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Comment by Nursie | Hacker News Reader

> First of all any article referencing Brian Herbert as an authority on Dune is suspect as a result. Those atrocious fanfiction additions are best used as cat litter box liner, period.

Haha. It's nice to see this opinion written out. I read a few of the Herbert/Anderson books (I had a lot of time on my hands) and came to similar conclusions. I was most disappointed with the post-Chapter House stuff they did. It was allegedly based on extensive material left behind by Frank Herbert for the seventh book, but it very quickly tied in material and tropes from the prequels that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson had written, clearly being their creature and not the father's.

I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Anderson had been a consultant on the new film.

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I was pleasantly surprised by the new film, already looking forward to Part two. Even more so now that I know Anderson was a consultant. I made a conscious decision to not read anything from him, or Michael A. Stackpole for that matter, a long time ago.

I do have to read Frank Herbert's Dune series again so.

I am very much looking forward to part 2 also!

I think the drama around the pain box and a couple of other moments was not as good as it could have been, IMHO, but it does do a good job of telling the story (so far), and things are on such a huge scale... very worthwhile. I sincerely hope they manage to film the first three books, at least.

I liked the Gom Jabar Scene, the pain box part that is, a little bit better in David Lynch's adoption. Jessica's despair about this whole thing was done better by Villeneuve, if you ask me.

If they pull of at least one more book, or even two, this will be on par with LotR if not a tad better. If the team can keep the level, that is.

I did like the original Dune movie a lot, one of the most under-valued films.

as much as I love the series, to me everything post god-emperor was terrible.. it's actually a bit hard for me to blame Brian with that in mind

Honestly I think if people stop reading after 'Children' they're doing OK.

I don't think Heretics and Chapter-House are badly written, they just feel a bit lost and pointless.

Whereas to me the Brian Herbert/Anderson books are just not well written books.

I tell most people to try God Emperor and if they hate it, they might as well be done. In my experience it's a rare breed that enjoys Heretics and Chapterhouse. I'm part of that breed, but I have also read them through many times; and I can't say that I was part of that breed before I had read them through many times. It could also be a rare breed because I don't think most people make it through God Emperor.

Anderson wrote crappy Star Wars books, too. I'm really not sure what the breakdown is of Brian Herbert and Anderson actually doing the writing.

I gave the two of them two or three trilogies, so more than a fair shake. Painfully dull is the first adjective that comes to mind. They really took some of the most interesting places and concepts in sci-fi and made them flat.

Hunters and Sandworms were the least bad books by the pair, and there was certainly some hint of Heretics and Chapterhouse in them, but they were still not well written and the ideas lacked the substance of Frank Herbert's works.

'Heretics' was my favourite book the last time I reread the series, because it finally gave us a glimpse of a large and chaotic civilisation beyond the reach of the stultified empire. I agree that it took many rereadings to get there though.

God Emperor was on and off for me but by the end I was looking forward to a reread. It has some truly startling ideas and a solid marching plot.

Interesting. I adore God Emperor, but I feel as if it's lightest on plot of all six books. In any case, I love the plot device of Leto's Stolen Journals as a way for Leto/Frank to expound philosophically on themes of religion, government, and nature. That book is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stimulating observations.

As far as the Villeneuve films go, my sincerest wish is that we can somehow make it to a God Emperor film. I have no idea what this would look like, or if it would be any good, but I'll keep dreaming.

Now I’m halfway through Heretics and I believe the last 3 books would make an excellent dialogue-heavy anime. Very hard to see them as widely popular films.

I loved Heretics because it's like a breath of fresh air after God Emperor. Suddenly there's a lot of action again.

If I'm not mistaken, I read that they are apparently written by Anderson dictating them to a recorder while he walks around. Explains certain things.

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