Customer Reviews

Paul of Dune

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I give up. I've been slugging through these new Dune books due to my love of the original Dune universe, and that possibly I might be a masochist. Enough is enough though, there is only so much that a person can take. With the rest of the prequels I took all the various inconsistencies, downright contradictions, and simplistic writing thanks to the "joy" of reading something new on Dune. Enough is enough.

I will not give out any spoilers, but what these writers did to justify their various contradictions of Frank Herbert's original books is completely horrifying and outrageous. In the back of my mind as I read that final chapter I was no longer visualizing the Dune universe, I was visualizing the two writers congratulating themselves on their own cleverness at "solving" the neat problem on how to change whatever else they want to change about the universe Frank Herbert created. And to do so calling it the "real" story enabling them to write many more books along the way as well. In my minds eye I saw them slapping each other on the back and that is the vision I held of this book.

As for the actual writing style of the book, it is adequate. I would not complain if it were a stand alone space adventure yarn, set in its own universe and characters. As for a Dune book, like the rest of the prequels everything is flat and two dimensional. The characters of Dune are a far cry from the complex creatures that the father created, they are cardboard characters that can only express a single emotion and whose complexities never delve much deeper than the complexity of putting together a sandwich. I was incredibly surprised (and a little relieved), that some of the characters did not just spontaneously break out into a maniacal laugh to show how evil they were. I was incredibly surprised Shaddam had the brain matter to remember how to breathe.

I would like to write more about the flat plot and characters of the story, how they altered Paul's history, but that would take an entire essay and probably welcome a deletion by Amazon. Needless to say "Paul of Dune" left a taste in my mouth reminiscent of ashes (not that I know what ash tastes like but I am pretty sure that this was close). Their literal dismissal of Frank Herbert's work was outrageous and to me the straw that broke the camel's back. If you're a Dune fan you won't pass this book up because like me you'll read it on the sheer basis it is a Dune book. Otherwise..

'Paul of Dune' takes place just a year after Muad'Dib's forces seize control. The jihad is in full force and Muad'Dib has created many enemies. Muad'Dib's inner struggle of accepting the number of lives lost is chronicled in detail. Most of the plot centers around Count Fenring who schemes to overthrow Muad'Dib. Princess Irulan whose inner struggle with accepting the life as Muad'Dib's wife is detailed.

Paul laments that people view him as a monster bc the jihad has cost so many lives. However, in his view the jihad is necessary for the betterment of mankind. In fact rather than attempt to stem the violence, Paul encourages it. Allows no dissension and gives direct orders to annihilate whole worlds killing billions. This is where the authors are WRONG.

One of the primary lessons of Dune was to show the pitfalls of a Messiah or a religion built on a charismatic leader. Frank Herbert discuss this objective of Dune in the preamble of Heretics of Dune.

The jihad that was unleashed after Muad'Dib ascended to power was not something that Paul wanted or that he considered good for humankind. Instead he lived with the hope that he could control the jihad, that he could somehow stem the tide of the jihad and curb the violence.

Frank Herbert never intended for the jihad to be considered a good thing. Just the opposite. Frank would never have portrayed Paul as an unsympathetic figure.

Besides the obvious contradictions with Dune, what makes the story frustrating is the slow, plodding pace of events. Page after page is devoted to trivial matters such as the building of the giant Citadel. Then there is the transition to the chapters of the youth of Paul.

Who cares about the youth of Paul? Dune begins when Paul is 15 for a reason. Because, his life before than is of little importance. If anything, the life of the Fremen before Muad'Dib would have been far more interesting. Muad'Dib was only a tool Herbert used to tell the story of Dune. So Paul's life before Dune is of little interest. Instead the focus should have been on the Fremen.

So we are left with a book with a bunch of filler material, that doesn't go anywhere, that leaves an avid Dune reader very confused, and without any new revelations about the Dune universe.

I find it ludicrous that my previous review on this abomination was deleted, despite the fact that I gave out several good points as to why this book was a bad one. Yet, there's all these shill five-star reviews for this book that make it clear that they didn't actually read the book. For shame.

If you're a person who hasn't read this book and are reading this review, then please know that many one-star reviews for this book were deleted, to up the overall rating of this book and that many shill, vague five-star reviews were added to increase the overall rating as well. If you want to see what this book is really like, then read any review below a four-star rating.

Sigh. Where do we start? The cardboard characters? The plot inconsistencies? The contradictions with Frank Herbert's books?

Again, another unnecessary addition to the Dune series. If Brian and Kevin had put all their effort into writing Dune 7 than piddling around with two prequel trilogies, then we MIGHT have a worthy read.

But no. They just couldn't stop at Dune 7 and move on to go back to writing their own original series. No. Dune is their cash cow, and they're going to milk it, by gum!

