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Direct Descent

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Direct Descent

By: Frank Herbert
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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About this listen

A library planet: The greatest treasure, the deadliest weapon.

Earth has become a library planet over the last several thousand years, a bastion of both useful and useless knowledge - esoterica of all types: History, science, politics - gathered by teams of "pack rats" who scour the galaxy for any scrap of information. Knowledge is power, knowledge is wealth, and knowledge can be a weapon. As powerful dictators come and go over the course of history, the cadre of dedicated librarians is sworn to obey the lawful government - and use their wits to protect the treasure trove of knowledge they have collected over the millennia.

©1980 Frank Herbert (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure Fantasy Science Fiction Fiction Solar System Treasure

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Two stories, essentially, the first set in the 81st century, the second several generations later, both set on the library planet housing the accumulated wisdoms and knowledge of the universe. It is dependent on the galactic governments for it's ongoing so as the first rule is to a large obey whatever the government orders. In both stories, when the decision had been made to end the library, a way had to be found to protect it without breaking the prime order to obey.

Narration is by the excellent Scott Brick, whose reading is well paced and modulated, though sadly not at his best as he sounds slightly downbeat and depressed. Still a fine pperformance, though.

Good, old fashioned (ideas rather than characterisation) S.F., Asimov style, visual and easy to read. Well worth a listen

"First rule, obey the government."

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I had to turn this off, its like the narrator was as bored reading it as I was listening to him, it was so flat I couldn't make out who was speaking, there's no inflection in any character... wasted my money.

If you are sufferfrom insomnia, by this...

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This set of fragments feels like sketches for a book. Despite its incompleteness, it reflects Herbert's eclectic and fascinating interests, and will be a pleasure for his fans.

An enjoyable oddity for Herbert fans

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A short story in two parts that explores information and government authority. The story did not do much to hold my attention, nor did it tackle its central premise, relying ostensibly on superficial ideas and predictable characters. Obviously, these are limitations of the short story format, but felt to me as though the idea had been lifted from a fuller length text, with the better material deliberately cut. l pushed through to the end, but not one of Frank Herbert's best.

Short but not sweet

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