Hunters of Dune

Brings a lot of Dune lore together. Doesn't have ""feel" of the original but does a good job at it.

I think Brian and his co writer have done a marvelous job of keeping the style and spirit of Frank’s writing. Not exactly the same but there is nothing to distract from the reading experience. Brian said himself that he wasn’t trying to copy his father’s style but there are enough similar elements to please fans. I am almost finished Hunter’s and can’t wait to read Sandworms.

I've read all the dune books, originals and prequels, and though this is definitely not my favorite, I enjoyed it, and I feel that it is a worthy contribution to the Dune universe.The writers really lack subtlety, often restating things or making an allusion and then explaining in detail how the allusion relates to the characters and plot. Where Frank Herbert would give you shades of meaning in a grammatically simple but overall complex way, these writers sometimes baby you. That said, the babying only was an issue a few times, so don't be discouraged from reading it.I devoured the book in two days, ignoring my research paper and math homework (I'm in college). Ouch. Anyway, the plot was very interesting, there were no lulls in the book, I cared about the characters, there are clues (subtle ones, too!) as to who the Enemy is throughout the book, and I can't wait (!!!!) for the next one to come out.Overall, I would say it is a skilled build-up for the conclusion to the original Dune series. I read somewhere online that these books are more like the Hollywood book adaptation of what Frank Herbert would have written, and I agree. If you read it expecting a Dune book and not a Frank Herbert book, then you'll be fine, and you'll probably like it for the good plot and familiar characters.

This is an amazing continuation of Frank Herbert’s vision. I had put off starting it, because I was concerned it might not live up to the original series, but I was not discouraged. The book imaginatively expands on the universe Herbert created, and it moves at a good pace. I’m hooked and look forward to reading on.

Two or three stars. Two and a half I guess. On its own, separate from the Dune Saga, it might be a three-star book. Compared to the other books in its series however, it is decidedly a two-star book. Which is funny, actually, because the very fact that it is a Dune book makes me want to push it up to three stars just because it is the continuation of something I deeply love. Bah.Anyhow. My "history", so to speak, with Brian Herbert, is as long and storied as any other long-time Dune fan's. He is a creeping shadow; the slayer of the Dune Encyclopedia; the seizer of rights; the "finder of the notes"; the retcon rascal... There is plenty to criticize here—or at the very least raise your eyebrows at—but I suppose this isn't the place to do so; at least when it comes to the things that exist outside the text. At the end of the day, it's Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson who steer this ship now. And because the idea of more Dune has always had an undeniable appeal to me—and even more so because I have a slew of friends who have recently, lovingly, joined me in the fandom of this universe—I felt that it was finally time that I give Brian a chance. I made the attempt with as open a mind as I could bear, and I believe I was largely successful.Now, there are some slightly spoilerish things that I want to say about Hunters of Dune, and those things consist largely of my main complaint about how this book ends, and the direction in which Brian and Kevin have taken the saga, so I think I'll leave that for the end. As for the rest of it...The writing is, unfortunately, amateurish. It is a shadow of the mind-expanding prose that Frank wielded as a matter of course, and to any fan of the saga I think it's intensely noticeable. Brian holds the reader's hand; Frank never did. Brian talks down to the reader; Frank never did. It lacks the cerebral playgrounds that Frank seemed to access so easily. It lacks the introspection. There are near-constant issues when it comes to the "show don't tell" rule, and the book itself is very bloated. You can tell they split it into two books but didn't really have two books worth of material. The character work is poor. The dialogue is weak. Even previously-established strong characters feel flat here. Dune always felt vast, an enormous universe full of nuance and history. Brian somehow manages to make it feel small. And lastly, something that irked me specifically, there are certain things that don't need to be revealed. There is value to the unknown in a large series like this, which Frank understood. Brian seems to think that every hole must be filled; every question answered.This does all feel a bit harsh, you know. Is it fair to compare Brian's work to Frank's? Probably not. Can I do otherwise? No! This is Dune! This is what he signed up for.All of this aside... And it's a lot to put aside... But all of this aside, I cannot deny that it felt very exciting to continue the story of Dune. To jump back in after the events in Chapterhouse and continue this strange tale. So Brian can't measure up to his father, fine. Acceptance of that fact led to a relatively enjoyable reading experience. I mean, I finished the thing, and I'm going to read the next one. So there you go. And there's no denying that the return of legendary figures of Dune is, simply put, awesome. It's certainly something that Frank was, if not leading toward, at least hinting at in his last two books. Does it feel like fan service? Yes. Will I ever know if this is truly what Frank planned? No. And seeing as how that's an enormous can of worms in and of itself, I decided to just take it as it comes.Now, for my comments that I referenced above... I'm just not sure how I feel about an AI robot being the big-bad of the Dune Saga. Perhaps that was Frank's intention and Brian just takes the blame for it, but to me Dune has always stood out as being away from and beyond those kinds of science-fiction stories. Dune has always been a very human story. Superhuman at times, sure, but even then, at its heart, a very human story. It focused on the way that people falter, and on the way that the systems they create collapse. It showed the dangers of human capability; the horrors we are capable of, or the horrors we are incapable of avoiding. So this idea that the ultimate problem of Dune is a robot just doesn't really jive with me, and I don't think my feelings on this would be any different were it Frank, rather than Brian, behind the pen... Reverend Mother Mohiam says in the very beginning of Dune: "Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." Other men. Humans were still the root problem. The base of the pillar, to me, was always the faults of humanity. That was what the Dune Saga set out to examine. And so unfortunately I have an inherent problem with the direction this story has gone, as it feels like they've lost sight of what made Dune Dune all along.

