Hunters of Dune (Sci Fi Essential Books)
by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
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Book Reviews of Hunters of Dune (Sci Fi Essential Books)
Book Review: I tried to like it
Summary: 2 Stars
I really did. I went into this novel with the most optimistic mindframe possible. Brian's work with the original Dune Prequels (the "House" ones) were really not that bad. I enjoyed them, to some extent, because at least he wasn't messing around too much with the Dune timeline we were familiar with. The "Butlerian Jihad" trilogy was... less impressive. It left a sour taste in my mouth. But nevertheless, I resolved to give "Hunters" a fair chance. I told myself: "I accept Frank Herbert's genius was not passed onto his son. I understand Brian will use a different literary style, with less emphasis on the complex interplay of politics, religion, and philosophy. He'll include a lot of meaningless action scenes and write at a lower level. It won't bother me".
It did bother me. A whole lot. Here why:
The * NO spoiler * parts that sucked
- He's writing for middle school kids. Seriously. The writing style is so simplistic it's insulting to an adult reader. He's basically telling us all we're morons who can't remember what happened 20 pages ago, let alone what happened in previous Dune novels. The result? TONS of unnecesary recap of previous storylines, both Frank's and Brian's. Conversations involving characters who both know the same thing, yet explain it to each other for 5 pages (i.e. the audience is dumb, let's break it down for them). And overuse of the same stupid words over and over. I swear, between his 2 prequel trilogies and "Hunters" he's used the word "esoteric" 156 times. Get a thesaurus!
- The characters are denser than blocks of wood. They're all so stupid it's insane. Remember the incredible intuitive leaps characters like Odrade would make? It almost annoyed me how easily she figured out all of Waff's secrets in "Heretics". She was a genius, easily deciphering the most complex problems with the just faintest hint. The same for Duncan and Teg: both intellectual giants in previous novels. Forget it now. These characters are so dumb they're lucky they don't forget how to breathe. How long does it take Duncan to figure out Teg can move at incredible speeds? 3/4 of the book? "Gee, Teg just disappeared and inexplicably the ship took off, with seemingly no one at the controls... oh wait, Teg is there somehow, even though I left for the bridge before him. And there's still that rumor about Teg moving at super speeds on Gammu... But how to decipher this puzzle? What does it mean? Oh well, guess I'll go mope about Murbella some more and be absolutely worthless". Gah. I almost want them to die.
- Brian just can't resist tooting his own horn by including stupid characters / places from his prequels in the new novel. There is no need for them. You don't need to reference your "additions" to the Dune universe every 2 pages. Just pretend it never happened, and move on.
- Why spend hundreds of pages developing characters when you are just going to kill them off in absolutely meaningless deaths? A major character getting swallowed by a sandworm serves what purpose? None. This isn't real life, it's fiction. If you're going to kill someone important, make it a death that somehow contributes to the plot. Sandworm digestion has lost its novelty by this point.
Now, a few * SPOILER * parts that sucked. STOP READING if you don't want to know the identity of the "SECRET enemy" (heavy on the sarcasm).
- Stupid gholas. Why so many? It's ridiculous. Let's bring back Dr. Yueh, I'm sure he has much more to contribute to the plot. Great idea. Why Brian, why? I can see Frank Herbert POSSIBLY bringing back Paul, or maybe just Gurney and Hawat. But Leto II? That seems a little much. Considering the enormous role he played in the Dune universe, it seems anticlimatic to bring him back again. Besides, Frank always seemed focused on moving humanity forward in an ever evolving metamorphosis. Even Duncan, who has ties to the past, is changed drastically in his various ghola incarnations. To bring all these original Dune characters back seems more like a cheap trick to get the audience involved again, like when a TV drama brings back a character from season 1 who was supposedly dead to get a boost in ratings.
