3 ms·

I don't think fiction is Brian Herbert's gift. If you haven't, I encourage you to read Dreamer of Dune. It's his biography of Frank Herbert. While I loathe his

by madrox 5y ago

I don't think fiction is Brian Herbert's gift. If you haven't, I encourage you to read Dreamer of Dune. It's his biography of Frank Herbert. While I loathe his contribution to fiction, I found his biography of his dad well done and rather touching.

hef19898 5y ago
To be honest, having Kevin J. Anderson as co-writer doesn't help. He wrote some of the worst Star Wars, now Legends, books out there. And given how bad some of those Legends books are that is something. I loved those books back the day when I was younger, they just don't compare well against Timothy Zahn's books, the original Han Solo series and the short stories about small characters from the original movies. What is sad so, is that the IMHO brilliant Dune encyclopedia was declared non-canon... EDIT: The quote from Dune about ecology rings true for all kinds of very complex and large systems. Especially those that are of the self-maintaining kind.
- cgriswald 5y ago
  > What is sad so, is that the IMHO brilliant Dune encyclopedia was declared non-canon... I hold my own counsel on what is canon: Anything explicitly and directly written by Frank Herbert. That excludes The Dune Encyclopedia, but I don't think that diminishes it. We shouldn't pretend that it was declared non-canon for any reason other than Brian Herbert and Anderson selling pablum as Dune universe novels.
  - hef19898 5y ago
    Wasn't Frank Herbert heavily consulted the Encyclopdia's author? Would have to locate my copy to check... And yes, the Anderson books were the only reason the Encyclopedia was thrown out. Still damn great content, so.
    - cgriswald 5y ago
      My understanding is that he was somewhat involved and also approved of the Encyclopedia. My interpretation is that his objections to it weren't really objections so much as making clear that he wouldn't be bound by anything in it; and that this is being used to re-write history and make it sound like he disliked the Encyclopedia. > Still damn great content, so. Exactly. It doesn't really matter what a couple of hacks have to say about it.

by madrox 5y ago

hef19898 5y ago

To be honest, having Kevin J. Anderson as co-writer doesn't help. He wrote some of the worst Star Wars, now Legends, books out there. And given how bad some of those Legends books are that is something. I loved those books back the day when I was younger, they just don't compare well against Timothy Zahn's books, the original Han Solo series and the short stories about small characters from the original movies. What is sad so, is that the IMHO brilliant Dune encyclopedia was declared non-canon... EDIT: The quote from Dune about ecology rings true for all kinds of very complex and large systems. Especially those that are of the self-maintaining kind.

cgriswald 5y ago
> What is sad so, is that the IMHO brilliant Dune encyclopedia was declared non-canon... I hold my own counsel on what is canon: Anything explicitly and directly written by Frank Herbert. That excludes The Dune Encyclopedia, but I don't think that diminishes it. We shouldn't pretend that it was declared non-canon for any reason other than Brian Herbert and Anderson selling pablum as Dune universe novels.
- hef19898 5y ago
  Wasn't Frank Herbert heavily consulted the Encyclopdia's author? Would have to locate my copy to check... And yes, the Anderson books were the only reason the Encyclopedia was thrown out. Still damn great content, so.
  - cgriswald 5y ago
    My understanding is that he was somewhat involved and also approved of the Encyclopedia. My interpretation is that his objections to it weren't really objections so much as making clear that he wouldn't be bound by anything in it; and that this is being used to re-write history and make it sound like he disliked the Encyclopedia. > Still damn great content, so. Exactly. It doesn't really matter what a couple of hacks have to say about it.