Originally Posted by
voodoo 
Dune was fantastic, the second book was like a huge epilogue, the third and fourth took the series downhill and then came the Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, which were at least as amazing as the first book.
I thought Chapterhouse ended the series perfectly and I don't feel the seventh book (Hunters+Sandworms) was necessary in any way.
Even so, I decided to read them if only for some Dune nostalgia. I've never read any of the prequels, but I think this robot-thing isn't all that a bad idea. It's just that I wouldn't ever accept this as canon.
Just an intersting read. The Dune series ended with Chapterhouse.
I agree with your analysis of the middle pair being a tad weak. I loved the concept of
God Emperor—one man ruling with absolute power and foreknowledge, forcing humanity onto the Golden Path for its own good—but the execution could have been better. The book was just tiring to read, to be honest, and I've read some pretty heavy books in my time. (I studied literature at Uni.)
I also agree that
Heretics and
Chapterhouse were a definite improvement in quality of writing, and readability. Also, Teg was the first genuinely sympathetic character since Paul Atreidies/Muad'Dib; Leto II was interesting, but not sympathetic in the slightest. The way
Chapterhouse ended was good, and it didn't
need closure, but I still wanted some—I enjoyed reading the
Dune books so much that I wanted more of them, and the prospect of no new ones ever being released did annoy me somewhat.
However, seeing the way BH/KJA have handled the series in general, I really wish they had just left it well alone. I read one of the prequel novels set in the Butlerian Jihad, and it really was trying to shoe-horn the Atreidies and Harkonnens into it too much, and the reason the Butlerian Jihad was started (the murder of Manion Butler) seemed a little... weak.
The real issue I have with the whole set of sequels and prequels is the way that they've written something that is very much
not like
Dune in any way, and then tried in an extremely transparent
deus ex machina fashion to wrap the whole thing into the existing
Dune mythology. The BH/KJA interpretation of the Butlerian Jihad would be an enjoyable, if trifle unoriginal, sci-fi series in its own right, but when they try and tie it into the main
Dune canon, it really becomes offensive; it is so radically different in tone, style and concept from the richly-layered universe Frank Herbert created that it's almost like watching a performance of
Hamlet only to discover Tom Clancy has written an extra act or two at the beginning and end.
As for your final point, I couldn't agree more. The series begins with
Dune and ends with
Chapterhouse, period.
Originally Posted by
red rocket
The Bri/Kev stuff is useless, in my opinion. I barely managed to finish ‘House Atreides’ before throwing it away in disgust. They should have left the material well alone.
Exactly. I've never thrown away a book in my life (I can't bring myself to do it), but I would have thrown away
Hunters of Dune. Luckily, I'd borrowed it from the library and hadn't wasted my money on that piece of crap.
I think in the end, despite his protestations that he wanted to do it for his father, to finish it according to Frank Herbert's vision, Brian couldn't resist the lure of the money: even though everyone knows they're going to be a heap of crap, I bet they still sell very, very well.
On a related note, are the Christopher Tolkien books as bad, or has he done a better job of continuing his father's work?
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