5 ms·

While it gets weirder towards the end of the six books, I found the philosophy and generally strange quotes and philosophy to be more interesting and worthwhile

While it gets weirder towards the end of the six books, I found the philosophy and generally strange quotes and philosophy to be more interesting and worthwhile, even if the plot got exceptionally less so. To me, I think the gap in readability was in books two and three - maybe.

magicalist 12y ago
Yeah, I find Heretics of Dune to be much better than Children of Dune, for instance, both in characterizations and the ideas it explores. I'll break ranks, though, and say I actually enjoy the plot after God Emperor of Dune quite a lot. I didn't really the first time I read the books, so that may have some bearing, but it helped to read a piece discussing the books, where they claimed that the Dune books are two separate trilogies, with God Emperor as the transitional book. Unfortunately, Frank Herbert didn't get to complete the second trilogy, but the first two books of it -- when thought of as a mostly separate set of stories from the first Dune books -- becomes much more interesting, rather than just "why is he introducing all this new stuff into this universe?" As for those other "Dune" books written by Frank Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson, they are total trash, and not worth any more of your time than, say, your average bottom-of-the-barrel Star Wars EU novel (it's telling that it took Frank Herbert nearly 30 years to write his six Dune novels, and it took them less than 5 years to write their first six). If you're curious about them, do yourself a favor by reading their synopses on wikipedia, feeling sad that they even exist, then forgetting that they do.
- andrey-p 12y ago
  That actually sounds like a pretty good rationale behind the completely different approach for the later books. (I'm still not sure I'd still agree with that approach, of course.) > but it helped to read a piece discussing the books Any chance you could link to that piece?

magicalist 12y ago

Yeah, I find Heretics of Dune to be much better than Children of Dune, for instance, both in characterizations and the ideas it explores. I'll break ranks, though, and say I actually enjoy the plot after God Emperor of Dune quite a lot. I didn't really the first time I read the books, so that may have some bearing, but it helped to read a piece discussing the books, where they claimed that the Dune books are two separate trilogies, with God Emperor as the transitional book. Unfortunately, Frank Herbert didn't get to complete the second trilogy, but the first two books of it -- when thought of as a mostly separate set of stories from the first Dune books -- becomes much more interesting, rather than just "why is he introducing all this new stuff into this universe?" As for those other "Dune" books written by Frank Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson, they are total trash, and not worth any more of your time than, say, your average bottom-of-the-barrel Star Wars EU novel (it's telling that it took Frank Herbert nearly 30 years to write his six Dune novels, and it took them less than 5 years to write their first six). If you're curious about them, do yourself a favor by reading their synopses on wikipedia, feeling sad that they even exist, then forgetting that they do.

andrey-p 12y ago
That actually sounds like a pretty good rationale behind the completely different approach for the later books. (I'm still not sure I'd still agree with that approach, of course.) > but it helped to read a piece discussing the books Any chance you could link to that piece?