Whoever did the actual writing was so awful he was almost gifted: I picked up the first one, and on the first page read the line “You nervous coward!”. Anyone who can make a three word sentence simultaneously a tautology and an oxymoron truly stands alone among writers.
I don’t see how William Dietz keeps getting publishing contracts unless he’s sold his soul to the devil. I tried reading DeathDay. Total rubbish.
Brain Herbert has had one of his books re-issued recently - a humorous, or at least lightweight, sf novel called Sidney’s Comet. First published in 1990.
I did enjoy one of Anderson’s early books, Ill Wind - about an oil-eating microbe that escapes from a lab and destroys civilisation! It’s out of print now, or I might read it again… I don’t recall reading more than a page or two of any of his other books.
And I see that the two of them have a new Dune book coming in late summer - Paul of Dune. I had hoped the series had finally ended with Sandworms of Dune. Not that I’ve read more than a few pages of any of their collaborations…
I’ve been waiting for Dune 7 for years and years (being one of those rare nutters who loved Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune as much as the original), and was so excited when “Hunters of Dune” came out. That was, until I read it.
It was awful! The characters and dialogue are shallow at best, and cartoonish at worse. Cheap action-adventure space opera with pretensions of grandeur. It’s like it was written by someone who’d only read a summary of the Dune novels and not the content, let alone taken notice of the style. Duncan, Murbella and Sheeana were th same characters in name only. And all the ridiculous nonsense with the gholas was annoying and seemed somehow so disrespectful to both the original Dune novel and the volumes since then, which had moved the story on so very far from those characters.
I managed to make it to the end of the novel, and for some reason - the desire to have the saga completed, I guess - I was determined to read the second volume, Sandworms of Dune, but I tried several times to buy it, and each time I’d pick it up in the store and read the back, I’d have to put it down again in frustration. The whole thing looked like silly, hollow schlock.
(A while after, I read a synopsis of the final volume and am so glad I never wasterd my money. I know it’s unfair to judge a novel on a synopsis, but it sounded preposterous. Not to mention so far removed from anything I could have imagined Frank Herbert having done with the Dune saga.)
I’ve still got a sour taste in my mouth about the whole thing. I love those 6 original Dune novels!
I think one of the thing that bothers me the most about the books of his I’ve read is the ridiculous behaviour of his characters. I’m willing to suspend disbelief when reading sci-fi in the field of characterisation, but they still need to behave in ways that are consistent and understandable (even if their behaviour is random/crazy, you have to make it clear why it’s random and crazy). The other main sticking point I have is the dialogue - it’s something a 14 year old would write.
As much as I love the Dune series nothing short of a hefty financial inducement would make me pick up the “sequels” that Anderson and Herbert Jr have written/shat out.
I’ve only read his Star Wars crap, but the most annoying thing to me was his need to one-up everything from Star Wars.
Death Star blows up planets? Well, the Sun Crusher blows up stars!
Boba Fett? I have (some lameass generic bounty hunter guy)!
The funniest part, to me, was when Han Solo is in the Sun Crusher (did I mention that the Sun Crusher is, literally, indestructible?), and he’s being chased by four Star Destroyers. They grab him with a tractor beam and start pulling him in, so he reverses course and flies through the Star Destroyer’s bridge, sending it spinning out of control. So what’s he do now that there’s three Star Destroyers chasing him?
Why, he runs away of course!
-Joe
Now that y’all are reminding me about the Star Wars books he did, I have to agree that it is cringe-worthy.
The EU is essentially published fanfiction, really, and the common fanfic tropes pop up everywhere in the worse ones.
Hey, is this meant to disparage the quality of books chosen by people in the “Whatcha reading” threads?
No…it’s an acknowledgement that sometimes people on the “Whatcha readin’” threads will note that a particular book from a popular author is lousy. And it happens fairly often, especially for prolific authors.
Okay, I misread you. Sorry! (Am I defensive about the crap I read? No, not at all.)