Brian Herbert

As promised in my review for the second installment in this rather comatose adaptation, I did indeed buy the last volume hoping (vainly) that it might improve.

This is the worst of the lot. The art this time around didn't even try to swing for the fences. An attempt would have been appreciated. Instead, we get 190 pages of dull, static people standing around, stiffly jumping or supposedly fighting, and lots of close ups of mostly dull expressions. For a book with the main title "DUNE" we get show more very little imagery of the greater world, and what we do get is boring.

So, dull, uninteresting, workmanlike art that has no place in an epic story as grand and challenging as DUNE.

But worse than the art is the writing by the man that proves that, on occasion, the apple can fall exceptionally far from the tree, then just keep rolling farther and farther away. Frank Herbert was a very cerebral, very distinctive author and, for a kid who apparently grew up hearing his father read his stories, he absorbed nothing of his father's careful cadence or storytelling ability. I've called the art workmanlike. But the writing? I think the only word that works here is "inept".

Oh sure, he knows all the terms. He knows all the characters. But where Frank would have subtle, mysterious conversations that bent and twisted with subterfuge and hidden meaning, Brian's got Paul just bellowing, "I'm the Kwisatz Haderach!" for all and sundry, like he's freaking Kanye West. The dialogue is stunted and choppy and dull, the pacing terrible. He's wrung the book through an old dirty sock and filtered out all that was fun and awe-inspiring and wondrous about DUNE and instead just strung a series of words and sentences along to barely hint at one of the most incredible stories of the 20th century.

This is awful. I've tried and tried to read something with Brian Herbert's name attached to it, but with this last garbage money grab, I'm officially done. This was crap.

Go read the book. Leave these adaptations in the washroom where the paper will get better use. show less

After reading Sandworms of Dune, I can finally set down the entire Dune Chronicles. I read The Legends of Dune trilogy, The Houses of Dune trilogy, Frank Herbert’s original 6 volumes in the Dune Chronicles and the concluding two volumes by his son and Kevin Anderson. This was a reading project that took me a couple of years to complete. I was unimpressed by Legends, found Houses to be entertaining, the original Dune is still a classic and the next four to be worth reading. FH’s last show more volume, Chapterhouse Dune was not as good though it ended on a very interesting note that I wish (as many others do) that he had been able to follow up on it. The last two volumes, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune by BH and KJA were a slog to read - I found them frustrating.

So what annoyed me in Sandworms? The colonial attitude that the universe is for humans to do with as they wish without thought of other lifeforms. Resources are there to be used by humanity. I also found this attitude to be extended to women which was odd as women think of each other as resources to use both in breeding programs and as axlotl tanks.

Axlotl tanks! What an abhorrent idea. In the Houses trilogy and in the first couple of volumes of Frank’s original Dune books, the idea of using women simply as incubators was treated as something awful. By Sandworms, it had become normalized and offered sort of like a career choice to women. What a sad thing to suggest and it made no sense to continue with the technique. Using the axlotl tanks to resurrect characters long dead because they had special properties that might help humanity defeat the thinking machines sort of made sense when the thinking machines were a threat. But at the end of Sandworms, there has been a reconciliation between human and machine. What is the point if dehumanizing women to simply be incubators. Once the threat was removed this abhorrent technology should have been completed dismantled. It made no sense to me that it should continue.

And at the end of Sandworms the Bene Gesserit breeding program is apparently going to continue? Why? That also makes no sense! The BG breeding program had as its goal to produce the Kwisatz Haderach but by the end of Sandworms, the BG have committed to not producing another KH. So what is the point of continuing the breeding program? Why is it assumed in the book that this sort of positive eugenics is a good thing? Something that kept coming up in the books is how prescience and controlling the future becomes boring and static and that what makes life worth living is being surprised. A breeding program tries to avoid surprises - the point is to control what offspring are produced. This did not make sense to me that it should continue.

I did not like the appearance of an ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. What made the idea of a KH interesting was that the individual would be uniquely gifted and that they were the result of careful breeding. But now it seems in Sandworms that KHs are all over the place and can be engineered by ghola engineering. The KH is no longer unique and became, for me, a boring concept even though at the end of Heretics of Dune, Frank Herbert did something really interesting with Miles Teg. But the character - the idea - didn’t develop well for me in subsequent novels.

I also did not appreciate how the Dune Chronicles ends with the other memory of the BG referred to as racial memory. I thought other memory was supposed to be something developed in humanity and not localized to a particular race.

