Whipping Star

This story picks up the life of saboteur extraordinary Jorj X. Mckie. He is sent on a mission to save all sentient life in the universe. On this mission he meets and befriends a calaban, a strange multi-dimensional creature who radiates emotion and bleeds purple sparks. Most of the story is taken up with jumbled conversations between Mckie and the calaban named Fannie Mae. It is at times confusing and for some is enough to put the book down forever, but the diligent reader will be rewarded with a downright heartwarming tale.

In the future mankind has met several alien species; forging the ConSentiency alliance to govern interrelationships. However, to control the dictatorship of perfect democracy run by bureaucrats, a top secret agency was formed. The mission of the Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) is to cause problems for the ConSentiency government and its bureaucracies to fumble in reaction to their tossed figurative hand grenades with exclusions granted to individuals and to those agencies considered critical to everyone's well being. Someone is whipping stars; killing them. Now this sadist is targeting a star whose death will have consequences throughout the galaxy and probably the universe. When a Caleban beach ball lands on a remote planet, BuSab sends its best troublemaker Agent Jorj X. McKie to communicate with the life essence living inside; no sentient race has been able to communicate with the Caleban. Likewise the Caleban have tried also. They need help to save the universe from a bad legally bound contract they signed with a human sadist Miss Abnethe. The Caleban have become her victims of pain and death based on the contract. They need McKie to find a way out of the binding contract before the universe is whipped to death by Miss Abnethe. This is a reprint of a 1970 science fiction thriller that seems so timely with the economy freefall while extracting moral objectivism to the extreme. Amusing and satirical, fans will enjoy McKie's efforts to save the universe in between his divorce proceedings while trying not to become a masochistic victim of the wealthy sadist destroying the universe one Caleban whip at a time. Harriet Klausner

This book is one more proof of Herbert's mastery. The effort and difficulties in communication between a human and a being that perceives our dimension only as a "wave" is wonderfully laid out. The issue of communication between intelligent beings of different kinds (non-human) and cultures is one that Herbert plays a lot in his books, but in this one it was taken to another level.

One of the best short stories I have read, Whipping Star is most memorable for Fanny-May, an extra-dimentional Caleban whose death will mean the end of life. I definitely recomend it for any lover of fiction

A Celedon has entered into a bizzare contract with a female sadist in order to understand life in our demension. The sadist has been brainwashed by the authorities not to inflict pain. The Celedon has no concept of pain and therefore is a perfect victim for the sadist. However, these sadistic actions will cause it to cease to exist. The Celedon has asked for Mckie's help to find loophole in the ironclad contract before the it and our universe cease to exist.