Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hunters of Dune
Book Review: Dunesploitation
Summary: 2 Stars
Reading the last true Dune novels was a challenge for me. As a non-native English reader the concepts and ideas were difficult to muddle trough. But I plowed on, because the inventiveness and surprises kept it worth while. This book (Why is it called "Hunters" anyway? And who are the soldiers on the cover?) does not provoke thought. It is basically fan-fiction, no new concepts or characters are introduced. Indeed, rather than injecting some badly needed fresh blood into the storyline by introducing a new major character, some are brought back from the dead. Resulting in the ludicrous situation of 4-year olds holding hands because they were lovers in a previous life... It does not bode well for the next novel.
Book Review: Fair... not great... not horrible.
Summary: 3 Stars
Dune is a complex story that was originally very cryptic and subtle. Frank Herbert had a gift to hide key story points in fragments hidden in paragraphs, usually when you least expected it, making you go back over what you read several times. His son however lacks that gift and can make the same story take twice as long by explaining everything to the point of retarded children going... OK WE GET IT!!!!
To make my point here is the simple math equation 2+2=4 as done by each author.
Frank herbert: By taking a pair and doubling it, we are given twice as much as what we were blessed with from before.
Brian herbert:
-i got two apples in this buckets.
-Really? I got two apples too!
-No way. If you take your two apples, and I take my two apples, then we would have four apples.
-Four apples is definitely twice as many as our original count of just two apples.
-Agreed. Four apples is my count added to yours.
-I love our four apples
-Me too. Let's go clone that Duncan guy.
I rest my case.
In short. I can see how this could have been a wonderful ending, if the original author tackled it. Instead we are left with an overblown synopsis that merely tells us how it ends, without really giving us the emotion behind it.
Althought I will admit to having a soft spot for the last line of the book. Well played.
Book Review: Fan fiction at best...
Summary: 1 Stars
I barely made it through two of the prequels, I think. KA and BH reduced one of the greatest universes ever created down to a trivial space opera with flat characters and trivial plot points so I gave up early on. But like many here I found Hunters cheap and thought it worth the risk.
A bit of advice: You can find the plot summaries on Wikipedia. Save yourself the time and aggravation and just hit the high points, ponder what FH could have done and let the man rest in peace.
I did slog through the entire book, constantly annoyed and it was only at the end that I realized why stylistically, it just doesn't work. It reads like fan fiction. Like some uber-nerd living in his mother's basement just had to finish the story so he was going to give it his best shot. Sad, sad stuff. Especially when you can re-read Dune and it still holds up even after 40 years.
Much of what is missing is FH's subtly and timing. So much was delivered with so few words that it would sometimes take days for the more minute points to filter into the consciousness. These boys are as subtle as hammers beating dead dirt. Lots of dust in the air but nothing really happening.
Wikipedia, people. Satisfy your curiosity but do not tarnish your memories the Duniverse with this tripe.
Book Review: First Lesson
Summary: 2 Stars
The first lesson in writing sequels is to read the original work carefully. I get no sense that Herbert and Anderson understood what Frank Herbert said and so his notebooks didn't do them much good.
I am glad I borrowed Hunters and Sandworms from the library instead of buying them. That's mostly because in God Emperor of Dune, Heretics and Chapterhouse, Frank Herbert emphasized lessons to learn, one of which was interdependence and another of which, in Odrade's time, was that the Bene Gesserit had much left to learn. Plus the message that she found about alliances. There is no sense of that in the Brian Herbert books, in fact, Odrade is painfully missing from Murbella's consciousness when in Chapterhouse she was so important. The Bellonda/Doria thing could have expressed the interdependence issue but failed to do so. So could the Sheeana/Idaho connection. So could the Handlers/Futars. And so on.
The other problem was definitely the language. OK I write and I tend to try to find the "mot juste" and so I have a different style. But sometimes the wording was just painful in its wrongness in these two books.
So I definitely won't read the prequels at all.
Book Review: Fooled - Again
Summary: 2 Stars
I had originally bought the Butlerian Jihad (by the same authors) after reading the original Dune series of which I was a great fan. The book was horrific to the point of unreadable. Other reviewers have pointed to the endless torture scenes and excessive explanation of relatively simple concepts as weak points, to which I can add my agreement. Additionally the book had the same problem that plagues Hunters - it's boring. The authors seem to use the aforementioned "techniques" to cover up the fact that there just isn't that much here. Jumping from one character to the next over and over does little to distract from the fact that this is basically a dressed up outline. You can see the broad strokes of Frank Herbert but every time the outline is filled in you can feel the unpleasant transition. The beginning felt a bit like the old series but it quickly degenerated into the same nonsense as the prequels.
I think for most readers this writing collaboration just doesn't work. It would be great if the writing or ideas were on par with Frank Herbert's (which they are not) but what is really annoying is that the writing is not good enough to stand on it's own - net of Frank Herbert.
Almost every reviewer and, I suspect, reader bought this book because of the original Dune series. The authors invite comparison to the original Dune series by writing prequels and contninuations, it's not like this is a standalone work.
I will probably buy the last book to see how Frank Herbert intended for the story to end but I don't have high hopes for the actual story. The authors of Hunters assure us there will be more books in the series, I sincerely hope not.