Operation Haystack

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (Frank Herbert)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 47K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Operation Haystack by Frank Herbert. Author: Herbert, Frank, 1920-1986, Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2008

Editor's review

Operation Haystack is an early short science fiction work by Frank Herbert, released free in electronic form by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain eBook resource. It is not itself a guide to Project Gutenberg but an early sample in Herbert's creative genealogy, useful for observing the narrative interests, suspense techniques, and thematic preferences of the author later known for Dune in his short science fiction. The electronic edition's records also show the work's classification and release information, helping readers judge its literary placement. Its value lies not in a grand worldview but in a low-threshold encounter with a facet of Herbert's early imagination and with common approaches in mid-twentieth-century English-language short science fiction. It suits reading for interest in science fiction history, analysis of short-story structure, or extensive reading practice in English. As a public-domain electronic text, it is best approached in a researcher's or enthusiast's frame of mind, without expecting full annotation or introduction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Science fiction readers interested in Frank Herbert's creative development
Those who want to understand twentieth-century English-language science fiction through short stories
Readers who need free public-domain English texts for extensive reading practice
Enthusiasts studying the genealogy of science fiction and authors' early works

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the grand worldview and long-form narrative of Dune
Serious researchers needing full annotation, introduction, or scholarly textual collation
Chinese readers unaccustomed to reading English public-domain electronic texts

Reading tips

First read it as an early Herbert short-story sample, noting how suspense is built.
After reading, compare it with Herbert's later works and note changes in subject matter and narrative focus.
For English extensive reading, excerpt vocabulary section by section and outline the story's structural nodes.
Read alongside other public-domain science fiction shorts to compare common motifs of the period.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an introduction to Project Gutenberg?

No. The Project Gutenberg note in the materials is only background on the eBook's source. The book is actually the short science fiction work Operation Haystack by Frank Herbert, released by Project Gutenberg as a free electronic text, and readers should treat it as literature.

Can I read this without having read Dune?

Yes. This is an early short work by Herbert and has no reading-order dependency on Dune. Readers need not master a long-form worldview first; they can enter the short text directly, and afterward a look at Herbert's later work will make his development clearer.

Is this electronic edition suitable for scholarly citation?

The materials only show that it is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, with no collation, annotation, or edition information. For scholarly citation, it is advisable to check authoritative editions and page information rather than drawing conclusions from this electronic text alone.

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About the author

Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr. (Frank Herbert) Author · American · 1920–1986

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) was an American science fiction writer, born on October 8, 1920, in Tacoma, Washington, and died on February 11, 1986, in Madison, Wisconsin. He is best known for his 1965 novel Dune, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and became one of the best-selling science fiction novels of all time. In addition to his full-length works, he wrote numerous short stories, including Operation Haystack, Old Rambling House, and Missing Link, all represented in this collection. His writing is often noted for its tight plotting and its attention to ecology and social structures. Because public information about his life is limited, this note draws only on the facts available.