I have been searching the web for commentary on the new Dune books and have found very little. It is for this reason I have decided that if I want to find some commentary, maybe I need to write my own.
First of all, I am a huge science fiction fan. I prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy, but I enjoy both. I have read "The Lord of the Rings" something like 18 times; though by now I have lost count. I've even read the Donaldson series about 3 times. I am not capable of picking up just any fantasy book with a magician, a sword, or a ring and reading it. However, if it presents a new twist on the genre, then I can certainly find it enjoyable. I really like the Zelazny Amber series, even though they peter out over time. The Guns of Avalon is simply awesome and is the highlight of that series in my opinion.
On the Science Fiction front, I have read a lot of stuff, but the problem I typically find is that it's either bad character development or bad science. It is rare to find an author who excels at both. Asimov is the best case in point. He has great stories but his characters have all of the depth of a paper doll. Some of my favorite science fiction authors are Frederick Pohl, Greg Bear, Robert Forward and, of course, Frank Herbert.
I have read the first three books in the Dune series about 4 or 5 times. However, I have only read the rest of the books in the series twice. The Dune series is fantastic and 'Children of Dune' is an awesome finale to the initial trilogy. The three books that followed the Dune trilogy were much more challenging to read. There were gems in each of them, unfortunately you had to wade through a lot of muck to find them.
Don't get me wrong, I defintely like the last three books. In each of them there are story lines, and sections that are as exciting as anything in the first books. It's just the amount of verbiage you have to wade through to get there. And wade, and wade, and wade. The books got longer and introduced many more characters, with enough side stories to form a maze difficult to keep track of.
Another issue I have had with Frank Herbert's series is how unclear his is on certain central key topics. Specifically the endless references to Leto's "Golden Path" without ever explaining, in clear terms we could understand, exactly what it meant. He had these central key characters who's power of prescience not only allowed them to see the future but also, that ability, actually allowed them to shape and fix it into reality. Truly godlike powers for Paul Atreides and later, his son, Leto. But, inquiring minds want to know, exactly what were those visions? We get many oblique and mystical references but I would kill, still today, to have it written out in plain terms what that future was any why they chose it. I've read probably 3,000+ pages and I still don't know. (If you do know, please post it in the comments section. Something like this "In Paul's vision, he saw a future that looked exactly like 'this', 'this', and then 'this', and he chose this future over the alternative of 'this' for 'this' reason. Same thing for why Leto shaped his future of the 'Golden Path' that contradicted the vision of his father'. I will deliver one six pack of beer to someone who can explain it in detail in a concrete form I can follow and understand with direct references to the original novels and/or Frank Herbert's published notes.)
Frank Herbert has some real problems with the narrative in his Dune books. He is a big fan of introspection. He often repeats himself, and spends more time writing about what 'someone is thinking' rather than what someone is 'doing'. That stuff can be a slog. He would talk, and talk, and talk, about these great mental powers the Bene Gesserit would have, but rarely demonstrate it. Their actions would often contradict his original statements. If he would have spent more time having these women actually act the way they thought about themselves, it would have been a more compelling novel. A little editing wouldn't have hurt either.
All of that said, strip away the slog and the novels were are each very compelling. The underlying storyline was tight, taut, and enhanced the mythology of his Universe providing greater depth and appeal.
I can complain about some things in the Frank Herbert books, but I still cherish them all and look forward to reading them again, from time to time, for years to come.
The last Dune book ended somewhat as a cliff hanger, with many issues still unresolved. More to the point, there was still plenty of mythology left to explore. While searching for Dune books on the internet I actually found one called "Dune Revenant", apparently book number seven in the series. I donwloaded and read it. Like previous Dune novels it had it's compelling moments. It certainly advanced the mythology to some degree. On the other hand, it was my suspicion that poor Mr. Herbert was losing his touch in his old age because the novel was extremely choppy and uneven. It was only much later than I found out what an idiot I was. "Dune Revenant" isn't a novel written by Frank Herbert, it's a piece of fan fiction speculating on what the last Dune novel 'might' have been.
The premise was certainly interesting. It fast forwarded 20,000 years into the future where much of the human population had a form of hive mind, and some had powers of prescience that allowed them to experience the past in vivid detail and share that with a massive gathering of people. The main plot involved a present day search for a lost 'Dune' planet, and a narrative that revolved around reliving key points in main characters past lives. Through reliving portions of these long ago past lives they were getting closer to solving the mystery. In a previous book it was suggested that Duncan Idaho perceived himself as being aware of people from the future looking back at him. Apparently the Duncan and Miles Teg gholas had found a planet to create a new Dune and had envoloped it in a form of shield that actually caused it to dissappear from the known Universe. And it had been lost for these 20,000 years. Finding this lost planet, or even proving it existed at all, was the central theme of this novel.
The basic storyline was compelling, but the fan fell short and the whole book collapsed into incomprehensible gibberish towards the end.
