The Ascension Factor

1988 novel by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom The Ascension Factor (1988) is the fourth and final science fiction novel set in the Destination: Void universe by the American author Frank Herbert and poet Bill Ransom. It takes place about twenty five years after The Lazarus Effect. It completes the story of the humans descended from those left by the voidship Earthling on the planet Pandora approximately 480 years earlier. Plot summary Twenty-five years after the hibernation tanks were retrieved from orbit releasing multiple Earth organisms into Pandora's ecosystem, the sixth Raja Flattery clone, who went into hibernation when the voidship Earthling (from the earlier novel Destination: Void) was launched. Banking on the respect Pandorans bore for his training as a Chaplain/Psychiatrist he has established himself as a totalitarian dictator styling himself "the Director". He maintains some semblance of order through violent suppression of opposition and government control of food production and distribution, often withholding rations to suppress attempted popular revolts. He also controls mass media including fake news reports blaming rebel activity for mass murder of civilians and food