Greatest Trilogy Ever!, 26 Feb 2004

This trilogy deals with all the questions you wanted to ask Frank in Dune. I loved the new angle from which Anderson and B.Herbert took the story, in a much more gripping and really does make you like the characters and want to get through it.

This book begins very smoothly not rushing the reader into anything too foreign, but gradually absorbs the reader into the story.

Since, some the story is told about already, I won't go into the details of it. But this trilogy DOES offer something very new for fans of the original series. It is written in a new and fresh way, which makes them all thoroughly enjoyable with varied characters that you can actually care about by the end. It is a very good story as well, which makes this book and the entire trilogy a must read for any Dune fan.

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The new Dune universe lacks atmosphere, 14 Jan 2003

Naturally, I always wondered about the events, characters and motivations which led up to Dune, and the universe sometimes only hinted at or briefly described as the backcloth to the story of Paul and his family. When Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson finally published the first in the Prelude to Dune series I was keen to enter this intriguing universe once more.

Having read House Atreides, House Harkonnen, and started House Corrino, I can safely say that I would have greatly appreciated these books back in 1974. They are certainly more suited to a 13yr-old than the books that came before them. My apologies to Brian and Kevin, but these new prequels are a pale shadow of the master's work. Yes, they are quite exciting on occasion and, yes, they fill in a whole realm of gaps which Frank Herbert's legion of fans must have wondered about. Yet they seem shallow by comparison. Much like candy-floss, the stories lack substance and depth, leaving the reader somewhat dissatisfied, even though the yarns are enjoyable. I might also add that some of the edge is taken off the stories because we know what happens to the principal players. This detracts from most attempts at suspense.

Incidentally, I can't help but wonder how much of this is Frank Herbert's unpublished material, and how much only based on his (rough) notes. I am also fairly convinced that in House Atreides there are discrepancies between what the original series tells us about Duncan Idaho's early years and the newly-narrated events.

However, thanks to Frank Herbert's work, I am drawn to find out more about the universe he created, despite the relatively disappointing nature of this new series. No doubt I will purchase the Butlerian Jihad when it is available in standard paperback format. For those who have wondered about what went before Dune and can bear a version of events not told by Frank himself; and for those who are fresh to the characters and worlds he created, I recommend these books; just don't expect brilliance. They serve as a good appetiser before the Frank Herbert main course, but a poor dessert.

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