Here, we see an wholly unnecessary novel. 'Dune Messiah' was about the consequences of Paul's Jihad. That was what Frank Herbert was concentrating on. He wanted to show us the consequences of Paul's vision, and not waste time with explaining about all of the battles on various planets and what not. And we were happy with that, because Frank Herbert wrote about what was relevant, and though sometimes it's fun to see how things happened or what happened to make things the way they were in the future, in the Dune series this was not missed because Herbert had a greater message to share with us. (which was completely ignored in Hunters/Sandworms of Dune, BTW)

Here we are presented with a book that spends a good amount of time in the past in Paul's childhood - entirely unnecessary as the House trilogy was - and all you can do is bang your head in frustration. The Harkonnen/Fenrig offspring that was hinted at in the canon Dune books was supposed to be just that - a tempting little rumor that made us think. Here, it's ridiculous. The Fremen are also very out of character, and the editing mistakes in this book are downright laughable. Contradictions are abound - in this book, Paul has been offplanet several times before the family move to Arrakis, yet in the original Dune novels, Frank Herbert makes it clear that Paul has never been offplanet, and Arrakis was his first trip away from home. This is but one of many mistakes and contradictions that plague this... this... "book".

Many things are told, not shown. Frank Herbert was wonderful at putting in details here and there that add up to the greater picture, without wasting time on useless fluff and filler. But here in Paul of Dune, so much time is wasted on so many things, and the characters of Dune are not quite the same here in Paul of Dune, and there were far too many Brian/Kevin-created characters for my liking.

The classic Dune was like a lovingly prepared homecooked meal by Mom, who clearly cared about what we were eating and put all her effort into making the meal as best as it could, and boy, do we ever remember these meals with love and fondness! The books by Brian and Kevin are like greasy fast food - easily snarfed down when there's nothing else to eat, hunger momentarily sated, and then stomach cramps and other rather unpleasant effects later on. They even admit themselves that they're making Dune more "accessible" to the reading crowd. Meaning, dumbed-down.

Near the end of this book, another disturbing "fact" is revealed to us - that Herbert Sr's works are no longer canon, and are rather an inaccurate history (because Irulan wrote so many books), which is Brian and Kevin's way of saying to us 'We'll retcon whatever we want out of Dune, and you will LIKE IT!'

To do this to someone else's work takes unmitigated gall, but after two poorly-written trilogies and a horribly disappointing Dune 7, should we be THAT surprised?

If you MUST read this book out of curiosity (or out of masochistic urges), then go to the library. Don't waste a single penny.

The six books by Frank Herbert, along with the Dune Encyclopedia, are canon, and nothing but. Brian and Kevin's books are poorly written fanfiction at best, and an utter and complete abomination at worst.

Repeat after me, my fellow Dune fans. This is the litany against the False Dune books.

I must not fear the false Dune books.
The false Dune books is the mind-killer.
The false Dune books is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face the false Dune books.
I will permit it to pass over me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the false Dune books has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

(Originally, the fifth line was 'permit it to pass over me and through me', but I do not want the false Dune books to pass through me, no way!)

Repeat that Litany, my fellow Dune fans, and do not fear. There are only six (or seven, including the Encyclopedia) Dune books. No more, no less. The books written by Brian and Kevin are nothing but a blasphemy, and I await with bated breath (in disgust) for Jessica of Dune.

A shameful attempt to cash in on a legendary IP. The lack of quality combined with the disrespect to the core material is unconscionable. Revolting.

... so I don't actually need to pay for this stuff.

"Paul of Dune" is the latest chapter in the continuing "Dune" saga, as Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert continue to cash in on Brian's father's masterpiece, er, I mean, continue his father's vision.

As I read the original "Dune," I wondered what Paul Atriedes was like as a young boy. Well, now we get a little peek at the youngster. In separate departures from the story, we get flashbacks of a young Paul first following his father to Ecaz, as Duke Leto enters into a marriage alliance with its ruling house, which, of course, becomes part of a greater tragedy. Then you later see Paul on the battlefield of Grumman where he endures a stampede of horses and watch a giant seabed collapse.

In the present tense, Paul's jihad consumes world after world, and he begins to doubt if sending out hoards of fanatics to slaughter entire planets is a good thing or not.

Maybe I'm disappointed because I'm reading the original "Dune" right now. It's here I discover the glaring contradictions to what Frank himself wrote. Read "Dune" and you'll glean these impressions:

1. Duke Leto always loved Jessica, and no other woman. The first prequel trilogy changed that, and so does "Paul."
2. Paul, while well-trained, never experienced any real danger before leaving for Arrakis. Now, Paul fights on the battlefield.
3. Paul never left Caladan before leaving for Arrakis. Opps, that was a lie by Princess Irulan.
4. And Princess Irulan is now a sophisicated political machinist. Before, she was a mere writer, who had to contend herself with books about Paul instead of actually being his real wife.

Yes, I've read the entire Dune saga, and will read "Winds of Dune" when it comes out. But as I've said before, "Dune" ended with Frank's eulogy to Bev. Brian and Kevin can keep writing whatever they want, but this saga has become a mockery and a cheat imitation. It's no longer a flattery.

This review was previously deleted by Amazon.com for unknown reasons. I've gotten used to this, so here it is again for your benefit.

Paul of Dune

Perhaps the authors should have titled this Dune: Days of our lives or perhaps Dune: 90210, as the prose is no better than that found in a third-rate soap opera. Whereas the elder Herbert didn't try to describe every last thing, but was still able to inform the reader of what was going on through vivid allusions and subtle nuance, Bri and Kev take a bland clinical approach towards writing all the new Dune stories.