- And, of course, robots. Damn robots. I kept praying throughout the novel "Please don't let the enemy be robots, please don't let the enemy be robots. Let it be super face dancers, or aliens, or gigantic intergalatic jelly fish, or cyborg dinosaurs in a no-death star. Anything but robots." Of course, it was robots, as anyone with a brain who read the prequels could've guessed. Of course, Omnius and the "independant robot" (god I hate that phrase) Eramus were actually Daniel and Marty. The revelation of Daniel as Omnius made me so furious I cursed Brian Herbert with eternal syphilous out loud. Perhaps Frank intended the enemy to be machines. Back in the 1980's, that wasn't such a cliche notion. But after being inundated with movie after movie (Terminator, Matrix, etc.) of the same theme, the last thing I want to read is another "man vs. machine" epic. So how does Brian decide to solve this problem when he first sees his father's secret notes? He goes and writes 3 ENTIRE BOOKS about men fighting machines, then decides to take those same machines and put them in Dune 7 & 8. Sweet. Can't wait to see what tricks the old independant robot and adorable Omnius have in store for us. Maybe Serena Butler (aka the Oracle of Time. Gimme a fricken break) will fly by on her magical wings of prescience and throw esoteric sandworms at Omnius, causing Eramus to slowly lower himself into a pool of magma while giving the "thumbs up" to an onlooking John Connor.
* END OF SPOILER *
There's plenty more to write about here, but I'm too angry / tired to go on. Suffice to say, many hardcore Dune fans will be even angier than me, and most mild fans should be reasonably upset. Will we all read book 8? Almost definetly. We need closure, no matter how terrible. Just be ready for more mindless fight scenes and moronic characters. Damn you Brian Herbert.
Book Review: A Double-Dose of "Less-Than-Expected"
Summary: 2 Stars
I have been a longtime fan of the Dune universe for over 15 years now. Frank Herbert's writing was best described by a reviewer as "heady stuff," itself an understatement. Anyone not possessing an IQ above 180 had better have carefully and slowly read his last three "Dune" novels in order to truly understand what was happening. Prior to reading "God Emperor of Dune" and beyond, I confess that I tended towards rapid-fire "eat-the-book-fast" type of reading. Frank Herbert later books cured this habit and turned reading into a comtemplative and relaxing exercise, instead of a flat-out sprint.
I use the above introduction as context for my review. Anyone not naive to the Dune universe expecting more of Frank's writing style and atmosphere is a fool. Brian Herbert is not his father, which is not unique, as I estimate that perhaps 1 in 10,000 authors could write with the depth and thought of Frank. The novels of the Prequel Trilogy, excepting perhaps the last book ("Battle for Corrin"), were fast-paced, enjoyable, and interesting stories within the Dune universe for die-hard fans to gnaw upon. At the same time, the prequels never really satisfied, showing limited vocabulary, cardboard characters, and laughable attempts to connect themselves to later "Dune" books. The books retained worth, however, in regards to sheer action, interesting events, and simply more "Dune-stuff" which is the cocaine of any true fan. To summarize, the prequels were a great-tasting chocolatety treat, quickly eaten and forgotten. Frank Herbert's magnum opus of the six books beginning with "Dune" was a grand three-day feast, complete with fanfare, entertainers, and a sense of satisfaction which lingers long after the last morsel is ingested.
"Hunter's of Dune" fails to even live up to the "space opera" style seen in the prequels. The book struggles to lift the heavy gauntlet cast by Herbert the elder when he finished "Chapterhouse: Dune" in the 1980's. Duncan Idaho, Miles Teg, the Jewish remnant population, the Face Dancer master Scytale, and many others drift through the cosmos in a gigantic no-ship after having had escaped the Honored Matres and a new, unknown foe. Meanwhile, Duncan's former companion Murbella remains in the Old Empire, struggling to truly unite the Bene Gesserit sisterhood with the wild, barbaric Honored Matre clans. The story of those on the no-ship is essentially a chase scene, with many close calls and frantic escapes. Murbella eventually goes to war with the remnants of the Honored Matres, with many attacks and reprisals occuring on both sides.
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson do have a talent in bringing to the fore truly unique and interesting plot devices...and then utterly failing to implement them in any way integral to the story.
