The Santaroga Barrier

Hired to investigate an isolated, prosperous California town that fiercely rejects all outside business and influence, Dasein discovers the town is united by a mind-altering substance called Jaspers, which connects the residents into a single hive-mind consciousness.

Gilbert Dasein is sent by corporate interests to uncover why the town of Santaroga is completely impervious to modern marketing. Outsiders cannot buy property, and outside goods: beer, cheese, and produce, wither for lack of sales.

Arriving, Dasein learns that the last two psychologists sent to investigate the town died in bizarre, but technically natural, accidents. As he digs deeper, Dasein himself becomes the target of a cloying, paranoid series of near-fatal incidents.

He show more reunites with Jenny, a former university girlfriend who moved back to her native town. Dasein discovers that Santaroga is an intentional community built around a mysterious, psychedelic substance called Jaspers. Added to local food and drinks, Jaspers heightens mental acuity and unifies the townspeople's subconsciouses.

Rather than breaking the mystery open, Dasein finds his perception and identity changing as he assimilates into the Santaroga consciousness. show less

This was a weird book. It began in the exact same way as did Hellstrom’s Hive, with a protagonist who works for some nebulous “organization” that wants to infiltrate a small, insular community. We are told that Gilbert Dasein has been sent to perform “market research,” however, so that’s a bit more info than we were given in the other novel.

In addition to that, Dasein also already has a tie to the Santaroga community--one of its members is his college sweetheart, whom he has not seen in several years. Other than that he is seen as an outsider--the Santarogans do not trade with or purchase many goods from anyone outside their community. All food is grown and produced within the valley, and all of it is infused with what is show more at first cryptially called “Jaspers.” The locals are eager to share this food with Gilbert, and he slowly finds that he is becoming dependent on it, and that it changes his metabolism and thinking after ingestion. Basically, Jaspers is a stand-in for a more mysticism-imbued LSD, embraced not by the stereotypical hippie commune, but by an incredibly conservative community of traditionalists. Regularly ingesting Jaspers connects them subconsciously and allows them to tap into a sort of very quite hive mind, though it falls short of outright telepathy. It also seems to imbue them with a very strong fear of the outside world, and this ends up nearly costing Dasein his life as the community members subconsciously make a concerted effort to kill him with a series of “accidents.”

I was disappointed to read in the end that Dasein “goes native” and swears off his pre-Santaroga life after marrying Jenny. I suppose I was offended by the way they had treated him and would not have given in so easily, but I may also be biased against the use of psychedelic drugs altogether. I would not say that this novel was better than Hellstrom’s Hive, and although it contains some interesting ideas, I did not think they were groundbreaking. It does, however, contain 100% fewer weird diatribes against women, so there’s that! show less

...I guess thematically and stylistically The Santaroga Barrier is a book of it's time. It leans very heavily on the ideas Herbert used as an inspiration. What makes this book stand out is the depth of these ideas. To Herbert they were not merely interesting concepts. He delved deeply and conveyed part of that interest and understanding in this book. It does not have the epic scope and wide variety of themes of the Dune saga but of all his works outside that setting, The Santaroga Barrier is probably the most underrated. It's a short but challenging read. If you are looking to explore Herbert's work beyond Dune, this book would be a good choice.

Full Random Comments review

Frank Herbert was most known for his Dune novels, but his other stories are definitely worth checking out. Some of his other stories are better than others, and I will say that this is definitely one of the better ones. It happens in current day (well, the current times while Herbert was writing it) and centers around a town with some mysterious rules. I was a bit surprised at the ending, but the story itself is nonetheless overall good, and I would recommend it as one of Herbert's stand-alone works.

This is my favorite Herbert novel, besides Dune, and it's a deceptively simply story of a young man trying to find out why the valley where his girl hails from is so singularly insular. Natives are not friendly to outsiders, products from the valley don't travel well, and outside businesses just never get off the ground. Herbert built levels with his character names and the time period invites some speculation about various types of hallucinogenics (LSD is a specific reference), but there's more to the apparent hive mentality. Besides, it's all about the Jaspers.

Pure pulp, from my perspective. The writing was pedestrian, and characterization shallow and unbelievable. Dasein acted like a tantrumy toddler, Jenny was an early version of a manic pixie dreamgirl, and most of the rest of the characters were cardboard cutouts. Plus, I just never could get past the thought that the real threat, in this story, is the idea that people have no right to refuse to buy commercial products, or to reject their marketing efforts. Both the "market study" that Dasein was undertaking, and the reaction of a traveling salesman who had been unable to make sales in the valley struck me as exemplary of the evil sense of entitlement that corporations seem to feel they have to our collective dollar.

A clinical psychologist, Dasein, is sent to investigate an insular town, and reunite with the love of his life, who is a local there. Previous investigators have had fatal "accidents" and he soon has two, but Dasein's connection with this girl keeps him alive, and allows him to discover the drug-like secret that binds that town together and unites it against the rest of the country.

There is the characteristic Herbert incisive psychology pervading this, and characters fleshed out more than the standard sci fi fare. But ultimately this is little more than a story about an unusual drug, with only a whiff of science fiction, and any tension generated by the attempts on Dasein's life get rather repetitive after a while and predictable after show more a while. I also felt that the discussion of the drug jaspers wasn't a million miles away from the spice melange in Dune, and so I was frustrated by the lack of originality here.

In srhort, this novel is mildly interesting for its faintly sci fi exploration of drugs and addiction, and the connection between consciousness and unconsciousness, but ultimately, I found it all a tad dull and disappointing. show less