* Genre: Space Opera
* ISBN: 0765312948
* ISBN-13: 9780765312945
* Format: Hardcover, 512pp
* Publisher: TOR
* Pub. Date: September 2008
* Series: Heroes of Dune Series, #1
* Dune/Brian Herbert Website
* Kevin J. Anderson Website
* Watch six videos of the authors discussing the Dune universe and Paul of Dune in depth.
The Dune sequel/prequels by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert have garnered a lot of mixed reactions. Some readers have thought that Anderson and Herbert have destroyed the legacy of Brian Herbert’s father, Frank, the creator of Dune and writer of the first six books in the Dune universe. Other readers have thought them fine works, completely in keeping with Frank Herbert’s original story. But the vast majority of readers (of which I am now one) think that while Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert’s Dune Collaborations are a worthy successor to the original novels, they are not the most worthy successor.
With the recent publication of Paul of Dune this debate is likely to flair up to an even greater degree than before. You see, whereas before Brian Herbert and Anderson has limited themselves to writing only prequels and sequels to the original six novels, Paul of Dune goes farther and tries to fill in the gaps in time left by Frank Herbert in his original series.
Paul of Dune begins where the first novel Dune left off. Paul Atreides/Muad’Dib has conquered Dune and now controls the spice, the one thing that mankind must have to travel the stars. He has not yet reached Messiah status, but he is moving that way. Meanwhile, he is consolidating his power as Emperor of the Known Universe, and conquering all planets that resist him. Through this primary plot line, the character Paul moves slowly towards the second book by the original author Dune Messiah.
But in a secondary plot line that moves along simultaneously with the primary one (the book is divided into sections that move back and forth between the two plots) we learn a bit about young Paul Atreides as he is caught up in a War of Assassins between his father Duke Leto and the mad scion of House Moritani.
As the two plots move one around the other, we learn a bit about the man that Paul was, and what he has become out of necessity, the man his prescience vision of the destruction of mankind has made him. The juxtaposition of the two characters/one man creates a nice interplay that also allows Anderson and Brian Herbert to connect Dune and Dune Messiah without overly adding to or making nonsensical the two original novels.
The problems for the novel come not from any new events that don’t jive with the original stories, or even a sacrifice of the characterization of Frank Herbert. Rather, although Brian Herbert and Anderson are very good at telling an adventure filled political space opera that is fast and entertaining, they lack the ability the Frank Herbert has to give the reader a sense of mystery and mysticism.
Frank Herbert’s original novels engendered a true sense of wonder, both at his writing skill and his ability to create such a complex, convoluted world. Frank Herbert’s instinctual knowledge of history, culture, politics and religion and their subtle interplay, is treated much more heavy-handedly in Paul of Dune. Whereas Frank Herbert was decidedly a descriptive author, simply letting events speak for themselves, his son and Anderson tend more towards being prescriptive, telling the reader what events mean. Their style of writing is not didactic, but many readers prefer to self-interpret when they read, rather than being told, especially fans of the original books. That may be the best way to explain why some fans take great umbrage with the works of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, as compared to Frank Herbert’s.
But Paul of Dune is not a bad novel. In fact, it is quite entertaining. Anderson and Brian Herbert draw you in with exciting political intrigue, and surprising plot twists. Ultimately, I think readers should approach this work as a worthy successor to Frank Herbert’s legacy. Admittedly, it is not the same, and there are some authors who probably could more closely align themselves with Frank Herbert’s vision, but Paul of Dune is not a “bad” book. It is quite a good one, in fact. Its characters are compelling, its plot exciting and never lacking in interesting events, and the primary protagonist is not static. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are good writers and they write good science fiction. I can say without caveat that Paul of Dune is an excellent read and well worth your time.
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Thanks for this review. I’ve got this book at the top of my TBR pile – I’ve really been looking forward to diving in.
It’s been MANY years since I read any of the Dune books … I wonder if that will influence my perception of this particular one.
Most likely. It had been a while for me as well – and the distance probably made it easier to enjoy it on its own rather than comparing it overmuch to the originals.
Sorry, but there are plenty of points that don’t “jibe” with the originals, but who cares about details, right?
Kevin and Brian are terrible writers, and this is a VERY BAD book.
Sandchigger – You can’t make a statement like that without explaining yourself or giving reason why. Where does it fail to jive? I think there probably are failures to jive, but that wasn’t the argument I was making. I wanted to point our that the primary problems of the story come from different writing styles. Just because different authors writing the same universe have trouble making facts always jive does not make them bad authors.
Anyway – please explain yourself Sandchigger. Don’t just make statements like that with no support (and I did check your blog, which makes no support for you opinion either. It’s just a lot of anger with no substance.)
Even Edelman – whom you link to, has no problem with the books, even though he acknoeldges – as I tried to – that the are not nearly as well written as the originals.
i really enjoyed this review of yours John
Paul of Dune is a bad book and not worthy of being in the same sentence with DUNE.Why you ask?