*spoiler*
For example, in the Prequel Trilogy: the unexpected and ridiculous demise of Hecate, coupled with the death of the SwordMaster to whom the authors had divested 200+ pages of prose, AND the deaths of two other integral characters seemed like, at best, filler and at worst, an inability to integrate ideas into a flowing story. In "Hunter's of Dune", an imaginative author could have found a veritable fountain of stories from the idea of the just-vanquished Bene Gesserit Sister living again within her conqueror's brain. Instead, the next time Doria appears in a scene, she is killed off by a sand worm.
*end spoiler*
I don't have an issue with character death, per se, but let there be a reason, at least.
These two authors, unfortunately, also have great skill in concocting truly useless plot ideas
*spoiler*
An act of supreme idiocy is the concept of resurrecting nearly every protagonist and antagonist from previous books via ghola rebirth. The move smacks of desperation, and is an unsubtle attempt to milk this book for all of Frank Herbert's books' worth. The real unforgiveable sin committed by these authors is their absolute failure to believable write Paul Muad'dib, perhaps one of science fiction's most iconic characters. Guys! You did a nice job writing the erstwhile sadist, Erasmus, so we already know real characterization is within your skill set. Please! Stick to your own characters!
*end spoiler*
So, "Hunter's of Dune" has more of the same in regards to interesting ideas that go nowhere, characters that die in random ways, and action scene atop action scene. What makes it inferior to the prequels is a cosmic joke: the very reason the book is being written is the reason it fails as compelling pulp literature. The outline is Frank Herbert's story; the book, his son's craft. What we are seeing is the misgotten child of some freak synthesis of two diametrically opposed writing styles. You can't "fill in" a thoughtful and epic outline with dimestore romances and infantile dialogue. You just can't. This is why the prequels succeeded where this book fails; the prequels were what they were as the author's had a relatively free hand to design the earlier universe as they saw fit. With "Hunter's of Dune," we are shown that one should not play dice in Frank's universe.
For a true Dune purist: avoid at all costs.
For a Dune fan: read and take a shower afterwards.
For the Dune naive: avoid at all costs, but read the original series, and maybe the prequels.
I gave two stars rather than one simply because they tackled the job at all.
Book Review: It could have been so much more....NO Spoilers. A General Critique
Summary: 2 Stars
I wanted to love this book. For so many reasons I wanted to. Because I love Dune. Because I want so much to see what would happen after Chapterhouse. Maybe I can't embrace this book becuase it wasn't written for me but for an entire new generation of readers with a different set of expectations for how a Sci-FI book in general should be written. The mass audience might want to read something that doesn't make them work for their enjoyment and these new Dune books do have a very mass market audience. Its very sad and insulting to those of us that like to read something that challenges and changes us. Frank Herbert never wrote a book for a Mass Audience, he wrote the best books he could and funny enough, they still had mass appeal. In Frank Herbert's Dune, less was more. Great events were hinted at to trigger our imaginations and make those events larger then any description a writer could create. Dune was MY world becuase the writer gave it to me to play with in my own imagination. In FH's Dune, the Characters drove the plot. In Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson's Dune the Plot drives the Characters. What I point out are differnces of style and therefore are subject to a reader's personal preferences in how a story is told. I don't hold it against this book. Its not what makes me give it 2 stars. It could have been so much more. That's why. The structure of the story is sloppy. The Chapters are identical in construction and repeat the same pattern: A character is introduced in a setting. The character's inner thoughts comment on what came before to keep the plot in mind then something dramatic happens that does not advance the larger plot. Over and over again the characters fret about the same things but are given very little meaningful action to change the situation. Many great writers say that when they write a book, they have a plot planned out for their characters to follow but often times the characters will take the writer by suprise and leap off the page to write they're own story. Not so in this book. The characters beg to breathe and run free but are imprisoned by Mr Herbert and Mr Anderson's strictness. They do not suprise us (except when they do something stupid that we know they would never do in FH's Dune) or give us warm feelings or make us worried when they are in danger. We do not share their peril. They do not take the center stage as awe-inspiring evolved human beings making cosmic spanning choices as they once did. I remember in Chapterhouse and Herecitcs