the Dune prequels

[terryg11]

just finished the House Atriedes, Harkonnen and Corrino books and found them quite good. They are definitely written in a different style than his father wrote the first series going more into character depth and development than Frank H did but still think it's worth the Dune title it bears. It was great to see the characters from the first book that you barely get glimpses of fleshed out their importance more effectively illustrated. The forging of Idaho is a done well for example

anyone else read this and have input?

[Dudley_DUright]

1. I have read all of them

(except the latest that is only out in hardcover). I also found them quite good. I think Frank would be proud of Brian Herbert's (and Kevin J. Anderson's) efforts.

[WilliamPitt]

2. Nothng, but nothing, but nothing

will ever top the original, but I liked them, too. They were a nice homage to super-genius Frank Herbert. The authors of the prequels used Herbert's notes to create them, which helps to fill out a lot of nooks and crannies to the story.

[terryg11]

4. agreed, Dune is about as good as it gets

for any kind of storytelling. Still, it wasn't until the second or third book that we found out just how badass Duncan Idaho was. We knew he was important from all the talk but not until Children of Dune do we find out he took out just shy of twenty Sardakur before biting the dust. That's what's sweet about these new ones. We see Duncan go one on one with Fenring, (again another character from the first book that's barely in it yet commands respect for no apparent reason) and take him. Good stuff, even got caught up in the Jessica-Leto relationship.

[Mass_Liberal]

3. ya

I was amazed. They were nearly as entertaining as the original, and go into a lot more depth about the setting and the people of the Known Universe. I liked all the stuff they did about all of the different Houses, and their relations to each other. They also had a lot of interesting details, like the Jongleur actors, and similar stuffs.



I liked 'em.

[Dudley_DUright]

5. I found a nice chatroom interview with Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

at the Time.com site (done in 1999 after the first prequel book was released).

http://www.time.com/time/community/transcripts/1999/111099dune.html

[terryg11]

6. thanks for the link Dudley

it was a nice little Q&A.

I wonder wht they think of the Dune miniseries now. I've watched the first few hours of it and find it ok but think it strays from the book even worse than Lynch's film. It's take on Paul is totally wrong and man, are the sets and characters sterile!!

[EstimatedProphet]

7. I've read them all but the Butlerian Jihad

I did like them all. Maybe the Butlerian Jihad book will fill in the blanks for me that I have, mostly: how did this particular society evolve?

[DrWeird]

8. Are the Dune sequels any good?

I read Dune when I was a kid. I remember liking it. I also read the first couple of sequels, and I have absolutely no memory of if they were good or not.

[terryg11]

9. I think they are

but they get pretty deep and philosophical. I have not read Heretics and Chapterhouse yet but they take place thousands of years after the end of God emperor if I'm correct.

[Dudley_DUright]

10. Not as good as Dune

My experience is the farther away from the original book one reads, the weirder the story becomes (no offense to you DrWeird or the rest of the Weird family ;-) )