Fast shipping. Good communication. Book is in very good condition. Pages Mint. Dust jacket near perfect. Few marks on edges of paper and actual cover, I'm assuming from previous use.

Brian Herbert and his ghostwriter have destroyed Dune. On its own merits, this is a terrible book. As a sequel to Dune, it deserves a negative 5 star. If I was feeling charitable, I'd say that Brian Herbert has completely misunderstood his fathers work- I have to assume that he's actually read it. Unfortunately , as there are several prequels and side stories of equal incompetence , I'm forced to cynicism and the conclusion that a royalty cheque is the motivation.Terrible prose, inept ideas, ludicrous plot holes. Keep your money. Hell, burn your money. It's better than encouraging more of this garbage .

I waited many, many years before reading any of the Dune follow-up books written by Brian Herbert, because I had read some heavily critical reviews of them. I wish now that I had ignored all those negative reviews. This was a fabulous book, just as engrossing as Frank Herbert's books, and in many ways better structured and more exciting than some of the later, more ponderous books in the Dune sequence. Now, finally I know the identities of the mysterious old man and woman who appeared at the end of Chapterhouse: Dune, and what they have planned for the universe. I can't wait to read more, and am eager to get stuck into the Legends of Dune trilogy before returning to the main sequence and reading Sandworms of Dune. If you, like I once did, have any lingering fears about whether Brian's books are as good as his father's I would simply remind you that, "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer."

