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ScottyMcGeester's avatar

Are any of the non-Frank Herbert Dune books worth having?

Asked by ScottyMcGeester (1897points) July 29th, 2014

I’ve only read Dune and soon I’m going to re-read it and actually finish the original series. But when I was younger I also bought The Butlerian Jihad and the Battle of Corrin for later reading. I only have The Machine Crusade missing. But I was wondering if it was even worth my time reading those because I heard horrible things about the “expanded universe” of Dune, and that the original series is only the best one.

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6 Answers

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

I think after Dune Messiah it goes down hill precipitously. Actually, Dune Messiah was kinda boring as well. The original Dune was a masterpiece though.

canidmajor's avatar

I can’t answer personally (sorry) but my brother (in his 50s) is a sophisticated SF reader and has enjoyed the entire expanded Dune universe.

Have fun with the series!

ScottyMcGeester's avatar

Oh, really? Even Frank Herbet’s own original series? I mean. . .I read Dune when I was pretty young and started Dune Messiah, and I remember feeling that it was kind of bare, but I didn’t get to read after that becuase life happened.

ibstubro's avatar

If you’re interested, NPR’s ‘Science Friday’ is restarting the book club with Dune, currently.

rojo's avatar

I agree with @ARE_you_kidding_me. It has been a few years but I remember being bored with Dune Messiah and I have a vague memory of Children of Dune but after that they all run together and are not memorable. I read most of them but could not recall a single title except maybe one called Charterhouse or something but I think these were all Frank H. books. I don’t think I even bothered with the others after these last ones.

fremen_warrior's avatar

For me Dune was the best hands down; perhaps the “House Corrino, Harkonnen, Atreides“preludes are also worth a mention here. Only read the 1st book of the “Legends“and only now starting to read “Heretics of Dune” (have “Chapterhouse Dune” ready as well). Idk. The series started going downhill for me when the word “ghola“started to gain in importance.

Final thought: read what you want and make up your own mind. Remember, “Fear is the mind killer…” ;-)

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