The Heaven Makers

Immortal aliens known as the Chem use Earth as a story ship to relieve their eternal boredom. By secretly broadcasting human tragedies and wars as full-sensory entertainment, they manipulate history until an investigator arrives to stop their sadistic, illicit games.

The Chem are ancient, immortal beings who suffer from extreme boredom. To entertain their society, they record and broadcast the lives and struggles of native species. A Chem director named Fraffin runs the Earth story ship, and his spectacular broadcasts of human history have made him highly successful. However, interfering with the lives of the natives is strictly against the rules of the Primacy, and an inspector named Kelexel is dispatched to see if Fraffin has been show more crossing the line. show less

actual rating, 3.5 stars.

I would only recommend this book to those familiar with the author's work... not recommended as a first book from this author. that said, this is solid Frank Herbert, and a relatively slim read at less than 200 pages. I think certain parts of the book could have been expanded more on, there's some parts that are pretty vague... but that's to be expected of a Frank Herbert book, I've read a good handful of his standalone novels.

The novel is presumably set in the modern day (which in the book is in the 1960s, this was published in '68) and basically we (humans) are entertainment for aliens who watch us. There is mention of historical events here such as the storming of the Bastille, or the old days of Mesopotamia, show more it turns out that various wars and such were actually engineered by the aliens (Chem) for their entertainment. Which in its own weird, twisted way, makes more sense than the gods of Christianity and Islam and their supposed role in human lives.

If you like Frank Herbert, this book should be easy enough to get into, even though over 50 years later it comes across as somewhat dated (as a lot of old sci-fi does)

Trigger warning - this book contains dubcon/noncon. show less

...The Heaven Makers was a quick read and it is a little dated. I rather enjoyed it though. Herbert is much more occupied by the idea of our alien overlords and the consequences of immortality than the development of his characters, a failing of several of his early novels. With it's rather straightforward plot, is not Herbert's most memorable work. I very much doubt it will see print again any time soon. That being said, it is far from his worst either. If you like Herbert's work, you'll not want to skip this one. Hard to find as it may be it.

Full Random Comments review

Immortal aliens, the Chem, treat Earth like a giant, full-sensory television network. To relieve their eternal boredom, they secretly manipulate human history and orchestrate disasters.

Little grey men in flying saucers come to Earth to kidnap Earth women and turn them into mindless sex slaves. I'm not even joking.

The aliens toyed with human lives because they were bored - and doomed to be immortal.""

Curieux roman, bavard et pédant mais insufflant des sentiments ambivalents, un mélange de fascination et de malaise évoluant laborieusement vers une fin plutôt poétique.
Quelque part entre les Enfants d’Icare de Clarke et la Semence du démon de Koontz.