The Godmakers

The Godmakers is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, published in 1972. It explores the concepts of war and peace, good government and religious belief.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The novel explores the adventures of Lewis Orne an galactive operative for the Federation who handles first contact situations with re-discovered human worlds. The Federation is virulently anti-war and so it examines newly discovered worlds carefully to make sure they are not going to re-introduce the evil of war back into human civilization.

On Orne's first mission he discovers that the initial operative on the planet has made a major misjudgement and the planet is severely warlike. He calls for help and the planet is invaded by a Federation occupation force. Orne regrets this decision though he saw no alternative.

In his next mission he is sent to examine a new world under suspicious circumstances. He discovers that they are actually an alien species; but major conflict is avoided because Orne discovers that the alien species have a major weakness in needing to breed near the sky; and so the aliens are not a major threat.

On his next mission he nearly dies. He discovers that a seemingly safe planet in the Commonwealth; is actually controlled by a female elite. He uncovers their plots but is nearly killed, but in a statistically improbably way he manages to survive.

His penultimate mission is to investigate close friends of his family. He falls in love and discovers that not only his family but also his family have a secret conspiracy to take charge of the government through an election. He arranges a compromise where the conspiracy is allowed to continue but is only given partial control of the government.

Ornes final mission is to the religious planet Amal, where he discovers rather improbably that he is a psi focus or in laymans terms a god, who had been created by the worshippers of Amal. Orne is put through a religious crisis to discover who he is and avoids madness. Rather than use his powers Orne chooses to be a red blooded man and goes on honeymoon with his wife.