Finally, at the end of Sandworms, there is supposed to be a great rapprochement between thinking machines and humans. But the ultimate KH gives the homeworld of the thinking machines to humans to do with as they see fit. Humans yet again get to colonize a world that was not theirs to begin with. And then, “thinking machines” are simply used by humans as workers to rehabilitate/terraform/rehabilitate worlds inhabited by humans. But there is no sense that these machine “partners” with humanity are given any agency. If they are thinking machines don’t they have their own goals/dreams/aspirations?

Very disappointing end to something that had such auspicious beginnings in the original Dune. show less

Sigh. Where do we start? The cardboard characters? The plot inconsistencies? The contradictions with Frank Herbert's books?

Again, another unnecessary addition to the Dune series. If Brian and Kevin had put all their effort into writing Dune 7 than piddling around with two prequel trilogies, then we MIGHT have a worthy read.

But no. They just couldn't stop at Dune 7 and move on to go back to writing their own original series. No. Dune is their cash cow, and they're going to milk it, by show more gum!

Here, we see an wholly unnecessary novel. 'Dune Messiah' was about the consequences of Paul's Jihad. That was what Frank Herbert was concentrating on. He wanted to show us the consequences of Paul's vision, and not waste time with explaining about all of the battles on various planets and what not. And we were happy with that, because Frank Herbert wrote about what was relevant, and though sometimes it's fun to see how things happened or what happened to make things the way they were in the future, in the Dune series this was not missed because Herbert had a greater message to share with us. (which was completely ignored in Hunters/Sandworms of Dune, BTW)

Here we are presented with a book that spends a good amount of time in the past in Paul's childhood - entirely unnecessary as the House trilogy was - and all you can do is bang your head in frustration. The Harkonnen/Fenrig offspring that was hinted at in the canon Dune books was supposed to be just that - a tempting little rumor that made us think. Here, it's ridiculous. The Fremen are also very out of character, and the editing mistakes in this book are downright laughable. Contradictions are abound - in this book, Paul has been offplanet several times before the family move to Arrakis, yet in the original Dune novels, Frank Herbert makes it clear that Paul has never been offplanet, and Arrakis was his first trip away from home. This is but one of many mistakes and contradictions that plague this... this... "book".

Many things are told, not shown. Frank Herbert was wonderful at putting in details here and there that add up to the greater picture, without wasting time on useless fluff and filler. But here in Paul of Dune, so much time is wasted on so many things, and the characters of Dune are not quite the same here in Paul of Dune, and there were far too many Brian/Kevin-created characters for my liking.

The classic Dune was like a lovingly prepared homecooked meal by Mom, who clearly cared about what we were eating and put all her effort into making the meal as best as it could, and boy, do we ever remember these meals with love and fondness! The books by Brian and Kevin are like greasy fast food - easily snarfed down when there's nothing else to eat, hunger momentarily sated, and then stomach cramps and other rather unpleasant effects later on. They even admit themselves that they're making Dune more "accessible" to the reading crowd. Meaning, dumbed-down.

Near the end of this book, another disturbing "fact" is revealed to us - that Herbert Sr's works are no longer canon, and are rather an inaccurate history (because Irulan wrote so many books), which is Brian and Kevin's way of saying to us 'We'll retcon whatever we want out of Dune, and you will LIKE IT!'

To do this to someone else's work takes unmitigated gall, but after two poorly-written trilogies and a horribly disappointing Dune 7, should we be THAT surprised?

If you MUST read this book out of curiosity (or out of masochistic urges), then go to the library. Don't waste a single penny.

The six books by Frank Herbert, along with the Dune Encyclopedia, are canon, and nothing but. Brian and Kevin's books are poorly written fanfiction at best, and an utter and complete abomination at worst.

Repeat after me, my fellow Dune fans. This is the litany against the False Dune books.

I must not fear the false Dune books.
The false Dune books is the mind-killer.
The false Dune books is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face the false Dune books.
I will permit it to pass over me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the false Dune books has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

(Originally, the fifth line was 'permit it to pass over me and through me', but I do not want the false Dune books to pass through me, no way!)

