[Koralatov]

So, despite the fact that I thought Hunters of Dune was absolutely terrible, I was in the library the other day and couldn't stop myself from borrowing Sandworms of Dune, which apparently wraps up the series in grand style. It really, genuinely doesn't.

Whilst I expected it to be bad, it truly did turn out to be much, much worse than I had feared. As with the previous books, the shoe-horning of Omnius and co. into the official Dune canon really rankled, and it had a really deus ex machina ending: "Hi, I'm Erasmus, and it turns out I've planned everything from the start and was actually in charge. Let's merge, Idaho, and solve this pesky war once and for all. Kthnxbai!"

I mean, really, what? Norma Cenva deals with Omnius in a heartbeat, and then the 'real' leader of the Thinking Machines just rolls over and gives in with a really unconvincing rationale and no resistance whatsoever? It was totally unconvincing, and really unsatisfying. Worse still, the end became a marsh of poorly-written dialogue, devoid of any drama or tension whatsoever. It sounded more like two effete philosophy students discussing the end of the world rather than the saviour of the human race facing off against its potential destroyer.

Worse still was the grab-bag attitude it continued with the gholas retrieved from Sctyale's null-entropy tube; it seemed like they were resurrecting these characters for no reason other than to have them as a bullet-point to use whilst they attempt to sell the book to its fans. The whole Paul/Paolo thing was ludicrous and totally unnecessary, even to reinforce the dangers of prescience; ghola-Alia's bloody death at the hands of the resurrected Baron Harkonnen was totally unnecessary, and only seemed exist so they could have one of the characters make a flippant comment about the fact they seem to be locked in a cyclical pattern of killing each other. Teg's death seemed totally pointless, and merely an excuse to show off the fact he was another potential kwisatz haderach, and the Duncan-Sheeana relationship went precisely nowhere.

It was, apparently, based on notes and an outline left by Frank Herbert himself, but from reading it, it would appear that the only idea that seemed to genuinely be his was the idea that Idaho was the 'final' kwisatz haderach. That seemed like it could have been something Herbert was setting up when he revived the Idaho ghola constantly during God Emperor and beyond, and gave him full recall of all his ghola-lives in Heretics. Beyond that, I think very little of it adhered to Herbert's original outline.

Perhaps the only aspect of the story that was handled well was Yueh's guilt over his past lives; at times, it was quite tragic in spite of the amateurish handling it received. That said, it fell into near-farce when he killed the unborn Duke Leto ghola, which I felt was a transparent plot-device used to allow Jessica to accuse him of killing her duke twice.

Overall, a truly dreadful end to an otherwise wonderful series of books. I think that Tycho from Penny Arcade summed up the new Dune novels when he said:

Originally Posted by Tycho Brahe

Necrophilia? Maybe that's going too far? I'm actually being quite charitable. Kevin Anderson has a body of work that exists outside Dune which I've heard is pretty good. Brian Herbert has a famous dad. Together, they have conspired on a book that descends below the rankest Small Wonder fan fiction, diluting the Dune Universe down to one or two parts per million. The book itself is condescending garbage, and while it holds forth the shape and form of genuine Dune books that structure is animated with the broad, explicit motions of a puppet show. It's clear that they read the original books, by which I mean plundered - raiding them, as tombs are raided.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I am Greg's complete lack of surprise.

[analogika]

It's um...why bother?

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by analogika 

It's um...why bother?

Meh. I was just pissed off after finishing it, I think. I'm not sure whether I'm more pissed off at them for trashing Dune, or with myself for not resisting the temptation to read it, even after I vowed not to.

Interestingly, the "they're f**king his corpse" comic from the Penny Arcade posting I quoted has disappeared. Perhaps they were threatened with legal action by Messrs Anderson and Herbert?

Edit: Oh, wait. It hasn't disappeared after all. I think I was just looking in the wrong place.

[Oisín]

A thread dissing the latter parts of the Dune series—Koralatov’s back!

(Welcome back from hibernation)

[ghporter]

Herbert should have stopped at Dune Messiah. Which I could not even get into even though I loved Dune.

This feels like all those L. Ron Hubbard books that have come out after his death. On the other hand, doesn't it say something about Scientology that L. Ron is still publishing all these years after his death?

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

A thread dissing the latter parts of the Dune series—Koralatov’s back!

(Welcome back from hibernation)

Thanks! I think my MO is becoming a bit too obvious though; if you can recognise one of my threads just by its subject-matter, I think I'm getting predictable in my old age!

I think it's the winter months that did it to me; now that the days are finally getting more than two hours of sunlight here, I'm slightly perkier (and, ironically, spending more time online).

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Herbert should have stopped at Dune Messiah. Which I could not even get into even though I loved Dune.

Yeah, I liked Messiah, but it didn't meet the high standards of its predecessor; Muad'Dib became a much less interesting and sympathetic character in that book. That said, Heretics and Chapterhouse are both books that I genuinely enjoy reading, partly because Idaho is well-written in them (his character grows quite a bit across the saga), and partly because Teg was a genuinely interesting character who I enjoyed rooting for. The weight of his loyalty to the Sisterhood was played well, and I liked the fact he knew he was a pawn, but didn't let that stop him from doing what he felt was right.

This feels like all those L. Ron Hubbard books that have come out after his death. On the other hand, doesn't it say something about Scientology that L. Ron is still publishing all these years after his death?

I think the major difference, for better or worse (most likely worse in Hubbard's case), the posthumously published books of his probably bear more resemblance to what he intended; the KJA/BH Dunes really don't seem to be very close to what I imagine Herbert intended. Most worryingly, I think Herbert is now getting into a Tupac situation: at last count, the Dire Duo had published eight Dune novels, and I think there are at least two or three more in the works. At this rate, there will be more books based in that universe that weren't written by Herbert than books that were...