Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Sandworms of Dune
Book Review: A travesty
Summary: 1 Stars
Dune was the most brilliant science fiction novel ever written. It transcended and reinvented the genre. The entire series written by Frank Herbert was fun and intelligent. I picked up this and Hunters at the same time with the understanding that they were an attempt at continuing the series. Dune 7 and 8. Well, simply put, they're not. The idea that this garbage was based on some secret manuscript left behind by Frank Herbert is a joke. It's one thing that the writing is embarassingly bad. But the main ideas simply don't adhere to the world created by Frank Herbert. There are probably thousands of genuine Dune fans in the world who could have written a better finish to the series. It's a shame that Frank's son hired such an awful writer to milk his father's talent and legend. This stuff is shamefully bad.Book Review: A trip down memory lane . . . . .
Summary: 4 Stars
It has been many years since I read any of the volumes in Frank Herbert's original Dune series. The first of these was published in 1965, over 40 years ago. As best I recall, I read three or four of these releases shortly after they came out. I am now a senior citizen -- I would have probably been a university student at that remote date. Consequently, I find it mystifying that many hostile reviewers are pillorying this book with comparisons to first volumes half a century in the past. Bear in mind -- the Sandworms of Dune was published in 2007. This is 42 years later. Can't we find any other basis to critique this book, except that it fails to jibe with a book that most of us have long forgotten?
I liked Sandworms of Dune. It falls into the general category of "future war," an honored sci-fi tradition that began way back with Jack Williamson's "Humanoids," and has moved on through such gifted writers as David Drake, David Weber, Keith Laumer, and others. We have here a large canvas to paint on -- a galactic war spreading over parsecs and centuries. Sandworms of Dune, which runs nearly 500 pages of rather compact type, has the scope to take on a galactic war.
No one mentions the characters. The authors constructed some characters that I found quite fascinating. There's Sheeana, the Bene Gesserit who controls the no-ship, a kilometer-long starship of mysterious and possibly alien origin. There's Murbella, a Reverend Mother who leads the Bene Gesserits -- a woman of resolve and courage who really comes alive as a strategist and warlord supreme. Waff was a fun character -- a slightly nutty old man who bred and restored the sandworms -- dying but doughty to the end. These characters and many others -- including the "traitor" Yueh -- drew me in and drew me along. If this book is so bad, how was I drawn to read nearly 500 pages in two days?
Some poor soul in one of the other "pan" reviews claims that the current authors cannot write. Lord! On the level of style and sentence structure, this book is replete with skillfully turned, complex sentences. Take the following: "Murbella felt sickened to think of all the unprepared acolytes, spice-harvesting teams in the dune belt, transport drivers, architects and construction workers, weather planners, greenhouse gardeners, cleaners, bankers, artists, archive workers, pilots, technicians and medical assistants. All the underpinnings of Chapterhouse itself." Notice the structure of this sentence, and notice the extent to which long members of the list are succeeded by shorter and shorter constructions, building an acceleration of the sentence. The poor soul who sneeringly disdains the English-language ability of Herbert and Anderson really doesn't know good English sentence structure from bad.
The sweep of this novel is epic. It comes out of the past, building on the previous books if only as an outline of future history, and resolves in a battle that is not a battle. The heroes are not heroes in the end. The villains are not villains. The obvious is not obvious. The final 100 pages bring reversal after reversal. Even the "worldmind" Omnius turns out to be a pawn. The plotting is brilliant. In fact, I went on Amazon and ordered the prequel to this book by the same authors, "The Hunters of Dune."
I suppose I will take a drubbing for challenging the "established wisdom" that the book is wretched. That it is a waste. Why the seeming anger and hostility against this novel? I really am not in a position to psychoanalyze the angry Dune cultists. But . . . I think my "nose" smells good fiction when I see it. I read 500 pages of novel in two days, unable to go to sleep at night until knocking off another chapter.
You know that almost everyone who has reviewed this book hates it and pans it. Some of you know me. Who are you going to believe? Choose as you will --
Best to all--
Book Review: As Enraged as an Honored Matre
Summary: 1 Stars
Wow. This novel (along with Hunters) was simply awful, plagued by a childish writing style and uninteresting plot developments. I was very disappointed with this work.
Seaworms? Honestly? You mean to tell me that after thousands of years of experimentation in sandworm propagation, that a half-baked Tlielaxu was the first to think of such a thing? What was the point in doing this? the seaworm plotline was unnecessary for this tale, and does much to diminish the worm mythology.
The rest of the story reads like an unbearably protracted curtain call for all the most famous characters of the Dune universe. The re-introduction of many of these characters was pointless, and contributed little to the development of the story. Such extreme disappointment. I would have preferred a beautifully illustrated coffee table book, containing prints of Herbert's actual notes. Harumph. I would wager that they wouldn't have much in common with this novel as it was published.
Stop milking the cash cow, at let the beauty of the original Dune novels stand on their own. Fellow readers, avoid the temptation to buy this book just to satisfy your craving for a hint of melange. Instead, find an old, beat-up copy of God-Emperor somewhere, and reacquaint yourself with the real deal.
Book Review: Bad.....Yep, Bad.....
Summary: 1 Stars
First -- they stretched one book over two. Bad move -- makes for a drawn out slow read. Second, it's just not that good.
There are a lot of opinions comparing Brian and Kevin to Frank Herbert. It's not fair -- Frank owned this material and he nailed it. Brian and Kevin are tackling someone else's work and, while I have enjoyed their other work, it does show through.
I would love to see the 'notes' and 'outlines' that are credited as being the base for building this book. I enjoyed the prequels and like the tie-in back to that. Maybe Frank intended something similar, mabe he didn't -- it doesn't matter at this point. I'm glad they tackled it. Unfortunately, it devolved into silliness related to the characters they brought back, etc. Oh well .....
Book Review: Dune has become a sad addiction
Summary: 2 Stars
So, Dune could be my favorite sci-fi book and I'm a dedicated Dune reader. Which means that even though I have learned that anything written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson isn't going to be quite to par, I pick it up anyway. This hadn't been a real issue until recently. Well, this book was actually disappointing. It was just bad. Writing, story, characters- just bad. But the wrost part is I know they are going to put out another book and I'm going to read it too! Boys, its time to leave the series be- Let daddy Herbet have a little peace in the after life, seriously. And next time you two write something, for my sake don't try to slip it into the dune series.