All characterizations fall flat in Paul of Dune. While reading this story, I find that the Paul depicted in this story is not the same one as the Paul which toppled the Padishah Emperor and discovered his "terrible purpose." What is particularly irking is how Paul of Dune short circuits the original intent of Dune. Dune was in many ways a coming-of-age story for Paul Atreides. It is implicit in Frank's storytelling that Paul, although exquisitely honed in statecraft/combat/politics/Bene Geserit ways, was just a green boy with little real-world experience before the betrayal of the Atreides by the Harkonnnens and the Emperor. POD sabotages this narrative by having Paul participate in a war against the Moritani before the events of the original Dune. Bri and Kev do not enhance the characterization of Paul with these incessant tack-ons.

Frank Herbert conveyed a distinct Fremen culture through his original Dune series. Fremen culture FELT like a real foreign culture. The characterization of Stilgar by the senior Herbert was genius. Unfortunately, Bri-bri and crew have Stilgar talking like Dylan from Beverly Hills 90210.

I rate Paul of Dune at 0 stars.

There is a massive difference between father amd son. The plot was nonexistant, the only thing it accomplished was to impart useless background information.

It wouldn't have taken much of a brain to point out that Paul of Dune was a bad idea before the first sentence was even written. It's hard to imagine how the novel could work really. You know what happened in Dune obviously and then I would assume you have also read Dune Messiah. Therefore there really isn't much to tell. Yes there are some years from the end of Dune and the start of Messiah but the narrative didn't need the specifics of those stories. There is no major conflict that could be established and we all know how the major characters make out so there really isn't much surprise.

Paul of Dune, unlike the predecessor Winds of Dune, at least attempts to work. It does try and focus on Shaddam, Fenring, Halleck, and many of the other secondary characters in the story. This could have been done better though. In my opinion the only way the novel could really have worked is if it had really focused on them most of the time. Instead BH and KJA chose to focus on Paul (obviously) and this was a loser to me. BH and KJA's Paul is nowhere near the quality of Frank Herbert's and at times he appears to me to have regressed from his previous form. Also the flashback aspect of the book was really pointless in that it was just glorified filler and not a compelling motivator for the plot.

Honestly Herbert and Anderson could have generated a very compelling story working with more secondary characters and more new ones. Instead they chose to drum up a past story with Pauls dad and then re-create it as a "new conspiracy." This seems to be a theme with Brian and Kevin. Whereas Frank could develop and create massive conspiracies and very thought provoking narrative, Brian seems to create the most silly and benign plots. They certainly are very verbose over some very simple things. The plots against Paul are rarely that interesting and beyond this there is little about the actual "Jihad" etc...

A few chapters are dedicated to the actual wars going on around the universe but it is mostly ignored. I also found myself completely tuning out to the narrative at time. It was a boring read with just droned on and on. I was also amazed at how many times the authors could use the word "ostentatious." It seemed to be at least a couple times a chapter.

Paul of Dune had a slim chance to succeed, even with it's very limited premise, and unfortunately the authors really missed. The narrative has some elements of intrigue but mostly the story is flat and boring. The characters are bland caricatures of Frank Herbert's original creations and I honestly could not wait for the book to be over. Whats even worse is that the following novel, Winds of Dune is even worse.

I am amazed that the tandems publisher even allowed these novels to pass from conception. They are flawed completely. Personally the only one that I believe could seriously succeed would be the third one in between Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune. This is where Frank Herbert made his first large jump of time and many such characters like Irulan, Jessica, Gurney, and many others just completely disappear mostly from the last two novels. I think this is the best opportunity for the two to write a truly compelling novel and add to Franks masterpiece series. Unfortunately they seemed to feel that a trilogy was neccessary to maximize income.

I would recommend that if you are looking into this series that you skip Paul of Dune and even Winds of Dune and just go straight to the third one when it comes out next year. Go find yourself a synopsis online and get the talking points just so you are prepared for any other story devices that ay be exclusive to BH and KJA. But to be perfectly honest you will not miss much by missing these novels.

I give Paul of Dune 2 stars because I found at least some of it to be interesting for a spell, especially in the beginning and middle parts of the book. I really lost interest by the end though. Winds of Dune is a flat out 1 star bomb to me.

This is an indifferent attempt to cash in on the franchise. I am not a "professional" reviewer, so I'll keep it short. What a disappointment. Sure, I understand these guys are supposedly working from Herberts notes. But geez, how about some polish, here? A little effort to make it flow? To me this is little more than a collection of disjointed first person observations strung together in an attempt to make a book. And it reads exactly like they were working off someone elses notes. Take an idea. Wrap X number of words around it - presto, a chapter. Next idea. Wrap X amount of words around it - another chapter! Next idea. Wrap X amount of words around it...... and so on until the publisher is satisfied there's enough there to sell. My recommendation: Don't buy it.

Trying to keep this franchise going is getting very thin.
There is little story here. Hang it up as a great run...and start writing something else.