A few people I've talked to has been saying that I shouldn't go near the other books in the series. I'm nearing the end of the first book and love it, love the universe, is the rest of the series really as bad as they say?
If yes, any suggestions of other books/series I should check out?
by metalpotcover
12 Comments
Long ago, I loved the first book but quickly gave up on the rest.
Like you, I LOVED the original Dune book. Loved everything about it, have read it at least four times. Tried Dune Messiah, made it maybe 1/2 way before abandoning ship. All I can remember is they were constantly going to meetings. If reading about office meetings is your cup of tea, you might really enjoy it
I’ve read the first four so far. I kept going because I found the story really interesting and needed to see how Paul’s visions were going to be tied up, which is going to take you to God Emperor (book 4). I’m happy I did. But if it’s mainly the world building that is catching your interest, none of the sequels will be satisfying the way book one is.
Try the second one and see how it lands with you. If you like it you will like at least book 3 as well
The second one was meh, but I really liked the 3rd one *Children of Dune*. It felt a lot like the original one. I don’t remember much about the next trilogy but I feel like I enjoyed the last one?
As far as the ones written after he died – forget about it.
It’s a little hard to address this query without getting into spoiler territory, but I’ll try. *Dune* is far and away the best book in the series. The primary problem with *Dune* is that it failed to adequately convey what Frank Herbert wanted to say about the nature of charismatic leadership and unchecked power. Recognizing this, Herbert confronted those issues more forthrightly in the follow-on books, but unfortunately the quality of those sequels was patchy. (The best was perhaps *Children of Dune*.) In those sequels Herbert often falls prey to what I consider to be his signature weakness — allowing a surfeit of ideas to overwhelm and obscure the plot.
Short answer: To gain a fuller appreciation of what the author was trying to say you’ll need to read the sequels, but you probably won’t enjoy them as much as that first book.
The first book is by far the best. But I’d say the next 3 are well worth reading.
Messiah was my favourite of the bunch. Really adds depth to Paul’s character. Children of Dune was a tougher read for me
For me, 1 was good, 2 and 3 were uneven but worth reading, and I wish I had never read 4. I didn’t read past that.
But it’s very personal. Many people think 4 is the best in the series.
The first four are all one connected story; you don’t really get the whole story without finishing God Emperor. It’s quite high on philosophical craziness, but it really runs the Golden Path to its final endpoint. I love it.
Also, while the second book is not my favorite, it’s also short, and the third novel *Children of Dune* is fantastic and reminds me a lot of the original.
My partner chose to do books 2-4 as audiobooks and enjoyed them, but she said she’d probably hate reading them in book form. If you’re worried about them being too dense/kind of boring to read through in between the good parts, you might find the audiobooks easier.
I loved Dune/Messiah/Children. The other three after that get a bit weird.
Avoid the non Frank Herbert stuff.