Editing Whipping Star

{{Short description|1970 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book| 
| name          = Whipping Star
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = File:Whipping Star.jpg
| caption       = Cover of the first edition
| author        = [[Frank Herbert]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]
| release_date  = 1970
| english_release_date =
| media_type    = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages         =
| isbn          = 0-8398-2648-6
| preceded_by   = “[[The Tactful Saboteur]]”
| followed_by   = [[The Dosadi Experiment]]
}}

'''''Whipping Star''''' is a 1970 [[science fiction]] novel by American writer [[Frank Herbert]].  It is the first full-length novel set in the [[ConSentiency universe]] established by Herbert in his short stories “[[A Matter of Traces]]” and “[[The Tactful Saboteur]]”.

== Plot summary ==
{{More plot|1=section|2=actual summary of plot's key developments, rather than being a teaser|noimproved=y|date=July 2024}}
In a far-flung future in which Earth is not so much as mentioned, [[Homo sapiens]] and other sentient species, namely the Gowachin, Laclac, Wreaves, Pan Spechi, Taprisiots, and Caleban,  comprise the galaxy-spanning ConSentiency.  After suffering the unexpected consequences a pure democracy –laws could be created so quickly that no thought could be given to their full consequences– the sentients formed [[Bureau of Sabotage]] (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby precluding reckless legislation. Not itself a law-enforcement organization, its ambit comprises elements of both espionage and diplomacy.

[[Jorj X. McKie]] is a ''saboteur extraordinary'', a born troublemaker who has naturally become one of BuSab's best agents.  As the novel opens, the small population of immensely powerful Calebans, by far the most powerful and inscrutable members of the ConSentiency, have been disappearing one by one, inexplicably leaving millions of deaths and numerous cases of incurable insanity in their wake. Only one remains: the partially corporeal Fanny Mae.

Ninety years prior to the setting of ''Whipping Star'', the Calebans had appeared and offered jumpdoors to the ConSentiency, affording instantaneous travel to any point in the galaxy. This seemingly miraculous technology was accepted with out `too many questions being asked (and even fewer being answered), and the sociology of the ConSentiency was remade.  Mliss Abnethe, a [[sociopath]]ic [[sadistic personality disorder|sadist]] human female of immense power and wealth had however somehow contractually bound the all-too-curious Caleban Fanny Mae to be apparently whipped to death; when Fanny May dies, everyone who has ever used a jumpdoor (which is practically speaking everyone in existence) will die as well.

The Calebans begin to flee one at a time, leaving our plane of existence (or exiting "our wave").  Inasmuch as all Calebans are interconnected, if they were to remain in our wave of existence when Fanny Mae dies, they would also die. McKie has to find Mliss and stop her mad, [[solipsistic]] project before Fanny Mae reaches, in her words,  "ultimate discontinuity" and civilization utterly collapses and all sentience with it. Maddeningly he is constrained by the law protecting private individuals, which restricts the ministrations of BuSab to public entities.

===Editorial review===
{{unreferenced section|date = July 2024}}
The action ranges from solar systems to office politics, [[ontology]] to [[semantics]], and more.{{Fact or opinion|date=July 2024}} In the [[denouement]] Fanny Mae's insatiable curiosity stands her in good stead, and sufficient communication is established with BuSab for the mystery to be solved and the omnigenocidal gang to be hoist by their own petard.{{Fact or opinion|date=July 2024}} It proves{{according to whom|date = July 2024}} that the Caleban are more alien than any of the other species imagined, or could have imagined.{{Fact or opinion|date=July 2024}} Not only were the jumpdoors intrinsic aspects of their own hyperdimensional being (they ''were'' the network), they partially manifested in our wave as stars.{{Fact or opinion|date=July 2024}} Accordingly "[[Fannie Mae]]", [[home]] being an important plot element and her identity more fully revealed, requests that she be addressed as Thyone, a star in the [[Pleiades]] henceforth.{{Fact or opinion|date=July 2024}}

==Related works==
''Whipping Star'' was preceded by the short story "[[The Tactful Saboteur]]".{{citation needed|date = July 2024}} It was followed in 1977 by Herbert's ''[[The Dosadi Experiment]]''.{{citation needed|date = July 2024}} These stories take place in the same imaginary universe and have the same main character, Jorj X. McKie, as in ''Whipping Star''.{{citation needed|date = July 2024}}

==Features related to other Herbert works==
{{multiple issues|section = yes|
{{expand section|with = more thorough and consistently published perspectives on commonalities with other Herbert works|small = no | date = July 2024}}
{{unreferenced section|date = July 2024}}
}}
The [[chairdog]]s that appear in multiple ''[[Dune (franchise)|Dune]]'' novels—both the original series by Frank Herbert, as well as the extended series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson—are also a feature of the later ''Whipping Star'' novel.<ref>There are 26 mentions of chairdogs, found in chapters 2, 5, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22, and 23.{{Original research inline|date = July 2024}}</ref>

== Main characters ==

*Jorj X. McKie - BuSab Saboteur Extraordinary - Human
*Bildoon - BuSab Director - [[Pan Spechi]]
*Fannie Mae - Caleban
*Mliss Abnethe - wealthy female - human

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{ISFDB title|id=2257}}
* {{OL work|id=893525W|cname=''Whipping Star''}}

{{Frank Herbert}}

[[Category:1970 American novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Frank Herbert]]
[[Category:1970 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:ConSentiency universe]]
[[Category:G. P. Putnam's Sons books]]