Paul of Dune
by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. AndersonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-09-16
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of Paul of Dune
Book Review: How it even passed the conception phase is a mystery to all...
Summary: 2 Stars
It wouldn't have taken much of a brain to point out that Paul of Dune was a bad idea before the first sentence was even written. It's hard to imagine how the novel could work really. You know what happened in Dune obviously and then I would assume you have also read Dune Messiah. Therefore there really isn't much to tell. Yes there are some years from the end of Dune and the start of Messiah but the narrative didn't need the specifics of those stories. There is no major conflict that could be established and we all know how the major characters make out so there really isn't much surprise.
Paul of Dune, unlike the predecessor Winds of Dune, at least attempts to work. It does try and focus on Shaddam, Fenring, Halleck, and many of the other secondary characters in the story. This could have been done better though. In my opinion the only way the novel could really have worked is if it had really focused on them most of the time. Instead BH and KJA chose to focus on Paul (obviously) and this was a loser to me. BH and KJA's Paul is nowhere near the quality of Frank Herbert's and at times he appears to me to have regressed from his previous form. Also the flashback aspect of the book was really pointless in that it was just glorified filler and not a compelling motivator for the plot.
Honestly Herbert and Anderson could have generated a very compelling story working with more secondary characters and more new ones. Instead they chose to drum up a past story with Pauls dad and then re-create it as a "new conspiracy." This seems to be a theme with Brian and Kevin. Whereas Frank could develop and create massive conspiracies and very thought provoking narrative, Brian seems to create the most silly and benign plots. They certainly are very verbose over some very simple things. The plots against Paul are rarely that interesting and beyond this there is little about the actual "Jihad" etc...
A few chapters are dedicated to the actual wars going on around the universe but it is mostly ignored. I also found myself completely tuning out to the narrative at time. It was a boring read with just droned on and on. I was also amazed at how many times the authors could use the word "ostentatious." It seemed to be at least a couple times a chapter.
Paul of Dune had a slim chance to succeed, even with it's very limited premise, and unfortunately the authors really missed. The narrative has some elements of intrigue but mostly the story is flat and boring. The characters are bland caricatures of Frank Herbert's original creations and I honestly could not wait for the book to be over. Whats even worse is that the following novel, Winds of Dune is even worse.
I am amazed that the tandems publisher even allowed these novels to pass from conception. They are flawed completely. Personally the only one that I believe could seriously succeed would be the third one in between Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune. This is where Frank Herbert made his first large jump of time and many such characters like Irulan, Jessica, Gurney, and many others just completely disappear mostly from the last two novels. I think this is the best opportunity for the two to write a truly compelling novel and add to Franks masterpiece series. Unfortunately they seemed to feel that a trilogy was neccessary to maximize income.
I would recommend that if you are looking into this series that you skip Paul of Dune and even Winds of Dune and just go straight to the third one when it comes out next year. Go find yourself a synopsis online and get the talking points just so you are prepared for any other story devices that ay be exclusive to BH and KJA. But to be perfectly honest you will not miss much by missing these novels.
I give Paul of Dune 2 stars because I found at least some of it to be interesting for a spell, especially in the beginning and middle parts of the book. I really lost interest by the end though. Winds of Dune is a flat out 1 star bomb to me.
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