how every conversation was exciting to read becuase I felt like I was in the midst of perilous times with superior people, super human people with vast knowledge and that even they were on the brink of annihilation! Making the danger feel even more intense! Not so in this book. We are subject to the same events in each chapter over and over and over again ad nauseum. The book is a mass of chapters, all individual threads that never feel weaved into a tapesty. Nothing connects or builds to a satisfying climax. There is no dramatic tension. The battles described are boring. But for me worst of all is that what is supposed to be Frank Herbert's grand climax to the Dune saga has been altered from what he envisioned. How could I know that without looking at his un-released notes? Well anyone who has read Chapterhouse and Heretics can see where Mr Herbert and Anderson have tried (unsuccessfully) to smoothly make their changes to the outline to incorporate their own ideas. That wasn't part of the original deal Gentlemen. When you originally announced your intention to do Dune 7 it was to be an Acurate writing from the outline. I won't give away what changes i've noticed so as not to spoil the story but the first clue for those of you who don't mind knowing would be to read the last chapter of Chapterhouse with Daniel and Marty's conversation and compare it to the new books revelation about them at the very end. You'll see right away at that point how unfaithful this book is to the Outline. This more then anything else makes me so disappointed in this book that i've waited 9 years to read. I wish I could recommend it....the most even handed i can be is to say that If you started off reading Dune with the Legend of Dune and House series and loved it, then this book is for you but if you started off with Frank Herbert's Dune and came to the New books second then this one is gonna break your heart.Book Review: Burn This Book!
Summary: 1 Stars
I couldn't tell if I was reading a prequel, a sequel or a long summary of the Dune Universe. The authors, I don't know which one, either Brian or Kevin, kept referencing characters almost like we were expected to have read the prequel Dune novels. What if I didn't feel like reading those and decided to just start from after Chapterhouse: Dune instead? Wouldn't it be better to understand what the hell they were trying to write about? There were too many references to the prequel novels, especially the Butlerian Jihad. Hardly much references to Frank Herbert's actual 6 novels which were the most grounded of all. Every single chapter read like a collective summary, references within references within references within references. See, even I could write a Dune novel!
Based on an outline by Frank Herbert. Frank could have written just 1 or 2 lines in this outline of his. I cannot believe that it entails writing 6 Dune Prequel novels and another 2 sequels, that's complete, total and utter BS.
Character development was 1 dimensional, meaning it didn't even have depth in the 2nd or 3rd dimension. Abyssmal writing skills that needed to patronise the reader into explaining every line clearly, almost like we were kiddies reading a new storybook. Frank Herbert wrote his original Dune novels in a way that you needed to imagine events taking places, like the destruction of Dune. He never needed to explain in great detail what he was plotting or planning, almost like most of the stuff were happening in the shadows.
The overuse of titles like Mother Superior, Matre Superior, Proctor Superior, Mother Commander, all these worthless titles, in the entire family of bitches/witches. Just like in the prequel novels, where you had Primero, Bashar, Viscount etc. These were completely unnecessary, we already know who they were and their positions in the family, creating new titles just makes them completely superficial, and covering the fact that the writing skills were simply hideous to begin with!
Too many gholas! I don't EVER think that Frank Herbert would have brought back all those gholas of his previous novels. I can only imagine Frank spinning in his grave! This simply demonstrated to us that they were reaching the very end of the creative think-tank, and scrapping the bottom of the barrel, as the ideas were just becoming too reaching and ridiculous. For every Dune novel Frank wrote, he created new characters and introduced us to them by developing them to be important in that entire novel, see above reference to 1 dimensional characterisation.
I can foresee how Sandworms of Dune will end:
Omnius will be destroyed, probably melted to base-line materials in the Periodic Table, together with Erasmus, let's see, using (come on guess!) those new weapons called -- Obliterators!
The Thinking Machines, with the help of the Oracle of Time, get sent into the star-less universe that the Ithaca ended up after escaping from Chapterhouse.
The Thinking Machines and the humans find peace. (Most unlikely)
The Dune universe ends in a big bang that destroys everything.
A cliffhanger, that leaves even more open-ended questions for a fan-requested Dune 9, that's for the next generation of Dune fans to petition and request for.
