Who else was appalled by The Heaven Makers?

[MilesTeg]

I'm barely half way through this book and I have to keep putting it down because the concept disgusts me. Don't get me wrong, I think its a great book and I'm enjoying it, but **SPOILER ALERT**






the thought of human conflict being engineered by a stagnating race for the purpose of entertainment sickens me. The thought of Ruth being forced to enjoy sex with an alien creature sickens me. I know its just a story but the ideas have a harsh effect on me I guess. I used to read a lot of Stephen King and despite the gratuitous violence and insanity nothing he wrote has ever horrified me as much as this. Does anyone else feel the same way? I'm hoping for a happy ending, or at least an ending in which the Chem get their asses kicked so hard they kiss the moons, but given their power the situation seems completely hopeless. I should finish the book before I start rambling on about it on message boards, but I would really like to know how other people reacted to this story, so if you've read it and you're interested, let me know how you feel.

 

[iansales]

Engineering a war for entertainment is only throwing Christians to the lions on a larger scale. So it's not as if FH had to look far for inspiration. It's a topic that's been covered quite a lot. Only a few years ago, there was that 007 film, Tomorrow Never Dies, in which a media mogul engineered a war between the UK and China in order to sell more newspapers...

There's also a long tradition in science fiction of sex with aliens -- beginning, according to most commentators, with Philip Jose Farmer's 'The Lovers' in 1952. Perhaps the most notable sex-with-aliens short story is James Tiptree Jr's 'And I Awoke And Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side'. Definitely worth reading, if you haven't done so.

 

[MilesTeg]

Thanks for the lions/christians analogy, I hadnt made that connection yet. I just finished the book, and the second half of it I enjoyed much more than the first. I've come to realize that the reason I was so appalled by the story was the same reason the townspeople wanted Joe Murphey dead: it made me asked frightening questions about myself. Under the right circumstances, could I take a form similar to one of these chem? A few recitations of the litany against fear put me in a calmer mindset and, insecurities aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the story.
It wasnt so much the interspecies sex that bothered me, as much as the fact the she was manipulated to enjoy it. It reminds me of what humans sometimes do to each other, subtly applying pressure to turn a person into something they dont want to be. I still look at this as one of the darker Herbert novels I have read, but the ending managed to turn things around a bit. Thanks for the recommendation, I havent heard of that author and I will be sure to check it out!