Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Destination: Void

Top positive review

clones, space travel, and computers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2022

I would have liked more on the clones, but I was interested in
the computer that is trying to gain consciousness and the
question if it was a person/living being??? Also, I wish I
could have seen more near the end. Worth a read.

One person found this helpful

Top critical review

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Jason LaRose

Technical Fiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 3, 2022

The overall story is interesting. The characters taking their own journey understanding what it would mean if humanity were actually capable of creating a new form of sentience, each from a different specialized perspective, is enjoyable.

The only drawback is a great deal of the novel is used up with explaining the schematics of technology which does not exist. It reads, at time, as if Herbert were giving people a pattern to actually create AI. The end result is reading pages of words which have meaning (Neuro, port, wire, sensor, etc...) in a context without meaning until it gets back to people talking enough to tell you something.

The gains of making the point that the science is all highly technical and futuristic is outweighed by not having enough explanation to ground it with purpose in the story.

6 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Kat

clones, space travel, and computers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2022

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One person found this helpful

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Xavier Beguiristain

Very Heady

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 27, 2022

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Typical Herbert. A lot to grasp and very detailed. Reading again for the second time. So much information. Great story with tension on every word. Live of die.

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Jason LaRose

Technical Fiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 3, 2022

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6 people found this helpful

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Phil B

Fascinating take on consciousness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 31, 2022

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As someone who has read the Dune series several times, but could not get through "The Dosadi Experiment", I am a lover of Herbert's prose but can understand those who are not into it. I believe this one was his first "money maker", if not published novel? At any rate, I think this story holds up, having read it in my twenties and was extremely compelling in my mid-40's re-read. Really interesting perspective on AI, human cloning, the nature of consciousness, and even faith....all of which are expanded upon in his "Pandora Sequence" as apparently the sequels are now called. I am almost through "The Jesus Incident" which is great and looking forward to the next two,

5 people found this helpful

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John Strange

Destination: Confusion

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2015

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Four-dimensional construction, he reminded himself. "Listen, we have to construct a net in depth that contains complex world-line tracks. It has to absorb nonsynchronous transmissions. It has to abstract discrete patterns out of the impulse oversend. The important thing is structure— not the material . The important thing is topology. That’s the key to the whole damn problem! "

Easy for you to say, Bickle! You lost me after "Listen".

I was listening to the Audible audio book version of Destination Void when I realized something sounded familiar: I had accidentally started thirty minutes before my last point and despite careful listening (this book demands full attention) I barely recognized what I'd just heard. Frankly, I barely understood it anyway.

Herbert's tackled a difficult subject - the nature of consiousness and the creation of a conscious AI - and the resulting novel, while interesting, is a tough nut to crack. There's the subject itself and there's the dense techno-babble (most of which sounds outdated but likely was obscure and idiosyncratic even when first written) which combine into a dense treatise that is only intermittently intelligible. Personally, I had to get the Kindle ebook and re-read the novel slowly and carefully.

I enjoyed Destination Void but it's hard to recommend. If you're interested in sci-fi novels involving space travel, consciousness and intelligence there are other more recent novels like Peter Watts' Blind Sight.

If you're continuing with Herbert's Pandora series, the books do get friendlier.

20 people found this helpful

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Jeremy Roberts

Well crafted story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 5, 2013

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I wish as a whole our society could say that we regularly produced writers who could write this well.

That said, there seemed to be some minor issues with the transfer to digital, based on the overall quality versus specific instances. I'd give the transfer 4 stars.

The story itself brings up and considers a few physics and computer theories while refraining from hand-holding. I appreciated Herbert's restraint by not spelling it all out in a redundant fashion. Instead he takes the time to develop explanations and use them as tools for plot momentum and foil. The character development also carries well.

Overall, I read for pleasure and simply enjoy how Herbert elevated the story past mindless drivel while keeping it fun.

3 people found this helpful

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BillyBoyFloyd

The deepest of AI stories

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 26, 2018

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One of the greatest novels about AI of all time. Sadly it has not aged well. But since this story is mostly about the makeup of human consciousness and awareness, the older technology portrayed is not so much of a factor. This and The White Plague are my favorite Herbert novels.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

I couldn't grok it

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 27, 2022

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Way to much psychobabble for a lover of space operas. I truly understood none of it. Perhaps I'm the wrong reader.

2 people found this helpful

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B. Amberson

Hard to believe...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 27, 2013

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That Frank Herbert wrote this in 1965 (even if it was updated in 78). The information is so cutting edge that it is still little understood by the public. The dialog is a little stiff compared to some of his later books, but as usual the ideas are huge. This is what keeps me coming back to Herbert...not clever quips in dialog, not overly complex plot lines. Rather, a treatment of the big ideas that propel humanity forward. The other aspect I like so far is that I could see how this story could even be considered pre-butlerian, as if these books opened Pandora's box. I just have to see. Looking forward to the rest of the Pandora Sequence.

9 people found this helpful

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Joel Laramee

Mostly a treatise on artificial intelligence/consciousness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

As a prequel to the Pandora Sequence this was a little disappointing. A ton of very abstruse conversation between four individuals about the nature of consciousness, a lot of which I simply didn't understand. That said, it still was suspenseful a lot of the time and the dialogue was rich and realistic.

One person found this helpful

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