The Godmakers

The Godmakers follows the journey of Lewis Orne from fledgling greenhorn of the R & R agency to the first Human God created by the mysterious and powerful priests of Amel; a planet which has an unparalleled concentration of Psi; the force behind all religion in the universe. You're taken through a handful off his missions. A trip to Hamal reveals a society hiding it's true nature. On a mission to Gienah III Orne rescues a crashed spaceship crew and makes first contact with a race that builds cities from glass. His accomplishments eventually catch the eye of the Priests of Amel and he is invited to the planet to be trained. Once there he finds out his true powers and takes his rightful place as a God. Like most of Herbert's work the story paints broad strokes of the overall culture through the fine details and observations of it's characters. The real pleasure of the novel is in seeing a human come to grips with the powers of a God not instantly, but over the course of their life experiences. A must read for any Herbert fan.

The first thing that struck me about the main theme of The Godmakers is how incredibly prescient it was of what kind of climate we would face today. Along the same kind of prophetic lines that Dune was, The Godmakers takes on the idea of pre-emptive war or subversion of foreign states in the pursuit of engineering peace (or at least, avoiding mass-scale war). Herbert's storytelling elucidates the hazards of engineering peace, and the great danger of contradicting ideas with actions when it comes to giving peace at the barrel of a gun. Don't worry, Herbert won't bash you over the head with these ideas like I've been doing. Just like in Dune, he delicately develops this and other tangential themes using complex characters who seem human on one side, and messiahs on the other (think Paul Atreides). If you want science-fiction that glistens with the sheen of brilliance but never blinds you, this book affirms that yet again, Herbert is your man.

Although some will jump at this book and see a few similarities with the Mormon religion, there are just as many similarities to Buddhism and Shinto. Much like Dune, this book provokes thoughts into both the philosophical and metaphysical. At first asking a reader to ask, "If man WERE to create a god, what would the consequences be?" Through the following chapters, however, the reader is forced to wonder if interference in other cultures for the sake of industry and economics is moral right, it is also a book that forces the reader to wonder whether attempting to dominate other cultures in the hope of peace is feasible, or whether it is moral. With the three concepts intertwined the message is more along the lines of "By interfering with other cultures and forcing them into our image of peace and nationality, are we playing God?" Like any Herbert novel, it both entertains and enlightens. I highly recommend this novel to intellectuals and the philosophically inclined, as well as those who have an interest is great science fiction.

if you like dune you will probably enjoy this. it is a great pity that it isn't much , much longer. i think fh had the chance of another epic but decided to leave it at that. as is usual in a fh book he gives us a view of modern day life seen either in the future or in an alternative reality. again he uses arab/islamic references in his book, and his hero is both intelligent and amusing. a good read at any time.

This book is a captivating read from one of science fictions masters. It intermingles religious and social philosophies from a post apocolyptic intergalatic war. The idea that Gods are made not born and the ominous consequences of making. It question good and bad at a very base level.