* Beware - this review contains spoilers * -I underwent a bit of soul searching before I read this book, the first of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson's two sequels to the original Dune Chronicles."Chapterhouse: Dune", the last of Frank Herbert's own 6 Dune novels does answer a lot of questions, but it was fairly clearly not meant to be the end to the series. Frank Herbert leaves several loose ends. At the end of the novel the latest Duncan Idaho, Miles Teg who is one of the finest new characters in the later novels, Sheeana and a host of BG dissidents take a giant no-ship from Chapterhouse and steal away into uncharted space. Amongst the ship's passengers is the last surviving Tleilaxu master, a ghola of Scytale from "Messiah". Unbeknownst to the crew, he has within his skin a nullentropy capsule containing cells from Muad D'ib, Kessica, Chani, Stilgar, Hawat, Leto II and other characters from the original novel. Throughout the book there have been constant hints about a great enemy that drove the Honoured Matres into the old empire, who are doubtless closing in upon it themselves. The ending of the book also introduces us to Daniel and Marty, two enigmatic figures, in the shape of an old man and woman who bear resemblance to Face Dancers from the Scattering. They possess knowledge and power beyond that of other characters, and they seek to capture the no ship bearing Duncan Idaho and the others.Frank Herbert died before writing what he had started to refer to as Dune 7. This is where his son Brian Herbert, and writing partner Kevin J. Anderson come in. Over a period of years beginning in 1999 they wrote a trilogy of novels based on events leading up to the events covered in the first book, collectively titled Prelude to Dune, and another entitled Legends of Dune in 2002. I can't comment on these prequels, never having read them. Then in the early Noughties they announced that while searching Frank Herbert's papers they had found his notes for Dune 7, some thirty pages of them, and that they were going to write the novel themselves. This actually became two novels, and this is where we finally get to "Hunters of Dune", the first of them.Over the last couple of months I've read all 6 original books again consecutively. Before even ordering myself a copy of "Hunters" I read a large number of reviews of this, and the final novel "Sandworms of Dune" , and the vast majority have been extremely negative. Now, the best, in fact only valid reason for writing a bad review of a novel is that you genuinely didn't like the book and didn't think it was well written. However this is a sequel to one of the best loved series of novels ever written in the genre, and when people have the extreme devotion to a set of books that many of the fans have to the chronicles of Dune, then they don't always think rationally or consider the new work on its own merits in a fair and reasonable fashion. With this in mind I promised myself that if I was going to read "Hunters" I was going to judge it fairly, and try to judge it by a few simple criteria, namely : -Did it pick up the loose ends from "Chapterhouse" in a way that seems at all consistent with what has gone before?Did it develop in ways that seem plausible with the overall direction of the previous novels?Was the prose style readable or not?Did it make me want to read "Sandworms" or not?Now that I've read "Hunters" I have to say that in all honesty I think that a lot of the criticism of the book in the reviews that I've read is unfair, and some of it, grossly unfair. I've read a lot of criticism of the creation of the gholas of Paul, Chani , Thufir, Leto et al upon the no-ship Ithaca. Personally I thought that this was an interesting plot device, and it's difficult to argue that if Frank Herbert had not at least been thinking about the possibility of this, then he wouldn't have introduced Scytale's nullentropy capsule full of cells in "Chapterhouse". Likewise, if Scytale had such a capsule, then it's not unreasonable to suggest that other capsules might have been made by the Tleilaxu, and one of these falling into Honored Matre hands on Tleilax is perfectly plausible.The majority of reviewers I've read were disappointed at the revelation of the true identities of Daniel and Marty, the great Enemy. They turn out to be Omnium and Erasmus, thinking machines exiled to the edges of the Universe following the Butlerian Jihad. Now, in a way I can understand the disappointment. If there's one thing that the Dune novels aren't really about, it's technology, which when you come to think about it is quite unusual for Science Fiction. But reading Heretics and especially Chapterhouse I can't say that this wasn't what Frank Herbert was hinting. It does make some kind of sense that the greatest threat to the organic universe comes from the inorganic. The Butlerian Jihad has been there in the background since the first great novel that started it all. So while it wasn't what I expected - I don't know what I expected - I can't say that it wasn't right. Yes, the machines Omnium and Erasmus were created in the authors' own prequel novels, but so what? Maybe it wasn't what Frank Herbert intended, but then unfortunately he isn't around any more to tell us exactly what he did intend. Which incidentally leads us to an interesting digression.Conspiracy theorists point to the lapse in time between Frank Herbert's death, and the discovery of his Dune 7 notes. Shades of Leto II's hoard at Dar es Balat! All I can say about the theory is that if this was a fabrication designed to gain acceptance for "Hunters" and "Sandworms" , then it didn't work very well. But Kevin Anderson has gone on record to say that the original notes were shown to their publishers, and I'll be honest, you don't bring more people in on the secret if you're trying to preserve a lie, especially if it's a lie you didn't need to make in the first place. Besides, the question mark over the existence of the Dune 7 notes is, at best, an irrelevance. If the novel is plausible and enjoyable then it makes little difference whether it was based on notes by Frank Herbert or not. Likewise, if it's a turkey, then it's still a turkey whatever its origin.So much for the loose ends from Chapterhouse. I can't agree with criticisms of Herbert Jr.'s and Anderson's prose as `turgid' either. Granted that their style is not as rich nor quite as compelling as Frank Herbert's, but neither does it demand quite as much of the reader. It's certainly more than adequate for the task in hand, and if it is, therefore, a slightly easier read than some of the original 5 sequels then that's not necessarily a drawback. If there are times when the novel seems to be taking a long time to get where it's going, it's not the fault of the prose style.In saying that I think some of the criticism made of the novel is unfair, I'm not saying that there are not criticisms to be made. The structure of the book becomes rather predictable. It is organized in sections that take place three years after the escape from Chapterhouse, then the next five years, and so on. Within each section there's a bit on the ship, Ithaca, probably with Duncan and Miles combining just in time to get the ship to jump in space and escape Daniel's and Marty's tachyon net. Then there's a bit on Chapterhouse with Murbella organizing another raid against another renegade Honored Matres stronghold, or carrying it out. Then there's a bit with the renegade Honored Matres and their axolotl tank projects on Tleilax. Then another bit on the Ithaca, then back to Murbella, and so on and so forth. It leads one to come to the conclusion that a fair amount of the novel is padding. You could probably cut the book to two thirds of its current length, and it wouldn't be any the worse for it. But, and this is a crucial point to consider, you can say that about some of Frank Herbert's own sequels - "God Emperor" comes irresistibly to mind.While I'm making my own criticisms I did find that the chapter heading quotations didn't ring true for me in this novel. Maybe Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson just don't have the level of philosophical understanding to deliver on this level. I can't say that this greatly reduced my enjoyment of the book, though.Did "Hunters of Dune" make me want to read "Sandworms of Dune", then? Yes, it did, and it's already on order. I don't say that "Hunters" is necessarily quite as good as the two novels that it immediately follows, "Heretics" and Chapterhouse". It lacks a little in characterization compared with those, although I have to say that I found the captured Lost Tleilaxu Master Uxtal interesting, and the Harkonnen ghola was drawn with some verve and wit. However, and this is important, I don't see that it is hugely inferior in quality when compared with Herbert's last two Dune sequels. All of which begs the question - why has it earned such opprobrium from legions of the series' fans?Well, this is just my opinion, and by all means feel free to disagree. When a novel, or a series of novels or films acquires this kind of cult following, then the fans come to feel a strange kind of ownership of the works in question. They cannot be rational and dispassionate about it. They feel that the legacy of the work is to be jealously guarded. The words `cult following' are appropriate, since they conjure up images of religion, and the way that I read a lot of the criticism of "Hunters" is that many of the reviewers seem to regard it as `sacrilege'. Not that many of them use that word to describe it. The original author is allowed - sometimes grudgingly - to take the work in directions that the acolyte reader would not have imagined, expected or wanted, but nobody else is. Thus we see Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson being treated as true heretics of Dune, since few acknowledge that a lot of the plot elements they dislike so much in "Hunters" are at least alluded to in "Heretics" and/or "Chapterhouse", and in fact in a number of cases it goes beyond mere allusion. I respectfully suggest that many of those who so actively disliked "Hunters" maybe didn't really like the two predecessors either, but to admit that, even to themselves, really would be sacrilege.So we come to the crux. If you didn't like "Heretics of Dune" and "Chapterhouse: Dune" then do not read "Hunters of Dune" because you won't like it either. If you did enjoy these last two original sequels, then by all means read "Hunters of Dune", but do it as a reader, not a disciple. Try to forget the received wisdom that says,a) each sequel in a series is inferior to the book that preceded itb) any sequel by someone other than the original writer is vastly inferior to the work of the original writer,and give it a fair trial. You never know, you might find that you rather enjoy it.

