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Frank Herbert's The Dune Chronicles (Don't Stop After Dune)

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Woorloog

Banned
Based on Chapterhouse, had we gotten a finale we might have seen ghola Paul, ghola Gurney, and ghola Hawat, among others. The Brian Herbert version brings back a bunch of OG characters as gholas, and it's just as much of a trainwreck as you might expect.

I have read nearly all of the KJA/BH "Dune" books. I know how shit they're, all too well... And no, i don't regard them as canon.

Wish they'd release Frank's notes as they claim to have them.
 

flyover

Member
I've only read the six books. That's all there is as far as I'm concerned.
Same. I've never even peeked at Wikipedia (or even a jacket cover) to see what happens in the post-Frank books. That said, I completely understand the desire to want to continue reading the books, the same way you might continue watching a TV show well past its prime (and where the original showrunner is long gone).
 

tokkun

Member
The worst was how Brian and Anderson took little bits from the original series and expanded, expanded, and expanded on them to the point of ludicrousness. Like the final chapter of the last book, he tried to explain what exactly happened. Yes, it was awful.

I was more annoyed about their interpretation of the Butlerian Jihad. In the original novels it is portrayed as being more metaphysically inspired, as a response to a sense that humans had discovered that they had willingly given up some aspect of what it meant to be human by allowing machines to think for them. That seems infinitely more interesting than the robot uprising of the new novels.

Same. I've never even peeked at Wikipedia (or even a jacket cover) to see what happens in the post-Frank books. That said, I completely understand the desire to want to continue reading the books, the same way you might continue watching a TV show well past its prime (and where the original showrunner is long gone).

It seemed like there was some hope based on Christopher Tolkien's work. I've read The Silmarillion more than either The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. For that matter, I liked the Brandon Sanderson Wheel of Time novels more than a majority of the Robert Jordan ones.
 
All the way through Chapterhouse is worth reading IMO.

I love Frank Herbert's writing style and even if there is weird stuff like animal people and whatever, I felt it was still grounded enough in the universe and had it's purpose (to show that with a huge expansion of our species, almost anything is possible). God Emperor is probably my favorite because I find all the philosophical musings of a multi-millennium old character really interesting.

Back in high school I liked reading the Brian Herbert prequel books because they were full of action and I liked the stories, but recently re-reading the main series and then going straight on to Brian Herbert's sequel books (the two that conclude the main storyline), I found them to be pretty much garbage.

His writing is painfully basic compared to his father's. There's no depth and the stories are incredibly by the numbers. The main heroes are saved by ridiculous Deus Ex Machina every other chapter to the point where it becomes predictable. I also find it unlikely that his father intended to end the series in the same way, maybe at a high level (
robots coming back and eventually being at peace with humans
), but all the details where Brian ties it back into his prequel books feel extremely tacked on.

I bought on of the "interquel" books that takes place between the first and the second Dune books, and I just could not get into it at all. I keeps all of Brian Herbert's bad writing, but makes it worse because of how unnecessary the in-between stories are. I think the reason Frank Herbert didn't write about that stuff was that he included all the necessary info in the main books. We don't need to know the exact specifics of how Paul took over the universe after the first book, just that he did,
 

bionic77

Member
Read up to God Empereor and then stop right there.

Unless space whore it shit writing is something you are into j don't recommend going further. God I am getting angry thinking of how bad the new books are again...
 

Sober

Member
Also, the Dune Encyclopedia is well worth reading as well, even if it is no longer canon.
You know I never understood how the DE was/wasn't canon, I thought it was just basically an in-universe document, so basically the material in the DE was fictional 'propaganda' (since iirc it was 'printed' during the reign of Leto II) at best or dubious at worse.
 

Wensih

Member
Funny enough, book 4, God Emperor of Dune, is exactly about breaking free from and ending the viability of prophets and prophecies.

At least that's what we're told... the Bene Gesserits come to the realization that the worms are still carrying out Leto's golden path in Heretics.
 

Dead Man

Member
Yeah, the Frank Herbert books are good, although they do go down in quality over his the course of his writing. Then they just fall off a cliff with Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. Just fucking awful space pulp shite.

Dune is so good though, even with the drop in quality the later Frank books are still miles better than most of the rubbish out there.
 

eot

Banned
I stopped after Dune. I have no desire to ruin one of my favourite books, I'd rather not know.
 

Wensih

Member
I stopped after Dune. I have no desire to ruin one of my favourite books, I'd rather not know.

How do you know the other books will ruin the series for you?

This type of attitude is like saying I'm going to stop reading Harry Potter after The Sorcerer Stone or not continue on to Lord of the Rings after The Hobbit.

I can understand stopping after Chapterhouse because Frank Herbet's death--looking into Brian Herbet's books it appears he wrote them under the guise of finding a plan/notes for book 7; however, I'm sort of skeptical of these claims as he ties his prequels into "Dune 7" --but I don't think reading anything after Dune ruins Dune, only expands upon it in depth and scope.
 
Yes. Which is why they shouldn't put someone off reading what they might enjoy.

Surely you don't need to caveat everything you say with "this is just my opinion", though. And even if you did, there's no greater virtue to recommending someone read something vs recommending that they don't. Whatever suggestion you make, it's an opinion. The person receiving the advice needs to weigh up how much they give a shit about what you think.
 

Trouble

Banned
I got halfway through Children of Dune before I gave up. I didn't realize it was possible for a fictional universe to crawl so far up its own ass.
 

Acinixys

Member
I've read every book. Even the terrible prequal and sequel garbage written by his son. For me the end will always be when they leave the Bene Gesserit home world in the No Ship

That ending leaves a lot to the imagination, which I really like

Honestly though, the Brian Herbert books ruined the originals for me. How anyone could publish that tripe is beyond me. And the worst part is that it gets more terrible the more you read.
 

eot

Banned
How do you know the other books will ruin the series for you?

This type of attitude is like saying I'm going to stop reading Harry Potter after The Sorcerer Stone or not continue on to Lord of the Rings after The Hobbit.

I can understand stopping after Chapterhouse because Frank Herbet's death--looking into Brian Herbet's books it appears he wrote them under the guise of finding a plan/notes for book 7; however, I'm sort of skeptical of these claims as he ties his prequels into "Dune 7" --but I don't think reading anything after Dune ruins Dune, only expands upon it in depth and scope.

I don't know that, but I've heard enough mixed things about the other books that I'd rather not take the risk. Besides, I feel like Dune is sufficiently self contained to stand on its own and I don't like sequels in general (as a thing).

I mean, it doesn't even have to be that it ruins it. I'm just content having a thing that I love and I doubt the sequels are going to be the next thing to make me feel as strongly about a book. I'd rather look elsewhere. It's like trying to masturbate three times in a row or something, only gets worse each time.
 

Ophelion

Member
Just don't read the Brian Herbert books. Whatever you do, don't read those. Avoid them at all costs.

Came to say basically this. Brian just isn't Frank. Even working off his notes, he just doesn't have the art in him to make it work.
 
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