Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans

Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by Nursie on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @11:21PM (#29645570)

Honestly I think if people stop reading after 'Children' they're doing OK.

I don't think Heretics and Chapter-House are badly written, they just feel a bit lost and pointless.

Whereas to me the Brian Herbert/Anderson books are just not well written books.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by cgriswald on Tuesday December 21, 2021 @11:41PM (#29645667)

I tell most people to try God Emperor and if they hate it, they might as well be done. In my experience it's a rare breed that enjoys Heretics and Chapterhouse. I'm part of that breed, but I have also read them through many times; and I can't say that I was part of that breed before I had read them through many times. It could also be a rare breed because I don't think most people make it through God Emperor.

Anderson wrote crappy Star Wars books, too. I'm really not sure what the breakdown is of Brian Herbert and Anderson actually doing the writing.

I gave the two of them two or three trilogies, so more than a fair shake. Painfully dull is the first adjective that comes to mind. They really took some of the most interesting places and concepts in sci-fi and made them flat.

Hunters and Sandworms were the least bad books by the pair, and there was certainly some hint of Heretics and Chapterhouse in them, but they were still not well written and the ideas lacked the substance of Frank Herbert's works.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by zem on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:24AM (#29647923)

'Heretics' was my favourite book the last time I reread the series, because it finally gave us a glimpse of a large and chaotic civilisation beyond the reach of the stultified empire. I agree that it took many rereadings to get there though.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by epberry on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @12:16AM (#29645835)

God Emperor was on and off for me but by the end I was looking forward to a reread. It has some truly startling ideas and a solid marching plot.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by Slow_Hand on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @12:40AM (#29645952)

Interesting. I adore God Emperor, but I feel as if it's lightest on plot of all six books. In any case, I love the plot device of Leto's Stolen Journals as a way for Leto/Frank to expound philosophically on themes of religion, government, and nature. That book is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stimulating observations.

As far as the Villeneuve films go, my sincerest wish is that we can somehow make it to a God Emperor film. I have no idea what this would look like, or if it would be any good, but I'll keep dreaming.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by epberry on Sunday January 02, 2022 @11:45AM (#29770260)

Now I’m halfway through Heretics and I believe the last 3 books would make an excellent dialogue-heavy anime. Very hard to see them as widely popular films.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by Scarblac on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:39AM (#29648008)

I loved Heretics because it's like a breath of fresh air after God Emperor. Suddenly there's a lot of action again.

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Re:Before ‘Dune,’ Frank Herbert learned from native Americans by mhh__ on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @12:34AM (#29645919)

If I'm not mistaken, I read that they are apparently written by Anderson dictating them to a recorder while he walks around. Explains certain things.

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