In my opinion: Yes!

Here's the advice I give to people about the entire Dune series:

Read Dune. If you don't like it, stop.

Read Dune Messiah. If you don't like it, stop.

Read Children of Dune. If you liked Messiah you'll probably like this as well.

Read God Emperor of Dune. This one stands alone. Lots of people hate it. Whether you like it or not, don't stop.

Read Heretics of Dune. If you don't like it, stop.

Read Chapterhouse: Dune. Weep that it's over.

In my experience, people who like Dune generally will enjoy at least through Children of Dune. Anyone who enjoys God Emperor of Dune is insane (maybe why it might be my favorite).

Regarding the other Dune books, read them out of curiosity if you like, but they're not really Dune books despite being in that universe. I've read about seven of them out of optimism and hope but didn't enjoy them at all. Even Sandworms of Dune which is ostensibly based on Frank Herbert's notes for Dune 7 wasn't enjoyable to me, although it was least bad.

> Read God Emperor of Dune. This one stands alone. Lots of people hate it. Whether you like it or not, don't stop.

Here is the plot of God Emperor of Dune: <SPOILER> sits on their butt all day and discusses politics. Oh, there's a sort of assassination plot happening on the side, but let's not let that distract us from hearing political ruminations!

As for (some of) the Dune books whose position in canon is of some dispute:

... I can't recall anything that happened in Dune 7. Surprisingly forgettable. Then again, I don't remember a lot of Heretics or Chapterhouse in the first place.

The pre-prequels are set during the events of the Butlerian Jihad and suffer horribly from the sin of feeling the need to explain the genesis of every single important piece of lore in the series. Be amazed as every important event in the universe happened within a hundred years of each other, no matter how unrelated they are to one another.

I mean if you take a reductive tack like that then you can say the plot of Moby Dick is just that a certain sea captain chases a whale around and some poor simp is along for the ride.

The plot isn't the sum of these works, it is the scaffolding provided so that the author can explore various themes and theses.

God Emperor of Dune is my 2nd favourite of the series after Dune - I regret reading the novels after that though.

Yes, with the additional advice to try to get through the first 100 pages of Dune before judging -- it took me that long to really get into the story. Also I think Dune and Messiah were originally meant to be one book, and for whatever reason they ended up being two books.

Otherwise I thought the entire series worth reading, Messiah and God Emperor included.

> it took me that long to really get into the story

Was there anything in particular that turned you off? I do remember putting off reading it for several years because it simply didn't sound that interesting and the feudal aspects sounded more like fantasy than sci fi. I'm genuinely surprised by that comment though because I thought there was more than enough intrigue and mystery introduced early on, I was hooked almost instantly.

More like nothing in particular grabbed me. Personal taste I suppose. Also I was fairly young when I first read it (very early teen?). I may feel differently about it now, though it’s been years since I’ve reread it so I don’t really know.

> In my experience, people who like Dune generally will enjoy at least through Children of Dune.

When I was very young and first found the Dune books, I liked Dune, but failed to finish Dune Messiah, let alone the rest. A few years later I re-read Dune, plus Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I needed some maturing I suppose.

I stopped after that at the time because my parents only had the first 3 books, the book's front matter listed exactly those 3 books, and there was no internet yet to tell me there were 6 books instead of 3.

> Anyone who enjoys God Emperor of Dune is insane (maybe why it might be my favorite).

Some more years later I was browsing the sci-fi section of a bookstore and to my surprise found 3 more Dune books. Read them all, enjoyed them all, even God Emperor of Dune.

I read one or maybe two of the prequels; enough to decide that continuing reading the _other_ Dune books was not a good idea.

I played Dune 2 first (in ~1993), then saw Lynch's Dune, then played Dune 2000, and then saw the Dune miniseries and Children of Dune (which, in a fan move, I posted on Usenet and got me my first and only DMCA warning from the MPAA :^). 10 years or so later, I bought the book Dune, and a few years later I finally read it. It is a legendary book indeed, but I wish I read the book first.

