# Dune: Books & Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686 "2011-10-14T23:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/41 "2011-10-15T21:52:12Z")
Has anybody ever met someone who likes the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson books? I figure someone must, since some of the books have been bestsellers. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/42 "2011-10-15T23:19:12Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > The Lynch movie is a glorious trainwreck. It completely fails as a story, but it’s packed with great visuals. I thought it was a decent enough adaptation. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/43 "2011-10-15T23:28:03Z")
I enjoyed whatever I’ve read in the Dune cycle, which is probably most but probably not all. However, my favorite of it all is anything concerning Duncan Idaho, and one of these days I’m going to just tape all his parts and histories into one book and call it good. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/44 "2011-10-15T23:38:28Z")
The first book is a masterpiece. Its world has a depth to it almost reminiscent of LOTR. After that the quality falls off rapidly. I actually thought _Dune Messiah_ was decent, but nothing special. _Children of Dune_ was readable, but not what I’d call good. _God Emperor_ was an almighty penance to get through. I did not continue further. Yes, Herbert wrote other stuff that is pretty good, but nothing of the type or of the quality of the original Dune. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/45 "2011-10-16T00:05:43Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Ahh, it always warms my heart the huge variance in rankings of the books 🙂 > > I’ve read the whole series at least 6 times through. Mini-comparisons… > > Dune: Classic landmark sci-fi novel, the most action-heavy of the series at the expense of politics and philosophy. > > Messiah: A follow-up collection of episodic magazine content collected as a novel, and reads like it. Otherwise, good political read but not much happens in the big picture. > > Children: A wonderful follow-up action-heavy continuation to Dune. Sets the stage for the leap from planet-focused to universe focus. > > God Emperor: Simply the best of the series, and one of the finest novels ever written. It has everything at Herbert’s peak writing…action, philosophy, politics, intrigue. This is the only book that I re-read separately outside of the series. > > Heretics: Smaller scope than God Emperor, but does a wonderful job of following up the previous four books and realizing how the events of the first book created the current circumstances. > > Chapterhouse: Likable, but strange in context of the others. It feels more space-opera and a bit of obligatory contract fulfillment, like Heinlein’s later works when compared to the peak. Still, the story and politics are important and well fleshed out. I’ve read the whole set about that many times (including rereading the 1-5 just prior to the release of #6 (I had a lot more time for reading in college!)) and I more or less agree. God Emperor is probably my second favorite after the original. Paul swept away the old order by playing the hero; Leto makes sure that the idea of order by force is thoroughly discredited by playing the villain. Chapterhouse was interesting because it was the only book in the series that had a cliffhanger ending - and then Herbert died. I have no interest in reading Brian Herbert’s prequels/sequels (if he had provided only the sequel to Chapterhouse from Frank’s notes, I would have read that, but the appearance of so many other books suggested that completing his father’s work wasn’t Brian’s goal). P.S. The original movie of “Dune” is great for MST3k-ing - there’s the moment when the Fremen leader says “A women who can fight like that is worth ten times her weight in … water” just as if he was thinking “water .. is that the line? Really?” Or my college roommate’s response to this line “We call it Shai’ hulud” - "because we’ve been taking too many “Qua- hu- ludes” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/46 "2011-10-16T01:16:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Weird trivia note for _Dune_. Herbert submitted his manuscript to a whole bunch of publishing companies and couldn’t find anyone who would accept it. > > Chilton Publishing Company is a specialty publisher. They publish automobile manuals. But the owner happened to be a science fiction fan. So somebody suggested Herbert submit _Dune_ to Chilton. He did and they published it. Chilton also published James Schmitz’s _The Witches of Karres_. As Herbert said in _Eye_: “I could make jokes about Chilton…saying ‘They’ll want to retitle it _How to Repair your ornothopter._’” The editor at Chilton who bought it was Sterling Lanier, who went on to write the science fiction novel _Hiero’s Journey_. (and, yes, it was published by Chilton first He’d had stories published elsewhere earlier, though.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/47 "2011-10-16T01:18:43Z")
Being worth ten times one’s weight in water has become an expression of high praise in my vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/48 "2011-10-16T01:20:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > As Herbert said in _Eye_: “I could make jokes about Chilton…saying ‘They’ll want to retitle it _How to Repair your ornothopter._’” > The editor at Chilton who bought it was Sterling Lanier, who went on to write the science fiction novel _Hiero’s Journey_. (and, yes, it was published by Chilton first He’d had stories published elsewhere earlier, though.) Lanier then wrote a sequel, Unforsaken Hiero. Then he died before could finish the series, leaving me with all kinds of questions!! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/49 "2011-10-16T01:55:31Z")
Just read _Dune_, Then read _The Dosadi Factor_, skip the rest, you will thank me. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/50 "2011-10-16T02:48:44Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > Has anybody ever met someone who likes the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson books? I figure someone must, since some of the books have been bestsellers. I’ve read quite a few of them. They are reasonable sci-fi, although nowhere near as good as the originals. They are not as bad as some people here are making them out to be, and I imagine if they’d not been called Dune, but had different names and similar stories, they would have still been successful, and nowhere near as hated as they are. That said, there’s been a few recently that I’m in no rush to read. I suspect a good many people quietly like them as a guilty pleasure, in the same way that many people actually enjoyed the Star Wars prequels, or Metallica’s recent albums. ---
**Author:** ![Chipacabra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Chipacabra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chipacabra)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/51 "2011-10-16T03:04:40Z")
I stand by my description of them as fanfiction. When Frank Herbert was writing his books, he was writing stories about social structures, clashing ideologies, the evolution of humanity, etc. The SF setting was to cast it all in a metaphorical light. Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, on the other hand, are just writing your basic scifi stories and setting them in the Dune universe. None of the themes are there and they’re not trying for anything allegorical. It’s just supposed to be an exciting story. Maybe it’s good fanfiction, but it’s still just fanfiction, and it doesn’t give us what Frank intended to follow Chapterhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/52 "2011-10-16T12:40:28Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Just read _Dune_, > > Then read _The Dosadi Factor_, skip the rest, you will thank me. I think you mean “The Dosadi Experiment” ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686/53 "2011-10-16T14:17:46Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I think you mean “The Dosadi Experiment” I did, thank you, I was going on memory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-books-movies/599686.md?page=2)