The Prehistory of Dune
Mar. 22nd, 2006 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliogrammaI admit it.
I loved Frank Herbert's Dune. And the sequels, although I don't think he ever wrote another Dune book like the first one. I still wonder what it is, out there beyond the Known Universe, that has the Honoured Matres so effin' spooked.
So of course I was a perfect audience for the prequels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. In fact, I've read them all.
The Butlerian Jihad
The Machine Crusade
The Battle of Corrin
House Corrino
House Harkonnen
House Atreides
Not as novels, though. Because they really aren't. At least, not particularly well-written ones. So why did I read every word, full of blatant telling rather than showing, and relatively flat characterisation, as they were?
Because I just had to know where the worldbuilding started, what Frank Herbert had sketched out as the backstory to this fascinating universe, even if it was told more in the manner of a 10th Grade history text than a novel about living people who produced the settings and legends and societies and rivalries of Dune.
And as 10th Grade history texts, they are worth reading. If you burn to know what happened before Shaddam IV sent Duke Leto and his court off to Arrakis, then read.
And now, of course, comes the word that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have finished writing the last volumes of Frank Herbert's planned series - now tentatively titles Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. They are in the editing process, and the books are due out in 2007 and 2008. They worked from Frank Herbert's notes.
I will, of course, read them once they are published. I have to know, you understand. It's just... will I be able to enjoy the reading of them as much as I will enjoy knowing the end of the story?
I loved Frank Herbert's Dune. And the sequels, although I don't think he ever wrote another Dune book like the first one. I still wonder what it is, out there beyond the Known Universe, that has the Honoured Matres so effin' spooked.
So of course I was a perfect audience for the prequels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. In fact, I've read them all.
The Butlerian Jihad
The Machine Crusade
The Battle of Corrin
House Corrino
House Harkonnen
House Atreides
Not as novels, though. Because they really aren't. At least, not particularly well-written ones. So why did I read every word, full of blatant telling rather than showing, and relatively flat characterisation, as they were?
Because I just had to know where the worldbuilding started, what Frank Herbert had sketched out as the backstory to this fascinating universe, even if it was told more in the manner of a 10th Grade history text than a novel about living people who produced the settings and legends and societies and rivalries of Dune.
And as 10th Grade history texts, they are worth reading. If you burn to know what happened before Shaddam IV sent Duke Leto and his court off to Arrakis, then read.
And now, of course, comes the word that Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have finished writing the last volumes of Frank Herbert's planned series - now tentatively titles Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. They are in the editing process, and the books are due out in 2007 and 2008. They worked from Frank Herbert's notes.
I will, of course, read them once they are published. I have to know, you understand. It's just... will I be able to enjoy the reading of them as much as I will enjoy knowing the end of the story?