Repeat that Litany, my fellow Dune fans, and do not fear. There are only six (or seven, including the Encyclopedia) Dune books. No more, no less. The books written by Brian and Kevin are nothing but a blasphemy, and I await with bated breath (in disgust) for Jessica of Dune. show less

Brian Herbert is not his father. With that in mind, I read this book, not expecting him or Kevin to write exactly like Frank. But even with NOT expecting Brian to write just like his father, this book SUCKED. There were SO many things wrong with this book. It was full of unnecessary, plodding details. Alia and Serena Butler acting as Other Memory even though neither of them had surviving descendants, is utter ridiculousness. The Baron-ghola and Erasmus commented on Alia and Serena in Other show more Memory respectively, wondering how they could be there (just like us readers) yet Brian and Kevin never offer a explanation for this. It's like they're saying 'Well, we're the ghostwriters, so we'll rewrite FH's canon however we want, and you can suck it!'

I was also VERY disappointed in the fact that nothing is revealed of Gilbertus Alban's fate. Erasmus thinks a lot about Serena, but you'd think that he'd have some thoughts about his ward, because out of the entire population of humankind, Serena and Gilbertus are both undeniably very important to Erasmus.

The thing with Norma Cenva and Omnius was one of the most ill-thought out ways to wrap up things, and the fate of some of the gholas, Leto II, Sheeana, etc, was all one HUGE disaster. The ending left me feeling unfulfilled and frustrated. I plodded through what, over 1000 pages (Hunters/Sandworms) only to see this crappy ending that RAPED my fond memories of Dune to the fiber of their very being.

One of the central themes to Frank's Dune books was that we must free ourselves of any one guiding force - hence Leto II Atreides' Golden Path to force the Famine Times and the Scattering, so that humankind would not be united under one ruler and become diversified, finding new ways to survive and learning how to adapt. And this was all RUINED when Duncan Idaho merged with Erasmus to become the Ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. This goes against the very message that Frank Herbet - through his characters Paul Muad'Dib and Leto II - was trying to teach us. Sure, we can assume that Frank had some big plans for Sheeana. After all, she is the descendant of Siona and she was able to control the worms. But I doubt that she would have become a ultimate Kwisatz Haderach. Rather, I feel that Herbert had planned for her to become the next 'example' of the Golden Path, a key figure to ensure humankind's survival after Paul, Leto II, and Siona.

And I was VERY disappointed in the lack of Darwi Odrade's Other Memory in Dune 7. She was so important in Chapterhouse Dune, and Kevin and Brian have all but thrown her aside and concentrated on some storyline concentrating on the gholas aboard the Ithaca and other crap that is really irrelevant to the whole scheme of Dune. Hunters/Sandworms concentrated on the gholas, personal drama, some bull about sea-worms (WTF???) while ignoring main characters that had been vital in previous books.

It would have been far more conceivable for the Other Enemy to be Erasmus himself rather than Omnius, or some rogue Face Dancers or renegade Tleilaxu or a female group more sinister than the Honored Matres, or some twisted male version of the Bene Gesserit or Mentats.

The very ending, with the Paul and Chani gholas just cheesed me off. Everything was wrapped up far too neatly, which is something Herbert would never have done. Leto II fought to keep mankind from stagnating, at personal cost to himself and his reputation, so to ensure its survival in the Scattering. By having Duncan Idaho become the OMG ULTIMATE KWISATZ HADERACH!!!!!!! is bringing humankind under one ruler again and will lead to eventual stagnation again.

And so many details were unnecessary - all the subplots in Dune 7, oy! The House trilogy wasn't such a bad read, but in the grand scheme of the Dune universe was really unnecessary. Frank Herbert was a master of concentrating on the big picture, and painting a grand image with but a few words. He left mentions here and there of history - Butlerian Jihad, Paul's jihad, and what have you. The details of such things is not needed in the grand scheme of the Duneverse. We Dune fans aren't idiots who need every single detail expanded on. That's why we liked Frank Herbert. The Duneverse is different from the more familiar and popular sci-fi universes - Star Trek, Star Wars, what have you. Mind you, I'm not badmouthing George Lucas or whatever, but Dune was different and we liked it for that. Brian and Kevin just ruined it for us.

Frank Herbert is without a doubt spinning in his grave. How dare you besmirch his memory by planning to write even MOAR Dune books! We don't need 'Paul of Dune' and whatever else you have planned. Just stop writing, seriously. Haven't you raped Frank Herbert's legacy up the wazoo for long enough? People didn't like the books you wrote, and for good reason. For the sake of Frank Herbert's legacy, just stop. show less