never got to publish. I found the stories very Herbert, kind of dated and, except the first one's premise, non-sci-fi. Yet they show how the ideas that went through Herbert's brain evolved in time.

The novels in the collection are: High-Opp, Angel's Fall, A Game of Authors and A Thorn in the Bush.

High-Opp
It shows the irreverent cynicism that the author had towards governments and social systems, but with a yet unpolished writing style. The story shows how a brilliant man, stuck in the middle of the social hierarchy of a communist-like government is betrayed and then manipulated by various groups. As the strong '50s male archetype he manages to outsmart and outfight everybody.

Angel's Fall
This is an interesting story about a damaged air vehicle floating on a river while enemies are trying to catch and destroy it. It's not sci-fi, as the air vehicle in question is a floatplane and the enemies are Amazon native tribes. But if you thought I was talking about jungle part of The Green Brain, I would understand, as it's basically the same story without the sci-fi elements!

A Game of Authors
A weird story about an American journalist travelling to Mexico for a story, while being manipulated and attacked by various interested parties. It felt really dated and not well thought through. The characters were a joke, particularly the female ones. It was supposed to be a "brave resourceful man" story, but it felt like a "clueless American still doesn't believe people would try to kill him" thing.

A Thorn in the Bush
This felt like the least Herbert story of them all, even if it did focus on the internal drive and motivation of people. It's the story of an old madame who, having moved to Mexico and become respectable, tries to boss everybody based on her own past traumas and present delusions. Strange to have a female main character in a Herbert novel. It was not bad, but it was the farthest from sci-fi you will ever read.

With this I have ended reading everything Herbert wrote and I could find. From them all, Dune is of course on top of it all, but also Destination: Void (not the series, but the original book), Hellstrom's Hive, The White Plague and perhaps surprisingly Soul Catcher. There are lot of other good stories, but I loved these ones. Phew! It's over! :) It was nice, but a little tiring.

[Greyson Pratt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge science fiction fan and I really enjoyed High Opp. The other three I did not enjoy very much.

[Steef · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that these were unpublished works, I really liked them.

I did like the non-sci-fi book of Angel's Fall best.