Comments on: Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson’s “Dune” Prequels

By: SC

SC — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:03:56 +0000

I love Dune and reread the originals now and again. I liked the prequels as a preteen when they first came out, and the years have brought for them a growing distaste.

Everyone makes good points here but while I’m working from old memory, the whole Bene Gesserit rape event now strikes me as distinctly absurd. They did enough thinking to realize it would take paralysis to accomplish such but not enough to conclude that a Reverend Mother capable of enduring the Spice Agony should be more than capable of safely metabolizing a limited paralytic. Poor taste notwithstanding.

If the pair wanted to have a rape scene so badly they could have done a little more thinking and maybe made Mohiam only pretend-play along so that she could have the new Harkonnen child with minimal fuss, but no, we get an unsubstantiated revenge-illness to explain the Baron’s already-explained rotundity, oh and also by the way the Bene Gesserit have psychic powers and together they can use the Force to control no-ships with their minds. Okay.

I felt obliged to comment only after learning that the same pair who stripped the Butlerian Jihad of all subtlety and mystery had the stones to insinuate that Dune itself was in-universe fiction, whereas their prequels and sequels are the REAL story. When I introduce anyone to Dune I will make sure to mention that Frank Herbert is a genius whose son is a sellout partnered with a hack.

Merely my opinion.

By: Zeno

Zeno — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:09:01 +0000

Reaver:

…Also it goes to show Herbert Sr totally beat James Cameron to the plot Terminator….

Not sure I follow the connection between DUNE and Terminator. Is there a time travelling robot in the prequel novels? If so, then all I’ve got to say is @#%

By: 10 Science Fiction Prequels that Aren’t as Bad as Phantom Menace « Xtreamer Magazine

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:33:41 +0000

[...] Going To Have A Jihad But Then We Found That Lunch Menu And Decided To Get Lunch Instead, Of Dune. Just check out David Louis Edelman’s review of the prequels, in which he calls them out for pointless unpleasantness, turning Baron Harkkonen [...]

By: Reaver

Reaver — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:35:19 +0000

I’m not a hardcore Duner, but grew up with my parents reading the books and by proxy picked up on a lot of the story.
the the David Lynch dune blew my 7 year old mind and for me when I read the novels now, I see David Lynch’s design, style and vision .
which is a good thing for a 20,000 years in the future universe, (something that was lost on the designers of the mini series spin offs it shouldn’t look like starwars)
I have to say I enjoyed the butlerian Jihad, machine crusade and battle of corino.
I did want to know more about what set this unique universe in motion.
one that had gone so far forward it had collapsed back on itself into a feudal empire.
I havent read any of the other prequel books, but I did enjoy seeing how the beginnings of some of these things, like the holtzman drives, guild navigation and mentats came about.
Also it goes to show Herbert Sr totally beat James Cameron to the plot Terminator

By: Ozymandias

Ozymandias — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:03:51 +0000

Larry Niven has said in the past that he does not like “colaborations” mainly because most of them have one guy doing the work and another giving the name for recognition. I dont like mister Anderson’s work. I read his Star wars book because I,was a fanboy, but didnt like any of it, and found presumptous the way he pushed his characters. Later I read Dune, and could not put those books down. Read them at least 3 times. Then I picked Butlerian Jihad, wow what a bad book. It is not about different styles or characterizations it is just plain bad writing. It was the first book I didnot finish, not even to critisize it.

By: Ivriniel

Ivriniel — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:53:24 +0000

Having read Kevin J. Anderson’s Star Wars trilogy, I refuse to read anything else of his.

How this man keeps getting invites to play in other people’s universes is beyond me.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:48:24 +0000

Zeno: I am the proud owner of a copy of The Dune Encyclopedia. It’s honestly quite difficult to read, and a lot of it seems pretty wacky and fanboyish. But a nice thing to own nonetheless.

By: Zeno

Zeno — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:18:05 +0000

I loved the first 3 books.
God Emperor of Dune was decent.
Heretics and Chapterhouse were a bit thin but I still enjoyed them but I doubt I would read them again.

Prequels? No thanks, everyone I know who has read them says to stay away – and what little I’ve skimmed at the bookstore leads me to believe that assessment.

And just for the record I just don’t buy the whole ‘found in a safety deposit box’ stroy…call me a skeptic…

For anyone who is interested in a very nice presentation of DUNE backstory elements, try to find a copy of the Dune Encyclopedia by Willis McNely rt al. While this work is not considered canonical by ‘official’ sources (i.e. Brian Herbert), it was done with such obvious care and affection by those involved for the series that, for me at least, it’s more canon than the pap written by B.H and K.A. Besides, at least Frank Herbert himself had seen the work and wrote an intro for it.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:19:04 +0000

I felt the prequels were fluff compared to the originals. I didn’t mind the Jihad books
except that I felt by the third book it kinda ran out of steam.
Don’t get me started on Sandworms of Dune. While not a prequel I felt that it went way off the reservation and integrated the prequels to the determent of Herbert’s story. I do not believe for one minute that Herbert’s supposed outline in any way shape of form envisioned their ending for the series

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:19:11 +0000

I've read the original Dune series, and I find it to be one of the most complex, and rewarding reading experiences I've ever had the good fortune to enjoy. Though Dune is rightly regarded as a masterwork of science fiction, I find that my particular literary affections lie with Heretics of Dune. I get a nice, cuddly feeling whenever I think of that novel. I've read many of the Dune prequel novels and find that as the series progresses, the quality of writing, characterization, and respect for money-paying readers diminishes radically. I always believed that the Dune prequels were simply a money-making scheme, the literary equivalent of a turn-key business operation; what I didn't want to believe, however, was that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson would be so obvious and crass about it. I can understand not wanting to "imitate" Frank Herbert's particular style in a way that might come off as contrived, but I cannot understand the choice to simply abandon the very essence of the series. (I wonder if Brian Herbert is even familiar with his father's work.) I wasn't overly offended by the hefty amount of violence in the "prequel" stories, but I did find myself wanting more in terms of subtlety, grace, intellect, style, and substance. The initial Dune series implied so much more than it revealed, and it made particular demands of readers: Dune and the whole Dune series was not intended for dummies. It seems that Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have a different opinion of the whole Dune phenomenon and its readers. I think they consider true Dune fans to be so incredibly desperate for anything Dune-related, that they can just slap the name "DUNE" on any steaming pile of sh** and make tons of money off of people who truly love and respect the universe that Frank Herbert brought to us. It's this cynical apparent-attitude that offends me the most. At the time of this reading, I've learned that "Sisterhood of Dune" is due to infect bookshelves soon. At the time of this reading, I wonder why Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson haven't been subjected to the gom jabbar!