Individual post from "Nothing In It"

This post is titled:

Dune Breakdown

Those of you who actually know me know that I am a gret big geek about many things, and those of you who know me well have probably had to endure my being a geek about Dune. I don't want to go into it right here and right now, but I have an awfully long list of reasons why Dune is a fantastic book that everybody should read and enjoy. I just can't tell you how many times I've read it, I've seen the movies, etcetera.

At a Science Fiction conference last year, I attended a discussion panel titled, "How did that ever get to be a classic?" It was basically a forum for complaining about books that are commonly viewed as classics and disputing that status. Somebody said something like, "Most people agree that Dune is a classic, but everybody disagrees how many of the rest of the books of the series are classics." I couldn't agree more, but that's not today's quote.

Today's quote is from the Wikipedia entry for Kwizatz Haderach.

In Sandworms of Dune (written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson), Duncan Idaho is revealed to be the final Kwisatz Haderach destined to bring together humans and thinking machines. While he is not a product of a breeding program, his multiple rebirths and deaths as a ghola throughout the series gave him the opportunity to gain experience and develop himself as no other human could. After the Oracle of Time banishes Omnius to an alternate dimension, Erasmus shares all his knowledge with him, making him the new evermind of the Synchronized Empire as well as the Kwisatz Haderach of the humans.

Yikes! This paragraph should tell you everything you need to know about how utterly bankrupt the Herbert/Anderson books really are. I tried reading the prequel books; they have some interesting stuff in them, but they sincerely lack the depth of Frank Herbert's work. Even if you love the original stories and want some of the background details Herbert and Anderson have created, you'll be disappointed by their lack of overarching concept.

So where do I stand on the original series? I think the first book is utter genius, the second and third serve as bridges, and the fourth is the culmination of everything Herbert was working to show. The last time I read it, I decided that the fifth book is actually a fascinating epilogue. I have my doubts that Frank Herbert actually wrote the sixth book. Its style and lack of overall point make it seem much more like Kevin Anderson's writing than Frank Herbert's.

2007.10.24 at 12:00am EDT

[Visit my web site] [Subscribe via RSS]