Are Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson half as good at writing 'Dune' books as Papa Frank? No.Are there far too many Deus ex Machina moments in the plot, for the rest of the writing to survive unscathed? Yes.Finishing off the storyline, no matter how much original draft material they had discovered, was always going to be a thankless task. They tried. They really tried. I think they truly loved and respected the original books. But this is merely okay, nothing more.But too much ammo was fired at the target. Some of it was due to the regurgitated characters from the original book, who mainly performed one significant plot function before becoming background noise again. Of the rest, there were protagonists and situations inspired, possibly, by Gregory Benford's 'Galactic Centre' books and/or the Matrix films (the disappointing sequels, mainly).I'm actually glad someone had a crack at the job of finishing this long long saga, but the very existence of this particular Vol.7 & Vol.8 does make it unlikely that another (and quite possibly better) attempt will ever be written.

This is a totally different beast from Frank Herbert's writings. It's got the sandworms, the Guild, the Tleilax, the Bene Gesserit, the Honored Matres and all the other trappings of a Dune installment, but is handled in a totally different way, most notably in terms of narrative exposition; Frank Herbert's subtle approach to this - in particular what he chose to explain and how it was explained, if at all - is a major feature and hallmark of his Dune writing, and is all but absent from Hunters and its successor, Sandworms. It's still a far-future sci-fi yarn, a worthy effort, the story is actually okay (even if to my mind it loses much in the telling), and I'm sure many will love it... but as a fan of Frank Herbert, the writing just doesn't do it for me.