After having the foul aftertase of this experience in my mouth I left well enough alone for a while. Then, just a month or so ago, I decided to finally get arround to reading "Dune : House Atreides" by Brian Herbert; Frank Herbert's son.
Once I started reading it, I quickly realized that it was a 'prequel' to the original Dune series. It wasn't a half bad novel, it was kind of fun to see the origins of many of the characters alluded to in Frank Herber's original novels. It wasn't all that good either though. The quality of writing was vastly inferior and it showed. Nevertheless, the storyline was compelling and I quickly got through the novel. I decided, hey, might as well read this prequel. That is....until I got to the second novel "Dune : House Harkennon".
What a pile of turd crap. ('turd crap' is a registered trademark of John Ratcliff and may only be used in conjunction with describing this novel). It's as if Brian had exhausted his entire range of storytelling abilities in the first novel and was reduced to reiterating himself. The author, apparently, assumes no one reading "House Harkennon" had read "House Atreides" and fully 25% of the entire novel is consumed repeating what happened in the first one. And, not only is it not enough that he 'explain it', he explains it again, and again, and again, and again. He repeats himself so many times it is rare to encounter an original paragraph or snippet of story. And, lastly, the storyline itself devolves into something so amature that the fan fiction of 'Dune Revenant' appears 'high literature' by comparison.
So, Brian Hebert (and that ass Anderson who is co-writing this turd crap), has reduced his father's legacy to a slag pile of poorly written fan fiction that does a disservice to his name. I would like to damn both Mr. Anderson and Mr. Brian Herbert to the Vermillion Hells of a No Ship for all of eternity for their actions.
I am slogging through "House Harkennon", and when complete I will slog through "House Corinno" and then, finally, the series he wrote on the Butlerian Jihad. Sifting through mountains of shit so I can find the few threads remaining that weave the original Universe together. Brian Herbert, covetous son, is not writing soley in a vacumm. He has access to his father's notes and, obviously, spoke to him about the Dune Universe many times. So, some aspects of these novels must (I can only hope) weave together some of the ideas originally held by Frank Herbert.
And, lastly, we have this. Brian Herbert announced they found the complete outline for the long lost seventh Dune book in a safe, years, and years, after his father's death. Brian has waited yet more years to decide to produce it as a novel, first honing his skills writing fan fictionesque prequels.
My only hope is that the outline by Frank Herbert was detailed enough that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson will not be able to trash it too badly.
There you have it, my take on the attempts by Brian Herbert to expand on the great work of his father. My assesment? "Barely readable turd crap."
First of all, I am a huge science fiction fan. I prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy, but I enjoy both. I have read "The Lord of the Rings" something like 18 times; though by now I have lost count. I've even read the Donaldson series about 3 times. I am not capable of picking up just any fantasy book with a magician, a sword, or a ring and reading it. However, if it presents a new twist on the genre, then I can certainly find it enjoyable. I really like the Zelazny Amber series, even though they peter out over time. The Guns of Avalon is simply awesome and is the highlight of that series in my opinion.
On the Science Fiction front, I have read a lot of stuff, but the problem I typically find is that it's either bad character development or bad science. It is rare to find an author who excels at both. Asimov is the best case in point. He has great stories but his characters have all of the depth of a paper doll. Some of my favorite science fiction authors are Frederick Pohl, Greg Bear, Robert Forward and, of course, Frank Herbert.
I have read the first three books in the Dune series about 4 or 5 times. However, I have only read the rest of the books in the series twice. The Dune series is fantastic and 'Children of Dune' is an awesome finale to the initial trilogy. The three books that followed the Dune trilogy were much more challenging to read. There were gems in each of them, unfortunately you had to wade through a lot of muck to find them.
Don't get me wrong, I defintely like the last three books. In each of them there are story lines, and sections that are as exciting as anything in the first books. It's just the amount of verbiage you have to wade through to get there. And wade, and wade, and wade. The books got longer and introduced many more characters, with enough side stories to form a maze difficult to keep track of.
Another issue I have had with Frank Herbert's series is how unclear his is on certain central key topics. Specifically the endless references to Leto's "Golden Path" without ever explaining, in clear terms we could understand, exactly what it meant. He had these central key characters who's power of prescience not only allowed them to see the future but also, that ability, actually allowed them to shape and fix it into reality. Truly godlike powers for Paul Atreides and later, his son, Leto. But, inquiring minds want to know, exactly what were those visions? We get many oblique and mystical references but I would kill, still today, to have it written out in plain terms what that future was any why they chose it. I've read probably 3,000+ pages and I still don't know. (If you do know, please post it in the comments section. Something like this "In Paul's vision, he saw a future that looked exactly like 'this', 'this', and then 'this', and he chose this future over the alternative of 'this' for 'this' reason. Same thing for why Leto shaped his future of the 'Golden Path' that contradicted the vision of his father'. I will deliver one six pack of beer to someone who can explain it in detail in a concrete form I can follow and understand with direct references to the original novels and/or Frank Herbert's published notes.)
