Just how bad are the Dune prequel/sequels?

[jollyreaper]

Part of what made the original books so great is that Herbert was influenced by real things but they were filtered through his own imagination so that it was never a 1:1 comparison. Are the sardaukar space Cossacks? Not really. The Harkonnen a direct match for any famously degenerate and evil yet cunning and competent royal house? No. Nothing here looks like the nazis with the serial numbers filed off. The Guild isn't an amped up Catholic Church. The Imperium isn't just Rome with a funny hat. You might feel some echos or see similarities but it's of the type you see between alien cultures. Ok, you are generally going to have an elite and commoners. Elites are usually hereditary. You usually have a religion. But the particulars can make everything so drastically different, create a real sense of culture shock.

[Broomstick]

If you're bored and need to be entertained the first couple/few books are readable. They are nowhere near the quality of the authentic Dune series, but readable. The quality steadily declines. I don't think I finished House Corrino, though I have some recollection of House Atreides and House Harkonnen.

If I had to sum it up: better than the average fanfic, but if it weren't for the "Dune" setting and the author's son being involved it never would have been published.

[Thanas]

Part of what made the original books so great is that Herbert was influenced by real things but they were filtered through his own imagination so that it was never a 1:1 comparison.

Of course there is. The fall of the Seleucid Empire to the arab jihad. Heck, even the names and titles are the same except for a few changes in letters.

[Xavier Onassiss]

If you're bored and need to be entertained the first couple/few books are readable. They are nowhere near the quality of the authentic Dune series, but readable. The quality steadily declines. I don't think I finished House Corrino, though I have some recollection of House Atreides and House Harkonnen.

If I had to sum it up: better than the average fanfic, but if it weren't for the "Dune" setting and the author's son being involved it never would have been published.

That was my impression as well; I read the first two and quit. I've read a few other KJA novels and my general impression is that when he has a decent co-author to hold his hand, the results will be at least readable. When he doesn't have a co-author, just... stay away.

I won't call KJA a hack... I know some really nice hacks whose stuff I actually enjoy reading and I wouldn't want to offend them. But anything he writes all by himself is impressively awful. I got about 1/3rd into the first installment of Saga of Seven Suns and tossed it in the garbage. I could have sold it at the used book store, but then someone else might waste $1.25 on it and that would be needlessly cruel. Wouldn't wish that steaming, stinking, putrid, unreadable crap on anyone.

[Lord Pounder]

The EU Dune can be summed up in 2 sentences. KJA is a worthless hack who has a fetish for the word Kiranna. Brian Herbert has daddy issues.

Really that's it. As others said try and find the Dune Encyclopedia if you want expanded fluff.

[jollyreaper]

If only daddy was nicer to his son, kja never could have seduced him to the hack side of the force.

[Guardsman Bass]

According to Brian Herbert, he actually did reconcile with his father after his mother's death. I think it's more likely that he's just a terrible writer, and should never have partnered with another writer who is notorious for writing bad novels when he's writing in someone else's franchise.

[jollyreaper]

According to Brian Herbert, he actually did reconcile with his father after his mother's death. I think it's more likely that he's just a terrible writer, and should never have partnered with another writer who is notorious for writing bad novels when he's writing in someone else's franchise.

I don't think his own writing has been any good, either.