Dune Books

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I just got the dune books, 5 of them. Just finished the first.

My friend suggested I stop after the 2nd or 3rd as the rest were really pathetic. He also said that the later books were written after the original author's death by his son. That sounds retarded.
Your comments please.

Also got the dragonlance stories. How are they?

 

His son is a pretty good writer, and besides it is your friends opinion isn't it?

 

Some of the later books turned into philosophy texts. That's no fun. But the first two books were interesting -- they combined the philosophy with some sort of plot, which was good.

 

I enjoyed the later ones very much, but they were different. The first major change was right after the first book - 'Dune'. 'Messiah' was still grand, but not of the caliber of the first one and 'Children' weren't of the caliber of it. However, 'God Emperor' seemed very different, though. I can't say better or worse, it was just different - but not to such an extent as the last two - 'Heretics' and 'Chapterhouse'. I liked them. They were different, strange... oh well. Perhaps he intended some wondrous solution of the plot of all six books but death interrupted him. Too many questions were raised and not answered. The Atreides line seemed to have been dropped by the author, but it was an illusion. In fact, it all revolved around the Atreides bloodline and something strange was bound to happen sooner or later. I was dying to learn on what that importance relied, but it wasn't given to me and hasn't been yet. Maybe the author's son will finally write a Final Book of All Answers. So far he's spawned three prequels. Not bad ones, I'd say. I liked those too.

So, it's up to you. You lose nothing if you read them. Maybe the time spent on some reading not particularly interesting for you, but most certainly at least technically fine and not intellectually debilitating, so the loss won't be a major one. Read all, if only to know what happened.

 

Your friend might have a point, but you should still read all of them and form your own opinion.
The first book is truly a masterpiece. IMO there is a clear shift between the first three books (which concentrate on the Atreites dinasty, the ecology of Dune and the Fremen culture) and the last four (which concentrate on the fate of the Atreides blood and intergalactic politics).
The books written by the son are not bad, but IMO nothing really good.

 

God emperor of Dune - there's a nice Judas reference.

Anyway - Dune is great.
(have read 4 so far)

 

7 BOOKS!!

//Shrikanth faints

How many books are there in the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy? I found five till now.

Also I got some DragonLance books but have no idea of the how to seperate the various trilogies. Can some of you help me there?

I shall put up that list later.

Thanks Guys

 

there's only 6 books.

Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune

I believe they're all by frank herbert. His son wrote some of the preludes to the story, forgot the exact name but I think they're just named,
House Harkonnen, House Atreides, House Corrino(sp? the emperor's house)
might have written more

 

There is a 7th book around called "The road to Dune" but it is a collection of short stories and iirc not all written by Herbert. Maybe you are counting this one as well, Shrikanth ?

As for his son, the name is Brian and he writes in collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson. They are now publishing a second trilogy, about the Butlerian Jihad. The first book is called, not surprisingly, "The Butlerian Jihad", the second is "The Machine Crusade". I believe the third has not been published yet.

 

I guess I stand corrected

 

The prequels by his son really shouldn't be missed. They're not bad reads at all, though not nearly as good as the early Dune books.