High-Opp
US first edition cover | |
Author | Frank Herbert |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction novel |
Publisher | WordFire Press |
Publication date |
March 11, 2012 (e-book) April 5, 2012 (paperback) |
Media type | Print (E-book & Paperback) |
Pages | 232 |
ISBN | 1-614-75038-6 |
High-Opp is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert between The Dragon in the Sea (1955) and Dune (1965), and published posthumously in 2012.[1] It contains a forward by Kevin J. Anderson, who co-authored many books in the Dune series with Frank Herbert's son. Brian Herbert.
Though the novel was never published in Herbert's lifetime, some elements of the story were used in his 1977 novel The Dosadi Experiment, sometimes word-for-word.
Plot summary
On a dystopian future Earth, an ongoing series of opinion polls set the boundaries of the caste system: the high scored High-Opps are rewarded with luxury and privilege, while the low-opped struggle for comfort and survival in the crowded Labor Pool. When Senior Liaitor Daniel Movius falls from the upper ranks to the lowest depths of society, he faces the harsh and brutal conditions of the underworld and finds a brewing revolution in need of a leader.
Elements in common with other Herbert works
- To aid the poll-taking functions, a set of bureaus developed, such as the Bureau of Opinions (Bu-Opp), the Bureau of Control (Bu-Con), and the Bureau of Psychology (Bu-Psych). This idea blossomed as the Bureau of Sabotage (Bu-Sab) in Whipping Star
- Public opinion was manipulated to make research into space flight forbidden by law, similar to the proscription against thinking machines in the Duniverse following the Butlerian Jihad. This has the effect of turning the population inward, where boredom is increased by the mandatory standardization of nearly everything, echoed by Leto's Peace in God Emperor of Dune.
- The Senior Liaitor job of Daniel Movius is eliminated by polling, in a scene almost precisely duplicated in The Dosadi Experiment, with the exception that Keila Jedrik manipulates a flaw in the Dosadi Demopol to eliminate her own job. Even the long serial number of the opinion in both novels are nearly the same. In both books, co-workers quickly learn what has happened and the protagonist thinks, Avert your faces, you clogs. In both books, the apartments of the elite are "fluting inverted stalagmites" built upon the "silvered layers of the Council Hills." Quilliam Gar, a human in Broey's inner council on Dosadi, shares the same first name with Quilliam London, a professor of semantics in Nathan O'Brien's inner council in High-Opp, and both characters have a daughter who is also a major character.
References
- ↑ Anderson, Kevin J. (March 16, 2012). "New, never-published Frank Herbert novel now available: HIGH-OPP". KJAblog.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
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