Paul of Dune (Legends of Dune) [Paperback]

Paul of Dune... where to start? At the beginning.

This book has a strong start. I enjoyed revisiting Dune after too long, getting re-acquainted with favourite characters and seeing first hand the battles of the Jihad that I had secretly wished to see in Dune Messiah. I can't fault the writing style in this first section, and any inconsistencies with FH's original master works are pretty minimal. I've read other reviews that have picked on them, but, although they were a little distracting, I didn't really take issue with them.

However it was not to last - near the end of the first section there is a big spiel about Irulan's role. I love Dune - it was THE formative book that I read all those years ago, and Dune is Science Fiction - a genre that uniquely relies on consistency. So imagine my thoughts when the authors of this book, plainly breaking the fourth wall through Irulan's character, declare FH's original masterpiece nul and void. They effectively de-canonise it and re-class the defining work of the series alongside the Dune Encyclopedia as an in-universe document with all the inherent flaws that go along with that.

Needless to say I never saw it this way.

This conveniently allows the authors to ignore what was previously laid down by FH and trample the original subtleties of Dune into the ground. And to make matters worse the writing style takes a nose dive.

Of course the writing style is "different" and I don't have a problem with the fact that the authors did not attempt to copy FH's style. Fair enough - some of my favourite books are not by FH... but to remind the reader that (for example) Alia is a Reverend Mother and not a child repeatedly again and again and again in a short chapter cannot be considered a positive stylistic quirk. Unfortunately this needless repetition is rife throughout the remainder of the book. It continually feels like the majority of this book has slipped through the editorial net. Given enough time and effort this story could have been passable, but the barely developed concepts simply don't add up. To make matters worse it is deathly predictable - you don't need Paul's decidedly rubbish prescience to work out EXACTLY where the latest throwaway plotline is headed.

Ultimately this book ineptly adds nothing to the Dune saga. It is true that FH hinted at things he did not write about, but while Paul of Dune may superficially "fill in the gaps" it does little more than to re-hash what FH has already told us with added stock scenery and cardboard characters who die as quickly as they are introduced.

I read this book because I believed, and I still believe, that there is a place for a good Jihad story. Unfortunately this is not it. The authors take one of the most pivotal moments in Dune history, where millennia old structures fall and a new order bloodily carves out a powerbase in an changed empire - and turn it into something utterly bland and un-interesting. Given that this is so close to FH's original setting there are some cool and interesting moments when I was swept up by the Dune universe once more - and for that reason I won't angrily try and give this ZERO stars... It definitely gets ONE star - firmly and fairly. The fact is that Paul of Dune owes EVERYTHING of any worth to Dune and Dune Messiah, and they contain pretty much everything in this volume and more, so much more.

[*----] 1/5

This book is poor - not recommended. (Read some real DUNE instead!)

I promised myself that I would never read another Herbert/Anderson 'addendum' to the original Dune series after the disaster that was The Butlerian Jihad. However, due to forgetting to send in my negative desire for this book to the SF book club, it showed up on my doorstep, and obsessive reader that I am, I eventually cracked the covers of this book.

Surprisingly, it's not an unmitigated disaster, but rather a book that fills some holes between Dune and Dune Messiah, and almost managed to convince me that this extra material 'fit' with the original. However, there are some strong inconsistencies with the original, most notably in the portrayed actions and feelings of certain Fremen Maud'Dib worshipers, a rewriting of history to allow Paul to be offworld prior to the events of the original Dune, and a fleshing out of some the characters of the originals, most notably Irulan, that doesn't truly match Frank Herbert's portrayal.

While still having the short chapter/quick switch between scenes and characters that are now the hallmark of the Herbert/Anderson writing style, for this particular book such treatment actually works, as the plot threads are sufficiently many and convoluted enough to allow for such treatment. And the portrayals of the various characters weren't so obviously wrong as to cause me to throw this book away in disgust. However, this is very faint praise, merely an acknowledgement that the original characters of Frank Herbert were very powerful, real people, and as this book follows these original people, with only a few new persons thrown in, some of that power still permeates this book. This book also manages to avoid any ridiculously obvious scientific boners, mainly by not making any scientific statements of importance, but this is certainly preferable to the nonsense that has filled some of the other volumes.

However, the conclusion of this volume is an extreme letdown and is very poorly thought out, as it hinges on Paul and all of his close advisors willfully ignoring an obvious threat. But perhaps this is not surprising, as another threat earlier in the book is also completely ignored until it is sprung with deadly consequences, even though Paul has a prescient dream with clear significance - darn it, I caught the reference, even though it's been about five years since I last re-read the original Dune, and certainly someone who lived through that particular incident would see the relevance much more easily.

Better than some of the other works about Dune this pair has written, but that's not saying a great deal.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

To anyone familiar with the original DUNE universe, Frank Herbert's vision was so rich and majestic that as a reader I did not want the story to end. Well, at this point I very much wished it had.

PAUL OF DUNE had everything going for it: an interesting timeline, a detailed setting and unresolved cliffhangers. Yet it manages to fail.
This book picks up the action just after the first book (and movie) of the series (DUNE) and before the second (DUNE MESSIAH), a very interesting period of 12 years for which, so far, we only had hints and suggestive glimpses of. At the same time, a number of flashbacks flesh-out the details of the life of an adolescent Paul Atreides.
Wheels within wheels? No. Rather more like a lone, rusty wind-wheel turning in the soft breeze of decadent Kaitain. Let the good times roll...

According to Dorothy Parker, there are books "not to be tossed aside lightly, [but] thrown with great force". This is one of these books. My study coffee-table now has the indentation to prove it.

I received this book over a month ago. I tried to read it numerous times but was so discouraged that I kept giving up. The first 100 pages can be summarized in just one phrase: "Paul is devastated by the ongoing Jihad but it is inevitable as the lesser of many evils, according to his prescience". Paul says it. Irulan makes notes about it. Alia has inner voices echoing it. OK, we get it, please move on!
Which prescience, one must note, apparently is a very fickle commodity as we keep hearing of it but never actually seeing it action.

What has became of Paul, the leader of men and conqueror of worlds? THAT little man is the...Kwizats Haderach? THAT is what the Bene Gesserits were selectively mating people for, for thousands of years? THAT is what the Tleilaxu were trying to duplicate? Well, someone must tell both the witches and genetic abominations that they are not missing much!
To keep the new emperor human is one thing; to make him dull and cruel, spineless and indecisive is quite another.

This is a book of science fiction so, yes, suspending one's disbelief is a requirement from page one. Nevertheless, a basic logical scaffolding is required for the whole world not to collapse. Taking over entire planets with only a handful of unruly Fremen and some Sardakaur fresh from switching their allegiance? Paul having delegated almost every important decision to...Korba and his Qizarete priests? Where has the unstoppable momentum of Paul gone? If he had lost steam so soon, there is just no way that his vision would materialize by others.
And just how did Fremen become so bloodthirsty and lost all sense of honor in a few weeks?

The young Paul stories fair a bit better but are cursed with the readers'...prescience of the Dune future: every new storyline must serpentine and eat its own tail before the end. After all, the Golden Path future has been set by Frank. And Writing is not a hereditary ability.

It feels like a bad batch of semuta to be sold anyway only, once more, to take advantage of the hardened addicts.