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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I loved it, but it's not for everyone, March 14, 2004
A reader usually does not pick up the biography of an author unless seriously interested in that writer's work. I've bought and read most of Herbert's works, and have found them uniformly fascinating and mind-expanding. What interests me most about SF writers I admire is the intellectual content--the level of depth they put into their writing--and I'm always curious about where they get their information. Unfortunately, Brian Herbert did not deliver those particular goods.That said, I gave this book four stars because it moved me. This was a very interesting, smart man, and his works have greatly impacted my views and my writing. He presents his father from a truly unique perspective. Perhaps Hemingway's kids wrote about life with "the great man," but otherwise I haven't seen many sons-writing-about-their-fathers books. Maybe I was just affected by the father-son dynamic of the book. (Herbert had another brother, Bruce, who was apparently estranged from his father because he was homosexual). Perhaps, if viewed from that perspective, Brian Herbert's book deserves to be called a triumph. You can read it and respond to it even if you aren't a science fiction fan. This, then, is the story of the Herbert family, a group of itinerant travelers who centered its collective life around the father in order to ensure the success of his career-as seen through the eyes of the "number one son." There is also a remarkable love story here, that between Frank Herbert and Beverly Stuart, his wife. Fans can get some idea of this love between husband and wife by reading the postscript of Chapterhouse: Dune. The death of Beverly tugs at the heart, as does the death of the great man himself, when it comes. You can empathize with Brian Herbert and his struggles getting to know and love his brilliant, driven, and difficult-to-know father. There are flaws with the book, though. There are many places where passages repeat. I also found it odd how Herbert would alternate between calling Frank "Dad" or "Frank Herbert." Sort of like the discomfort one might feel hearing a friend address their parents by first name instead of "Mom" or "Dad." One gets the feeling that anything the author experienced personally was attributed to "Dad" while anything the author looked up was attributed to "Frank Herbert." And, of course, the author didn't deliver the goods when it came to some of the intellectual aspects of his father's work. Everyone asks an author, "Where do you get your ideas?" Brian Herbert answers a few of these questions with regard to Dune and other stories, but not enough. I suppose one would have to read a more "lit-crit" analysis of Frank Herbert's work to know where he acquired his unique, super-cerebral style or lofty political insights. Having read a couple of Brian Herbert's books, I'm afraid he doesn't know, either. The prequels he's written have not matched the father's work, much to my dismay. So, bottom-line, if you want a good father-son story that just happens to involve a famous author you might like, by all means, read this book. If you're looking for an intellectual analysis of this SF colossus, you will have to look elsewhere.
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