Erasmus kills another innocent child and starts another machine-human jihad/war!
There are so many more things that are wrong with Hunters of Dune that I just got tired of pointing out. I might be wrong in jumping to unwanted conclusions above, we might probably see an inkling of what Frank intended his Dune finale to be in the final book Sandworms of Dune. However, we must all remember that we're on the God Emperor's Golden Path, even the most powerful prescient visions couldn't see the ending to this already twisted beyond recognition story - that's probably what they wanted!
Like I said, Frank will be spinning in his grave!
To anyone interested in how the Dune universe ends, read this novel, then burn it, and then wait for Sandworms of Dune with a flamethrower.
Book Review: A Worthy Sequel to Chapterhouse Dune
Summary: 5 Stars
Hunters of Dune is based upon an outline Frank Herbert wrote and his son Brian Herbert found in a locked chest within the late great author's attic 20 years after his death. Hunters of Dune picks up right where Chapterhouse Dune (Book 6 in the Dune series and Frank Herbert's last Dune novel - Books 7 through 12 are prequels to Dune) left off. If you may recall at the end of Chapterhouse Dune, Frank Herbert left us with an obliterated Arrakis by an unknown enemy and Duncan Idaho with Murbella narrowly escaping in a no (cloaked) ship just before Dune was hit with a "Xindi" like weapon which completely destroyed the planet.
The story focuses on Murbella (Duncan Idaho's wife) who is now the leader of the Benne Gesserit. Just like Chapterhouse Dune, this novel is about the women of Dune. After the Scattering, the women of Dune split into two rival factions who want eachother dead: Honored Matres and Benne Gesserit (witches vs. whores). Not only are they at war with eachother, there is an outside unknown enemy to deal with which has destroyed Dune and along with it all future spice production, leaving the Guild Navigators blind to fold space without spice, so there is no warp speed and commerce within the empirium comes to a halt.
The Benne Gesserit are particularly worried as the only way they know how to defeat an enemy is to study them and they know absolutley nothing about the unknown outside enemy that has obliterated Dune and destroyed the better part of the Honored Matres, giving them the upper-hand in their conflict. Murbella places huge weapons orders with the Richese, who are only to happy to respond as payment is made with hidden Benne Gesserit spice stock piles, arming them to the teeth. When the Honored Matres catch wind of what is going on, they unload on Richese and destroy the planet the same way Dune was destroyed. Murbella then unloads on the war-weary Honored Matres, who's ranks and ships have been decimated by the unknown outside enemy which neither side still knows nothing about.
All the while this is going on, the Benne Gesserit have in their hold Scytale, who is the last remaining survivor of his entire race, which were destroyed by the Benne Gesserit. Fearing extinction, Scytale trades his secrets to the Benne Gesserit in exchange for the facilities to make a young clone of himself. First, he shows the Benne Gesserit how to make synthetic spice with axlotl tanks, but only in limited quantities in exchange for letting him live. Then, when his health takes an unexpected down-turn, he reveals his greatest secret out of fear of extinction. Hidden inside his body within capsules are the last remaining scrapings/genetic material, sufficient enough to grow gholas/clones, of virtually every significant historical figure in the Dune universe, including Paul Attreides. The Benne Gesserit immediately grow babies of Barron Harkonen, Teg Bashar, Dr. Wellington Yueh, Paul Attreides and his concubine Chani, with more historical figures on the way, as their only hope of defeating this unknown outside enemy which has so far laid waste to Dune and the Honored Matres without revealing anything about themselves or taking any losses.
The no-ship that Duncan Idaho and Murbella escaped on right before Dune was obliterated, known as The Ithaca, is several miles long and is as big as a city. Within it are several captured baby sandworms in a Dune-like environment, who eventually produce spice. They know though that they can't set down on any world and stay for very long as they are at war with two enemies. The unknown enemy turns out to be none other than Omnious and Erasmus, copies of which were downloaded via probe to distant worlds 10,000 years ago before they were destoyed on Corrin. So with 100 Centuries of preparation and revenge on it's mind, Omnious and Erasmus set out to reconquer the Dune universe. [...]