Reviews

After three fine collections celebrating SF greats Arthur C. Clarke, Fritz Leiber and Philip Jose Farmer, Preiss's Masterworks of SF & Fantasy series hits a snag here. Herbert is one of the biggest names in the field but his best work has been of novel length (Dune, Hellstrom's Hive, etc.). While some of the themes of those books reappear here, the stories are generally mediocre because Herbert lacks the space for adequate background and characterization to make us care. Only the short ``Seed Stock,'' about colonizing an alien world, delves beneath the plot mechanics. This collection might have been redeemed if, like the previous volumes, it had included a long autobiographical essay. In its place, however, is a short, weak defense of the movie version of Dune. November