Frank Herbert has some real problems with the narrative in his Dune books. He is a big fan of introspection. He often repeats himself, and spends more time writing about what 'someone is thinking' rather than what someone is 'doing'. That stuff can be a slog. He would talk, and talk, and talk, about these great mental powers the Bene Gesserit would have, but rarely demonstrate it. Their actions would often contradict his original statements. If he would have spent more time having these women actually act the way they thought about themselves, it would have been a more compelling novel. A little editing wouldn't have hurt either.
All of that said, strip away the slog and the novels were are each very compelling. The underlying storyline was tight, taut, and enhanced the mythology of his Universe providing greater depth and appeal.
I can complain about some things in the Frank Herbert books, but I still cherish them all and look forward to reading them again, from time to time, for years to come.
The last Dune book ended somewhat as a cliff hanger, with many issues still unresolved. More to the point, there was still plenty of mythology left to explore. While searching for Dune books on the internet I actually found one called "Dune Revenant", apparently book number seven in the series. I donwloaded and read it. Like previous Dune novels it had it's compelling moments. It certainly advanced the mythology to some degree. On the other hand, it was my suspicion that poor Mr. Herbert was losing his touch in his old age because the novel was extremely choppy and uneven. It was only much later than I found out what an idiot I was. "Dune Revenant" isn't a novel written by Frank Herbert, it's a piece of fan fiction speculating on what the last Dune novel 'might' have been.
The premise was certainly interesting. It fast forwarded 20,000 years into the future where much of the human population had a form of hive mind, and some had powers of prescience that allowed them to experience the past in vivid detail and share that with a massive gathering of people. The main plot involved a present day search for a lost 'Dune' planet, and a narrative that revolved around reliving key points in main characters past lives. Through reliving portions of these long ago past lives they were getting closer to solving the mystery. In a previous book it was suggested that Duncan Idaho perceived himself as being aware of people from the future looking back at him. Apparently the Duncan and Miles Teg gholas had found a planet to create a new Dune and had envoloped it in a form of shield that actually caused it to dissappear from the known Universe. And it had been lost for these 20,000 years. Finding this lost planet, or even proving it existed at all, was the central theme of this novel.
The basic storyline was compelling, but the fan fell short and the whole book collapsed into incomprehensible gibberish towards the end.
After having the foul aftertase of this experience in my mouth I left well enough alone for a while. Then, just a month or so ago, I decided to finally get arround to reading "Dune : House Atreides" by Brian Herbert; Frank Herbert's son.
Once I started reading it, I quickly realized that it was a 'prequel' to the original Dune series. It wasn't a half bad novel, it was kind of fun to see the origins of many of the characters alluded to in Frank Herber's original novels. It wasn't all that good either though. The quality of writing was vastly inferior and it showed. Nevertheless, the storyline was compelling and I quickly got through the novel. I decided, hey, might as well read this prequel. That is....until I got to the second novel "Dune : House Harkennon".
What a pile of turd crap. ('turd crap' is a registered trademark of John Ratcliff and may only be used in conjunction with describing this novel). It's as if Brian had exhausted his entire range of storytelling abilities in the first novel and was reduced to reiterating himself. The author, apparently, assumes no one reading "House Harkennon" had read "House Atreides" and fully 25% of the entire novel is consumed repeating what happened in the first one. And, not only is it not enough that he 'explain it', he explains it again, and again, and again, and again. He repeats himself so many times it is rare to encounter an original paragraph or snippet of story. And, lastly, the storyline itself devolves into something so amature that the fan fiction of 'Dune Revenant' appears 'high literature' by comparison.
So, Brian Hebert (and that ass Anderson who is co-writing this turd crap), has reduced his father's legacy to a slag pile of poorly written fan fiction that does a disservice to his name. I would like to damn both Mr. Anderson and Mr. Brian Herbert to the Vermillion Hells of a No Ship for all of eternity for their actions.
I am slogging through "House Harkennon", and when complete I will slog through "House Corinno" and then, finally, the series he wrote on the Butlerian Jihad. Sifting through mountains of shit so I can find the few threads remaining that weave the original Universe together. Brian Herbert, covetous son, is not writing soley in a vacumm. He has access to his father's notes and, obviously, spoke to him about the Dune Universe many times. So, some aspects of these novels must (I can only hope) weave together some of the ideas originally held by Frank Herbert.
And, lastly, we have this. Brian Herbert announced they found the complete outline for the long lost seventh Dune book in a safe, years, and years, after his father's death. Brian has waited yet more years to decide to produce it as a novel, first honing his skills writing fan fictionesque prequels.
My only hope is that the outline by Frank Herbert was detailed enough that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson will not be able to trash it too badly.
There you have it, my take on the attempts by Brian Herbert to expand on the great work of his father. My assesment? "Barely readable turd crap."
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