Soul Catcher

Frank Herbert weaves eloquent prose laced with Native-American mysticism in this suspenseful tale that packs quite a chilling ending. The writing has its own unique rhythm that pulls the reader into the fractured mind of Charlie Hobuhet, aka Katsuk. The messiah/savior theme that runs through the Dune books take a different course here with our modern world as represented by David (the hoquat) and other Native-Americans reacting to Hobuhet becoming Katsuk. Wherein the Dune books we see a young man come to his own as a messianic leader, here we see a darker take on that journey. Herbert carefully stages the mysticism in the book so its never overtly magical. Like David, its up to the reader to decide if the lighting and the ravens are show more truly united with Katsuk's horrible plan. The novel offers some surprising twists, especially the scene with Katsuk's former fiance. Herbert turns up the suspense with every turn as one is unsure of what will actually happen to Katsuk and David until the very end, literally the final two pages. show less

A few years ago, I decided to read the most important other Herbert novels before starting a reread of the Dune series. A review of Children Of Dune on the always thoughtful Gaping Blackbird, made me eager to start that reread. That review focuses on the Nietzschean inspiration of CoD, and it led to an interesting discussion in the comments. So, I was eager to dive into Dune again, but as I still had Soul Catcher on my TBR, I started that.

Yesterday, after finishing Soul Catcher, I decided to kick the reread of Dune even a bit further back, and I ordered Destination: Void, on account of Joachim Boaz, who praised Herbert’s handling of its characters’ psyches in the comments of my Whipping Star review – as Soul Catcher is first and show more foremost a character driven novel, and one that even succeeds at that. I have to admit I had given up on Herbert as non-Dune writer, as Whipping Star, The Dosadi Experiment and The Santaroga Barrier all disappointed. So I’m all the more pleased to report Soul Catcher was a good read, and one that invigorated me to give Destination: Void an honest chance.

Genre classifications being what they are, potential readers should be aware that Soul Catcher is not speculative fiction. Rob Weber reported in his review on Val’s Random Comments that the publisher, Putnam, even put the following on the back flap: “This is Frank Herbert’s first major novel. He has written numerous science fiction books, of which Dune…”. Novels were not the same as science fiction books in 1972. Interestingly enough, there is no trace of that attitude on my 1979 edition, on the contrary. As you can see on the 1979 cover I included here, both the illustration and the text try to tap on to a speculative vibe: this is a “terrifying novel of the Spirit World”. Apparently Soul Catcher didn’t really catch on as regular literary fiction, and 7 years later, marketing decided to firmly latch it to Herbert’s other output – it’s pretty clear if you compare the vibe of the covers of the first two editions to the later one. The 2012 cover reverts the approach again. As always, ISFDB has a good overview of all the different cover art.

As Rob also wrote, the fact that this isn’t a SF book should not deter Herbert fans: “the ecological and mythological themes in the book especially, ties it to a lot of Herbert’s other works.”

Soul Catcher deals with a Native American kidnapping a 13-year old boy with the intent to kill him, as symbolical revenge for the rape of his own sister by a gang of white men, and her ensuing suicide – and by extension all the other crimes against the indigenous humans of the continent. As such it is a book that simply would not be published in these times of hired sensitivity readers. It would not get published just because of sensitivity issues: on top of that a white man writing a story like this without a doubt would get accused of cultural appropriation too. The fact that Herbert researched the subject extensively and clearly does not sympathize with white, Western genocidary imperialism would not excuse him. I’m sure today no publisher would dare to take a chance in our era of hair trigger culture wars.

After the jump you’ll find a rather lengthy discussion of a few different things: Soul Catcher as a psychological novel that also teaches us about today’s ‘terrorist’ violence; Soul Catcher as a critique on Western society and its interesting, realistic use of the ‘noble savage’ trope; a discussion on the use of ‘soul’ vs. ‘spirit’; a nugget for Dune fans, and my thoughts on the powerful ending and that ending’s relation to a movie adaptition that might or might not be made.

Certain sections are quote heavy, but obviously you can skim those if the particular topic doesn’t interest you that much.

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Read the full analysis on Weighing A Pig show less

This is by the "Dune" guy. I enjoyed the Dune series up to a point. This is a quiet, desperate meditation on native Americans and a deadly, delirious, scary and violent tale at the same time. It is not easy to pull this off.

...The real controversy about Soul Catcher is probably the ending. In Dreamer of Dune (which mentions the end of the novel explicitly so if you don't want it spoiled read the novel first) Brian Herbert mentions Frank got a lot of responses either confirming the ending as something Katsuk would do or that he got it all wrong. Even the Native American community seems to disagree on it. From a literary point of view I'd say it works very well. It's one of those endings that will stick with you, although I already knew how the story would end it still hit me as emotionally very powerful. Soul Catcher is a very sophisticated piece of writing. It shows Herbert's fabulous capacity to research the topic of his novel but also to write a very show more intense, character driven story. Herbert shows us a side of his talent the reader doesn't get to see that often. I always considered The Dosadi Experiment to be his best novel but I may have to reconsider. Somebody do us al a favour and bring this back into print!

Full Random Comments review show less

I read this book, because it was for seal (cheap) at the librairy and because Frank Herbert is also the author of Dune. I was curious what Frank would make of a non-Dune novel. I had no problem finishing it, but not a book I would recommend.

Read it, can't remember a darn thing about it, which is not a good sign.

From the back cover: "No longer Charles Hobuhet, imitation white man. He was Katsuk, the center the core from which all perception radiates. and his victim was David Marshall, 13-year-old son of an Undersecretary of State -- an innocent from the modern white world chosen for an ancient sacrifice of vengeance."