The novel “Whipping Star” by Frank Herbert published in 1970 is set in a far future where human kind and other intelligent species formed a common organization called ConSentiency. After the elimination of any beaurocracy led to the creation of new laws at a frantic pace someone saw the need to creat a Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to put things back to their place slowing down the the rate at which the government operates.

The protagonist Jorj X. McKie is a saboteur extraordinary from the BuSab who is investigating the disappearance of the Calebans, one of the intelligent species who some time earlier had offered the other species the use of jumpdoors to let them travel instantly anywhere in the universe. The Calebans are mysterious creatures and discovering that they can be killed is a surprise, discovering that their death can cause millions of deaths and cases of madness in the ConSentiency is not only a surprise but also a terrible perspective.

The BuSab investigation lead to suspect the involvment of Mliss Abnethe, a human millionaire who put a Caleban who calls herself Fanny Mae under a contract so binding that it allows Mliss Abnethe to kill Fanny Mae without the Caleban opposing her fate.

Jorj X. McKie finds a beachball, a sort of house where Fanny Mae manifests herself physically in our universe, and must find a way to stop Mliss Abnethe’s plan but to do it he must find her but also understand the terms of the contract that binds Fanny Mae to her will to find a way out. His mission is made more complex not only by Mliss Abnethe’s attempts to kill him and his colleagues but also by the difficulties in communicating with Fanny Mae because Calebans are creatures so different from humans that each phrase they exchange requires many clarifications to understand its real meaning.

Fanny Mae is dying and Jorj X. McKie must reach a mutual understanding with the Caleban to save the ConSentiency and discover something more about Calebans nature.

The universe of the ConSentiency and the saboteur extraordinary Jorj X. McKie had already appeared in Frank Herbert’s short story “A Matter of Traces” and in his novelette “The Tactful Saboteur”. Both of them were included in the anthology “Eye”.

“Whipping Star” is a quite unique novel because it’s made mostly by conversations, particularly the ones between Jorj X. McKie and Fanny Mae within a limited physical space. There’s little action and generally it happens quickly while the core of the novel is made by the attempts of mutual understanding between Jorj X. McKie and Fanny Mae. For this reason it’s not a novel easy to read so, though I find it overall good, I can recommend it only to people who like highbrow stories.