Well lets start with the simplist fact you can possibly see. Book One, Page One, Epigraph One, of Dune, original, by Frank Herbert. It states clearly the fact that Paul was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen years there. BH/KJA in the first 100 pages of POD reiterate that he was born on Kaitain, which is a creation of theirs from the book HOUSE ATREIDES… which leads us further in to the folly that is Paul of DUNE.
This book spends little to no time actually working the storyline of the Jihad. It just pan’s on about it, only acutally having half a handful of passages about it. Since most if not all the “chapters” are only a few pages each it does little to enforce the transition of Paul. He only goes out once with his fremen (incognito for some silly reason) to “observe”, which is nonsense he would lead from the front.
The remainder of the book is basically his childhood from House Atreides. Back fill on their story arcs which have nothing to do with DUNE or DUNE MESSIAH. The War of Assasins, the complete nonsense with the Fennrings and this daughter, the emperor and his exile, the Swordmaster Bludd and his doings, its just junk.
The thing that really makes this book bad is the sadistic nature they have of killing off all the characters in the books they right.
If your going to write a book about Paul, the fremen jihad, and the initial building of the new
government, you should write about that, not all the backfill stuff to self justify your own story arcs. It does nothing but confuse the readers.
I challenge you, read Dune, pod, then Messiah, it will speak for itself.
Paul’s change had everything to do with the Jihad and his prescient vision of where it leads. He see’s the Path that Leto II eventually takes and doesnt feel he can go down that road. It haunts him and eventually drives him from the very thing he worked so hard to breakdown and rebuild. Dune Messiah explains his transition, its just very suttle and classic Frank Herbert.
A book about the Jihad, the forming of Pauls Empire, and Pauls beginings of the wayard spiral down could have been decent. Paul Of Dune is not that book.
The simple fact though is if Frank Herbert thought it was necessary he would have done it, but hey guess what, HE DIDNT.
I will give them one credit for POD, as much as it pains me, they completely abandoned the need to constantly repeat the previous chapters information to the reader like they did in HOD/SOD.
The style of this book is disconnected and hollow, inherintly off the mark, and just poor writing.
Roger Mihalko
(I tried responding here a few days after my original comment, but kept getting an error message. ???)
Nonsense, John, it’s opinion, like most of your “review” here; one can say what one will.
Inconsistencies (failure to jibe with previous works) are the sign of a lazy, unprofessional writer. Since I’m not at all convinced that Brian Herbert writes anything besides his name on the checks, let’s just talk about Kevin. His attitude, stated in posts and comments on his MySpace blog (unless he has deleted them), is that a writer can’t be expected to get details (like the eye color of a character, for example) right over the different volumes of a series. As someone else (user name Ampoliros) has observed, Kevin’s approach to writing can best be understood as emphasizing the needs of the current scene above all else. So he writes in what he needs NOW, regardless of whether it contradicts the details of some previous passage, in the same or an earlier book. You may enjoy that sort of sloppy writing, but I do not.
My evaluation of both Kevin and Brian as bad writers is based on having read all of their so-called Dune books thus far and having either read or skimmed through much of one or two of their other books. (Brian’s first Timeweb book is a real treat. Have you looked at it? And Kevin’s Seven Suns…now THERE’S a treasure.) They don’t write good science fiction…they don’t write SCIENCE fiction at all. It’s more of a bad techno fantasy. And the (overwrought) language grates (incessantly). (Wouldn’t you love to know what thesaurus Kevin uses, to get all those adjectives?) And I won’t belabor the repetition issue here.
The fact that they write differently from Frank Herbert is not an issue. (I read and enjoy a wide range of other authors with very different styles.) My problem is that I find their style so poor it’s laughable. I think they are bad authors. You evidently don’t. And so it goes.
My problem with Kevin J. Anderson’s writing is its just not as cerebral as Frank Herbert’s. I loved Frank’s use of inner monologue and dialogue that resembled an ancient Greek philosopher’s use of characters to argue a philosophical point. Heck, “God Emperor of Dune” was almost entirely composed of Leto II having conversations about religion, government, and the human condition with Moneo and Duncan Idaho. We just don’t get this in Kevin’s books.
There’s a difference between a “writer” and an “artist”. Brian and Kevin are “writers” who have that uncanny ability to sit down for eight hours a day and churn out millions of words. Frank Herbert was an “artist” who just happened to write. Quantity versus quality. I find the B and K’s books entertaining in a “pop” sort of way way but they don’t grab me viscerally, emotionally or intellectually. Frank’s books hit all the notes. The good aspect of B and K’s books are, that as a Dune fan I get to linger longer in the Duniverse that Frank created despite the warts.
The problem, Joe, is that what you’re reading about in the new McDune books ISN’T the Duniverse created by Frank Herbert.
Everything the Sand Chigger writes is because of a personal hate of Kevin Anderson and should not be taken seriously at all. Kevin stole his high school GF and he will always hate Kevin and write bad reviews on any book Kevin writes