Using the movie The Hellstrom Chronicle as a spring-board, Frank Herbert has written a compelling novel. But Hellstrom's Hive … is straightforward science fiction, no nature story in disguise. Herbert has concentrated on what he does best, the creation of a balanced civilization. This time the aliens are among us, except that they are mutants…. The time is now. Hellstrom's Hive, founded secretly 300 years ago beneath an Oregon farm, is beginning to feel swarming pressure. And its 50,000 inhabitants are the object of a Government investigation. This book doesn't reach the heights of Dune, but Hellstrom's Hive does provide the ultimate group experience. (p. 20)

Elizabeth Hall, in Psychology Today (copyright © 1974 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company), August, 1974.