Attention Dune Fans

[Foxbat]

The final part of the second prequel trilogy (Battle of Corrin) is published shortly. After that, messrs B. Herebert and Anderson will start work on the two final novels in the Dune series (working titles: Hunters of Dune & Sandworms of Dune).
These two final works continue from the cliffhanger ending of Chapterhouse Dune.

I know quite a few folk were disappointed by the prequels but I thought they weren't too bad (could have been better tho').

Still the main thing is that - finally- we might get some answers to the questions posed at the end of Chapterhouse. All I can say, therefore, is Dune fans.......REJOICE!!

[Rane Longfox]

Well, personally I've been dissapointed by the prequels, though if they answer a couple of those questions it'll be better

[knivesout]

*Sublimely disinterested. *

[Foxbat]

Well, personally I've been dissapointed by the prequels

It's not so much the prequels I meant but the fact that, now they are done, we can hopefully see a conclusion to the whole story

[Princess Ivy]

I've never understood why good authors desecrate their own works by pandering to public demand for 'more' stories. Classics, like the original dune, were written to stand alone, and should have been left that way!

[Morning Star]

I don't think Frank Herbert really has that much say in the matter. Being dead and all.

[Foxbat]

I don't think Frank Herbert really has that much say in the matter. Being dead and all.

More than you may imagine. Chapter House ended on a cliffhanger and, after his death, a copy was found which was filled with detailed notes on the follow up volumes and how the story would finally be resolved. This is what many fans have been waiting for.

If I were a famous author and was offered a great deal of money, I'd quite happily 'desecrate' my work by adding a few new stories - such is the way of things - Man cannot live by typeface alone.

[knivesout]

Look at it how you will, Frank Herbert was a writer who used the conventions of space opera to write stories that taught the genre to think. The pre/sequels have reverted back to mere space adventure fluff. Maybe if it was the man himself alive and selling out the whole exercise would have been a bit less dismal in its execution - Asimov's later Foundation books still have their mind-kicks. I've read the first two of the prequels and they were dismally lacking in any of that.

[I, Brian]

"mind-kicks"

Is that your own term, or did you pick it up from somewhere? I really see some longevity in that phrase.

[knivesout]

Possibly my own. I've seen the phrase 'eye-kicks' used in film reviews, so I just modified it.


knivesout, Zen master of neologisms

[Foxbat]

Look at it how you will, Frank Herbert was a writer who used the conventions of space opera to write stories that taught the genre to think. The pre/sequels have reverted back to mere space adventure fluff. Maybe if it was the man himself alive and selling out the whole exercise would have been a bit less dismal in its execution

Admittedly the prequels were fairly mundane - but the reason I started this thread was not to draw attention to them but to the fact that, now the final part of the prequels is due for publication any day now, work was commencing on the final parts of Herbert's visionbased on his own notes. Despite his death, perhaps we might catch a glimpse of his final thoughts on Dune through the workings of his son and partner.

I lack the prescience of Paul Atreides and, therefore, hold back any criticisms of the forthcoming books until they are actually written.

[knivesout]

Fair enough, and the exercise of actually taking the Dune saga forward, based on Herbert snr's own notes seems like an intriguing one, in theory. Still, the prequels have left me rather grumpy on the whole subject!

[I, Brian]

Actually, I could neverget past "Dune" as a standalone. It always seemed to myself that the work was written to be a sole masterpiece, but that commercial pressures made Frank Herbert extend the series. Heck, Dune Messiah, so far as I can tell, isn't even written in the sme narrative style and brings into being constructs that seemed misplaced beside Dune. I've tried touching the sequels but was always somehow repulsed from them. I just have difficulty seeing them properly connecting with the first great "Dune".

[Rane Longfox]

going back on what I said before, I read the back of book blurb on The Butlarian Jihad in the bookshop yesterday, and its main claim was that you'd learn so much about the origins of so and so, and it struck me that actually all the best series leave quite a few questions about the origins of quite a few of the threads... so, urm... yeah.

[knivesout]

Yes. There is such a thing as too much information. A good part of the storyteller's art is in knowing what not to say. The thing is, franchises (which is what Dune is now) thrive on show-all harlotry.