If you can, please read the book first before seeing/doing anything else in the universe. Don't let your imagination be spoiled!

(I'm not very interested in reading the sequels. Children of Dune was a terrible movie, IMO.)

Which makes me wonder what I missed with regards to J.R. Tolkien and George R. Martin.

> Which makes me wonder what I missed with regards to J.R. Tolkien and George R. Martin.

A second "R", for one.

Dune Messiah is meh, but Children of Dune are great. I really liked all the books (original, not the abominations that were written after Frank Herbert died) besides the Messiah, not sure why.

I'm in an odd camp - I only ever liked the first book and found I really disliked all the rest. I read the first four and got half way through Heretics before finally stopping, so I did give it a decent try IMO.

I have since reread the first book a fair few times (most recently via the excellent Audible audiobook production) but never had any desire to try the subsequent novels again.

I enjoyed Sandworms.

At some point, I was so sucked into the Dune universe that any continuation would have intrigued me.

I liked Sandworms also. I get that it doesn't stack up to the first 4, but to be me, neither did Heretics or Chapterhouse.

God Emperor would be my favourite, with Children of Dune following after

Am I the only one who finds 1-3 to be utterly boring and 4-6 to be absolutely brilliant? (4 is my favourite.)

I love all 6 books in different ways. Heretics was my favourite though

Closing out my 8th read-through of the original 6. Just finished Heretics yesterday. I first read it when it came out in the 80s. It's still awesome.

Word of warning, the entire series of books should be considered the six books written by Frank Herbert, not any of the poor worse-than-fan-fiction by Brian Herbert + Kevin J Anderson.

I read a few of those and it's just like reading later Sherlock Holmes pastiche. They both capture the setting and the mechanics and completely exorcise the spirit. It's almost sad to read things like that. It's the wish that the author had written still more in mortal conflict with the fact that he didn't.

The 4th book in the series is the one that either makes you hate Dune or love it. Up until that point it could pass for some interesting sci-fi fantasy, but after that point, either you'll put down the book in boredom or find yourself utterly mindblown.

I highly recommend it.

If you're referring only to the Frank Herbert books, then having read them through twice let me offer a resounding YES. They stay really solid throughout, arguably the weakest chapter of the whole series is the second, "Dune Messiah."

You can skip everything by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson.

After reading entire original series (Dune through Chapterhouse), I eventually read Butlerian Jihad, Hunters of Dune, and Sandworms of Dune. Taken together I felt they provided sufficient context and closure for questions posed in the original series. And notably, although they are written by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, the last two in particular are based on notes of Frank Herbert’s for a seventh book, discovered in a safety-deposit box[1].

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20070703213605/http://www.digita...

Another vote for God Emperor. For me, it was a bit overwhelming on first read, but I love that I can keep going back to it. The ones I reread the most (and probably consider the most mind-expanding) are Dune, God Emperor, Heretics, and Chapterhouse.

Let me also throw in a recommendation to check out his other books/series, if you enjoy his style of writing (personally he's my favorite). He's remarkably good at that "powerful mental images in very few words" quality that e.g. the first Dune book in particular absolutely nails (partly because it's the first, so everything is new).

I was mind blown by Dune

I enjoyed Messiah

But I just couldn't go through Children. I had to put it down. Felt like an average TV series.

I hated Children. God Emoeror on the other hand is great.

I’ve never been able to finish Heretics, though. I just get too bored.

Definitely! As thrilling as the first novel is, when I think of the Dune universe it's content from the sequels that first springs to mind. Great balance of speculative fiction, philosophy, character development and action.

Personally speaking? I don't think so. I liked the first one but the rest felt like a cashing-in attempt. But that seems to be the case with everything these days.

My business partner read it three time, the entire collection. I guess it is a good clue