Paul of Dune

I will admit, when I read the premise for this book I was a little concerned. I didn't know how to take this look back into the Dune universe that I began reading well over twenty years ago. However, being an avid Dune fan, and after buying and reading all of Brian and Kevin's Dune novels, I purchased this one and dove right into it upon its arrival in my mailbox.

As I read, I was reminded of the feelings I had in first reading Frank Herbert's Dune saga as a kid, feelings which surfaced again a few years back when I began re-reading the 6-book series...those feelings were tied to the massive jump we experience going from Dune to Dune Messiah. In this work, Paul of Dune, I believe that Brian and Kevin have done a good job in explaining the transition from Dune to Dune Messiah. I just finished it tonight and was absolutely pleased with the tale.

I know that a lot of people are bent out of shape because of the new Dune novels that Brian and Kevin have written, but this is a not unexpected reaction. One thing to keep in mind is that NONE of these books would have been written without the Herbert Foundation's blessing. Further, Frank didn't just write six books and the outline for Dune 7. The man created a vast new universe and from all that I have read, he kept tons of notes. So what you are reading in the new novels is not whatever Brian and Kevin decided to pull out of thin air. For me, I was thrilled that I would finally get to read the final Dune novel nearly 20 years after being left hanging by Frank's tragic death. What Brian and Kevin are doing is wonderful, welcome to a Dune fan such as myself and is something I would do were I in their shoes.

In short, if you don't like the new books, don't buy them or read them and stick with the six original Frank Herbert Dune novels. Otherwise, I think that if you are a Dune fan, you will relish this look inside Paul's character. I think that Brian and Kevin have come very close in matching the style of Frank's writing and I applaud them for it.

Write on, gentlemen...please write on.

Excellent work.

Wordman

I just finished reading this last week and it is one of my favorites by these authors. I thought the insight into Paul and how his war across the universe effected him and those around him was very interesting. It is quickly paced and I was just sucked into this universe. I have been a big fan of Herbert and Anderson's Dune novels since their first, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert boldly carry on Frank Herbert's great legacy. Like the spice, these books flow! Give me More!

I wish I could agree with Brian's nephew's evaluation of this book quoted in the title. But I can't. So far as I can see, the writing is just as uninspired and the use of language every bit as inept as in their previous eight "Dune" books. (Every noun must be qualified by an adjective or some other modifier, for example.) The characters are two-dimensional at best and, even allowing for the difference in writers, simply do not seem to be the same people encountered in Dune or Dune Messiah. While it is true that there seems to be less restatement of events that occurred only a few "chapters" earlier, there are still too many reminders of Duniverse basics that anyone other than a first-time reader (or someone who has recently suffered severe head trauma and a resultant loss of memory?) should already know and remember. And the inclusion in the four "Emperor Muad'Dib" sections of elements and events just recounted in the three "Young Paul" ones invariably comes across as clumsy and forced. Particularly when none of them are ever mentioned in Dune or Dune Messiah.

Which of course brings me to the issue of inconsistencies: the book continues the now established tradition of introducing inconsistencies with the original six books by Frank Herbert (for example, according to Dune, Paul never left Caladan, his birthworld, before the Atreides moved to Arrakis, but nevertheless the "Young Paul" flashbacks have him journeying twice to Ecaz and once to Grumman) ... but this is no longer an issue, because we are informed in a tête-à-tête between Paul and Irulan that she is in fact the real author of Dune ... and probably of Messiah and Children as well. (No doubt in upcoming tomes we will discover that Harq al-Ada is the author of Leto of Dune and Gaus Andaud the historian/fictionalizer of the events of God Emperor, Heretics and Chapterhouse.) The message here is clear: everything we fans thought we knew about the stories "ain't necessarily so." The new Prophets of Dune continue their revelation of a new Gospel, which we must either accept or be cast out as "Talifans."

But that's just one masterful performance that takes place in this multi-ring circus. Other attractions include the provision of further support for the retcon corrections to two mistakes made in earlier books (even though both are now safely covered by the "Irulan Solution") and the creation of the foundation for a plot element introduced in Hunters and Sandworms.

Above all this, however, my biggest problem with the book is ... that it's just plain boring. This makes sense in a way, seeing how from my perspective it (and the three "Heroes" books slated to follow it) is completely unnecessary: the "gap" left by Frank Herbert between Dune and Dune Messiah was not an accident. While I would be very much interested in seeing any notes Frank Herbert may have left concerning the Fremen Jihad and that period of Duniverse history, I have practically no interest in pulp fictionalizations of his ideas (or worse, of the second-rate ideas of lesser writers) by lesser writers. (Other than reading them to criticize and complain, of course.)

Fans of the previous "New Dune" efforts, young adults and people who don't read much in the way of real books will probably be able to enjoy this one. Real Dune fans should pass, unless you're also the kind of person who ogles traffic accidents or just someone who wants to keep current with the latest bumps along the downhill road Dune is currently on.

Book Review submitted by: Stephen J. Hage, SteveH9697@aol.com

I read Frank Herbert's original Dune trilogy in the early 70's and became imprinted like a baby duck. To this day, I can tell you what a seitch looks and smells like, what it's like to roam the sands of Arrakis wearing a stillsuit, how majestic and frightening it is to encounter shai hulud (a sandworm) and what it feels like to experience the spice agony.

Herbert was a true genius and his magnificent story lives on. The Dune trilogy is still in print and still insanely popular. Fortunately for me and other Duneaholics Frank Herbert's son, along with Kevin J. Anderson has succeeded in continuing the Dune saga.

The historical sweep of the original series was breathtakingly enormous with a story arc almost too big to comprehend.

This book chronicles the life of Paul Atriedes, the central character of the original trilogy, after becoming Paul Muad Dib galactic emperor and focuses on what happened between Dune and Dune Messiah. It explains how he became the prophet he was in Dune Messiah.

It draws heavily on the historical path laid out by Frank Herbert in the original series and revisits characters well known to anyone familiar with the story like the Harkonens the Bene Geserit CHOAM, and the hated Tlielaxu.

If you haven't experienced Dune, this book might be a good starting point. If you read it, chances are, like me, you'll become hopelessly hooked and, if that happens, I promise you won't be sorry.

For bonafide Dunaholics, I know, I'm preaching to the choir. No one should deprive themselves of the joy of Dune.