Dune 'sequels?'

I'm a huge fan of the "Dune" novels.

After reading the first two of Brian Herbert's and Kevin Anderson's 'prequel' novels, I decided I didn't care for them and gave up on the 'EU' of Dune.

Now I'm considering picking up the 'sequels' they wrote, supposedly wrapping up loose ends in line with Frank Herbert's original outline. That would be nice, because some of those loose ends have frustrated me for a decade plus.

Yet I'm wary... since the prequels were so painfully mediocre that the sequels, closer tied to the actual saga, are destined to be worse.

Any thoughts? Anybody read these?

Just read Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune.  They're the ones written by Frank Herbert.

Although, to be frank, I think you can just stop after Children of Dune and be fine.  Dune Messiah is pretty good, Children of Dune is okay, but the rest get progressively weirder and weirder.  I'm not a big fan of worm-Leto II, or whatever the hell he was supposed to be in the last few novels.

I haven't read any of the Kevin J. Anderson Dune novels, nor do I plan to.  I've heard far too many absolutely awful things about them.

Though Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune together form a sequel to Chapterhouse: Dune that is supposedly based on a 30-page outline by Frank Herbert, I can't see them being any better than Chapterhouse, which I really didn't like.

Most of the ones written by Frank Herbert himself weren't much use either. There's really one classic Dune novel and it's best taken as a standalone.

Vaderisnothayden said:

There's really one classic Dune novel and it's best taken as a standalone.

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head there.

SPOILER ALERT.

So the 'sequals' to Dune are in fact really sequels to Anderson/Herbert Jr's prequels?!?

What?!!

The "lost outline" for the conclusion to the Dune series Frank Herbert wrote was all about tying up storylines from a series he didn't write? The myseries and dangling plot threads all tied into a backstory not even hinted at?!?

The Bulterian Jihad, that Frank Herbert never described and that only got a few passing mentions in the entirety of the Dune series was in fact the pivotal plot point of the entire fictional universe, and central to the conclusion of everything.

I find that all hard to swallow.

Kevin Anderson needs to make his money, I don't fault the man. It's Brian Herbert who's fisting his father's legacy.

Hey, like I said, I've only read the Herbert novels.  I have no idea what any of the Anderson novels are about.  I was just going on what I heard.  :-)

I preferred The Dune Encyclopedia take on the Butlerian Jihad (actually I preferred reading it to reading the actual books most of the time).

I love the characters, the universe, the storylines of Herbert Snr's books but the actual books were a bit turgid in my opinion.

It would make a great hypertext project.

I wish the Herbert estate would let the fan-film adaptation see the light of day.

I just didn't get the Anderson books at all, even the storylines on there own don't fit.

Actually trying to read them is like watching a film based on historical events with the facts really wrong, taking itself very seriously (like U-571 or worse still Braveheart) compared to something like I Claudius which may have bent the facts a bit is an astounding piece of drama or Cromwell which is very accurate (if you ignore the exploding cannon balls).

The tone is way off too.

Of the pre-prequels (Butlerian Jihad), the prequels ("House...") and the sequels, the only ones I'd even remotely suggest you bother with are the prequels. And even then... meh.

Maybe I'm not being entirely fair - some of the ideas in the KJA/BH books aren't half bad. They're just poorly executed when you consider what came before.

Hey, that sounds familiar...

DE