Dune

Sorry to post this here, wasnt sure where to ask this. Are there any SF/space opera novels or authors currently producing books similar to the style of Dune? Doesnt have to be like Dune but has politics or houses/factions that are battling for supreme power, has great character development and sneaky twists. I really loved the book Dune, i havent read the sequels. Thanks guys :)
 
Stephen Palmer said:
Read Dune Messiah and Children Of Dune, they're great. Don't bother with the rest!
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I wouldn't quite agree there; though I didn't particularly like God-Emperor the first time 'round, I found on revisiting it that it moved up quite a bit in my estimation. It's different from the others in some major ways, but I'd say it's well worth reading.

Other novels of a similar sort? That one I'd have to get back to you about....
 
A lot of people stumble over God Emperor of Dune - it's certainly large enough to do so. But the later Dune books are significantly better-written than the earlier ones. Dune serves well as an introductory text, but the prose throughout it is not good. This is hardly surprising - by the time he came to write Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, he'd been writing for a good many more years. It's just a shame he never got to finish it, and instead his legacy has been poisoned by KJA's risible McDune books...
 
God Awful Of Dune, I call that fourth one.
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I've been lurking here for a couple of months, but I just had to create an account to defend this book.

Yes, it is difficult to read. When I first read the Dune books 20 years ago, this one stopped me dead. Couldn't finish it. It wasn't until I discovered the audio book that I managed to get through it and I realized it is (IMO) the most brilliant one of the six. It's also the only book that's ever driven me to tears.

Here's a man who's sacrificed his humanity without ever having really enjoyed the pleasures of life and endures 3000+ years of isolation, loneliness, constant loss, and forcing "Leto's Peace" on the universe...all to save the human race from extinction. His sacrifice is made all the more gut wrenching with the introduction of Hwi who he longs to be intimate with, but cannot. The despair he feels is palpable and resonates strongly with me...as it should anyone who has ever loved someone who doesn't love them--or worse--loved someone who loves them back, but is kept just out of arm's reach by circumstances beyond their control so they can never truly forget what they desire.

Maybe it's just the audio dramatization that allowed me to plod through Leto's dialogue without the mental fatigue of reading it. But I was moved by this book.
 
Welcome to chronicles, Grimmond. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed the book "Dune", and note a number of people regard it as an exceptional example of third person omniscient point of view.

However, I couldn't personally read Dune Messiah and all that followed, because the point of view use in the writing changed completely. It left the sense that the sequels as somehow forced, so I preferred to enjoy Dune as a standalone, without following it up.

Others very much disagree. :)
 
I didn't realize the POV changed between the two. That's odd because I always heard that Dune Messiah was originally part of Dune but the publisher wanted to separate them. Maybe Herbert reworked it before publication. Anyway, maybe you could read it now after you've spent some time away from the first book so the POV shift won't seem as radical.
 
Grimmond said:
I didn't realize the POV changed between the two. That's odd because I always heard that Dune Messiah was originally part of Dune but the publisher wanted to separate them. Maybe Herbert reworked it before publication. Anyway, maybe you could read it now after you've spent some time away from the first book so the POV shift won't seem as radical.
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Actually, it's my understanding Dune is a combination, rather than that Dune Messiah was split out. Dune World was serialized in 1963-4 (Analog), and The Prophet of Dune was serialized in 1965 (Analog) and both were combined as Dune (1965, Chilton). Dune Messiah wasn't serialized until 1969 (Galaxy) and an even longer gap occurred before 1976's Children of Dune.

I endured a first read of God Emperor (1981) and Heretics (1984) but couldn't make it to Chapterhouse (1985) and only possess the first three at this point. I could see that being reduced to just the one if I ever get around to re-reading them, though all three may survive. The way I remember it, IMO, #1 resolved satisfactorily but made me willing to try #2 and it ended in a completely non-standalone fashion that gave me the option of quitting in midair or going on to #3. I went on to #3 and it wasn't bad and more or less ended and I could have and should have stopped right there. But it certainly left room for #4 and I went on to that but it wasn't good (or, as I said, needed). No idea why I read #5 and it was pretty completely useless. So I dumped #4 & #5, never did read #6, and feel ambivalent about #2 & #3. IOW, you're probably okay, Brian. :)
 
The three books were conceived as a trilogy, but written separately. Only Dune was split for magazine publication.
 
I think the great strength of Frank Herbert was his “World Building”. There are few people who can do this as well. The World makes the characters and visa versa. The only additional author I’ve read that did it as well was James Clavell. I know that Shogun is not sci-fi but there is a correlation to the character development that’s relevant to both novels. Clavell as Herbert took a main character that lived in a world that is (somewhat) familiar to us and introduce alien societies that seem backward, and yes uncultured. By the end of the stories our perspectives of the societies have flipped. The idea of a barbaric society, (as I know it because I sympathize/ live with it) changes and now I see the life as different not wrong. Somehow the familiar is now barbaric and I mentally turn my back on the society that judged one as not simpatico. :rolleyes:
 
I finally, purchased the original Dune book.... but im currently reading Clarke and won't get to it for a few weeks.
 
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